600 People Attend Launch of Hope for Cheetham
On Saturday 28th October, the Hope for Cheetham project was launched with a family fun day in Cheetham Hill’s Goldstone Gardens and Guidance Hub. 600 members of the community attended, of different ages, cultures, and faiths. Together, they kick started a new community-led, long-term project called ‘Hope for Cheetham’, which has a bold vision to create a Cheetham Hill where children and young people “are empowered and supported by the entire community and system to achieve their hopes and ambitions”. The programme led by the Hope for Cheetham Steering Group and supported by Young Manchester.
In the Guidance Hub, Sunrise, Khizra Mosque and Feed My City joined forces to supply food for the community, whilst local people gave inspiring speeches about how the community can work together on the new ‘Hope for Cheetham’ project. The speakers emphasised how ‘it’s not about me, it’s about we’, they explained how the community needs to come together, that we need to remember everybody has a role to play no matter how big or small. They went on to explain that ‘we need vision and action to work together’.
Other stalls filled the space too, including a large letter painting activity, an informative stall from the Rainbow Centre and a virtual drive a tram experience with TfGM and even a Lego building zone run by Cheetham Hill Advice Centre.
Outside in Goldstone Gardens, the fun continued. 4CT brought along their brain shaped bouncy castle got the children jumping for joy and Yve from Yvents turned them into little creatures with her excellent face painting skills! To provide some fun for the adults, there was a free-to-enter raffle with a whole range of exciting prizes to win. Local businesses kindly donated prizes too, including a box of luxury biscuits from Khawaja Food Store, a whole box of apples and bananas from Manchester Super Stores and a large chocolate cake from Nafees.
Other stalls outside were delivering interactive workshops: Laura from the National Trust taught children how to make mini ponds; the Active Communities Network were getting children active with a range of ball games; Keshia from Iziko Homework Club ran an Autumn craft stall; the local library was playing hook-a-duck and Erin from Groundwork GM taught children and adults how to weave using fabric scraps.
Amongst all this, RECLAIM (who powers young working-class people to change the country today and lead it tomorrow), Tic Tac (adverse childhood experiences), Khizra Mosque, and the local Leisure Centre were chatting to the community about what they do, and how they can help.
A great start to the new community-led, long-term Hope for Cheetham project.
If you would like to find out more about Hope for Cheetham and get involved in the project, please follow the link below and fill out our ‘Get Involved’ form.
