2021

This start of 2021 saw the Neighbourhood Network Team receive recognition by being awarded both a High Sheriff Award and a Lord Mayor Award. These were awarded for the contribution to community, especially throughout the pandemic – something all connected to the Neighbourhood Network are very proud of.

The Keep Connected sessions continued throughout the year with 23 workshops booked and 668 people engaging with the sessions, making the sessions even more popular than the previous year, with over 1000 attendees enjoying the sessions since they started.

Neighbourhood Watch Week saw the team deliver a daily online workshop culminating in a community litter picking event near to the Neighbourhood Network offices on Bransholme. In just two hours a whooping 23 bags of rubbish were collected!!

The team were pleased when Covid restrictions were lifted a little and they could get back out into the communities engaging with the residents of Hull. The team attended eight in person engagement events in total, these included promoting the charities cycle locks to shoppers at St Stephens Shopping Centre, engaging with local youths in a ASB hot spot area on Bransholme, encouraging residents to get involved in a Neighbourhood Watch group in an area of high crime, door knocking exercise with community safety partners, attendance at the Older Peoples Partnership events at the Guildhall plus much more.

After a year of online training and events, the team were keen on hosting its first in-person event in partnership with one of its members.  The team organised an event at the Bespoke Centre in collaboration with Spin Off Production to deliver a play called ‘Say No to Fraud’ highlighting the impact of Fraud taking place in the community.  The event was a great success with 20 attendees and lots of positive comments on the performance including the homemade cakes too!!  It was also great to welcome the newly appointed Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathon Evison to the event.

Membership continues to grow, and this year sees the membership total rise to 490 which continues to be a great achievement for the charity especially as the charity loses members along the way due to a range of reasons, so continuing to receive increasing membership numbers is a positive move.

2021 saw the team celebrate the charity’s 10^th Birthday at its Annual Awards Event held at the Guildhall.  Inviting past and present staff and trustees to the event, reflecting on the achievements of the charity over a 10-year period was a great way to see how its grown and developed over the years.

The managers spent valuable time to seek out financial security for the charity by applying to several funders for core and project led funding.  The team where pleased to have been successful in securing project funding by the Ideas Fund to create a support network for women who are going through the menopause, aptly named Menopaus’ull Support Network.  The project was launched in October 2021 and will involve educational workshops covering issues linked to the menopause, peer-to-peer support groups and in collaboration with the University of Hull research into improving women’s bone health during this period, which will involve a 16-week exercise program launching in January 2022.