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What's happening at Hope Nottingham?
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January 2025
In this month's issue, we encourage regular giving to support our work, share why 'welcome' is so important, look forward to the launch of our new Art, Craft & Chat group and appeal for some tech-savvy volunteers!
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A New Year of Hope
Dear Dominique,
A belated 'Happy New Year' from all of us at Hope Nottingham.
January is a time when many people make resolutions for the year ahead, focus on making positive changes and think about new beginnings.
However, it can also be a challenging month: money can be tight after the Christmas period, the mornings and evenings are dark and the cold and stormy weather certainly doesn't help lift spirits!
Our resolution at Hope Nottingham is to continue to 'Inspire and Grow Communities of Hope'. From food bank teams offering warm welcome and holistic support to those in need, to skills building such as our job clubs, allotment, ESOL and literacy sessions, groups and activities combatting social isolation and allowing people to feel part of their local communities.
Together, we made a real difference in 2024 and with your continued support we can do even more in 2025.
Thank you.
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“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Supporting our work via regular giving | |
'The group has made me aware of the need to keep in touch more and has helped me take an interest in new subjects.’ | |  |
'I’m really grateful for how Hope have supported me, they have helped me so much. Hope genuinely feels like my family.' | | |
‘What a fantastic kitchen team! I really enjoyed the meal and especially knowing that the veg is from the community garden.' | | |
Sarah, a guest loves coming to food club every week as 'it saves food wastage and it has been a Godsend with the rise costs of living.' | | |
'I've been struggling mentally and financially over the past year and I'm not sure what would have happened had the foodbank not been here.' | | |
'The foodbank is a warm and inviting place where people try to help me as much as they can. I appreciate the help because I'm in debt.' | | |
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The power of 'welcoming'
Having to use a food bank can be a really daunting experience. We know from conversations with our food bank guests they can feel a huge range of emotions when they walk through the door. Some may feel embarrassed at needing help, confused or worried about how the system operates or anxious about visiting somewhere new. Many using a food bank for the first time just don't know what to expect.
At Hope Nottingham, we believe the welcome we offer makes a huge difference and it's why we call people 'guests' rather than 'clients' or 'service users'. Hospitality comes first at Hope. We know the real difference we make to our guests doesn't come from exchanging a referral voucher for some bags of food. Rather from providing welcoming places where they are seen, valued, listened to and supported. Increasingly, food banks are becoming community hubs - places where people can share their stories over a cup of tea, access additional support services such as professional advice and get to know others in their community.
We are committed to developing this model by working with our partner organisations to provide high quality welcome and hospitality, to ensure opportunities for people to talk and connect, to further develop our signposting resources, and to work with other agencies to improve access to professional advice and support. We have seen from our work in existing hubs that this approach not only helps remove the anxiety and stigma around using a food bank, but creates a real place of connection and community where people are supported in a more holistic way. Indeed, many of our guests attend our hubs regularly, even after they no longer need emergency food support - with several now volunteering with us to help others.
We hope in 2025, whilst many will sadly still need to access food bank support, that they will find this a less traumatic, more welcoming and ultimately hope-filled experience.
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New Art, Craft and Chat group
Building on the success of the Art & Craft group at our Carlton Community Hub (you can look back at some of their fantastic artwork in our October Newsletter) we are super-excited to be trialling a new Art, Craft and Chat group at our Beeston Hub at Hope House. Starting on Thursday 6th February. The session will run from 1.30 - 3.30pm and allow space for adults in our local community to meet, get to know each other and take part in a range of art and craft activities. We know that social isolation and loneliness are key issues facing people in our communities and we hope that groups such as this will provide an accessible, welcoming and non-threatening space for people to get to know each other, develop connections and have fun. The emphasis is on 'having a go' at activities together - so all abilities are welcome!
Do pop in and see what we're up to if you want to know more - and please spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested.
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Supporting Sneinton food bank
We love hearing about people wanting to give back to the communities we serve! One recent example was Rio (pictured with Kevin Pallister, Hope Nottingham trustee and Sneinton food bank volunteer) whose family had previously received support from the Salvation Army at Sneinton. When her employer offered staff a volunteering day, Rio got in touch to visit our Sneinton Food Bank to learn about how it works and help with sorting food. She is now keen to return and get more of her colleagues involved! If you would like to find out more about what we do, our your business would like to support our work, we'd love to hear from you. Please get in touch here.
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Volunteers needed
Volunteers are the key to all we do.
We are in urgent need of tech-savvy volunteers to help develop a suite of engaging, online training materials and create digital media content showcasing our work. If you're a 'Cap Cut' master or a budding 'Animaker' please get in touch. You can support in our Beeston office or remotely.
We are also looking for friendly and outgoing individuals who can support our Friendship Clubs (Carlton on Saturdays and Beeston on Tuesday afternoons), helping local people connect, and enjoy time together.
To find out more about these opportunities and other volunteer vacancies at Hope Nottingham, see our Volunteering webpage here.
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Acts of kindness
We partner with Acts 435 to enable some of our guests who are most need to access funds for items that they are unable to afford due to their personal situations. Some examples of help we have been able to provide via Acts435 over the last year include:
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Purchasing a cooker for a local single parent who had been rehoused into an unfurnished property from a hostel after fleeing domestic abuse. She was relying on emergency food bank support to get back on her feet and Acts435 funding meant she was able cook for herself and her children. | | |
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Buying a bed for a parent who had been sleeping on the floor so their son could use the only bed in their property. They were accessing food bank support and were unable to afford a bed after covering an increase in rental costs | | |
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Providing a washing machine for a pensioner living with her husband who was recovering from a heart attack. They were struggling with the cost of living and supporting other family members, were unable to afford a replacement and couldn't access transport to the nearest laundrette. | |
The Acts435 website lists all current applications for help and is searchable by area and the type of need faced. You can learn more about how Acts435 works and donate to help local people on the Acts435 website. | |
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Final thoughts...
This month, our reflection comes from our Support Manager, Iain Anderson who thinks about winter and looking ahead at the new year. You can read his reflection here.
Sneaky insert: While I (Dominique - the CEO here at Hope) am doing this final edit before sending out the newsletter, I'll sneakily add in that it's Iain who puts our fab newsletter together each month, amongst his day job of supporting so many people (staff, volunteers, guests and me!). He leads on all Hope House activities, is our Safeguarding Lead, and a genuinely lovely guy, who we are very blessed to have in our team. This was highlighted recently in a catch up review with one of our volunteers, who shared how one icy day, Iain had waited out in the cold to make sure she got safely inside! Next month Iain celebrates an amazing 5 years as a Hope employee, on top of a previous 5 years as a volunteer! A decade of delivering Hope!
Thank you Iain, for all you bring to and do for Hope
(I'll await my dead arm on Monday!)
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Thank you
We love hearing from you - please do call in for a chat or tour of Hope House or Carlton Community Hub or visit our website for more ways to get involved with our work. You can also follow us on Facebook here.
Every blessing,
From the Hope Nottingham team
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