News items for Summer 2009 to Summer 2010 (300k pdf)

News to August 2010 (8k rtf)

News March 2011 to July 2011(44k pdf)

Big Lottery success!

June 2011

Soft Touch is celebrating after being awarded a major grant from the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities Programme. The five-year grant will enable us to continue our work in New Parks, building on the success of MASH-UP.

For our Lottery application we did a wide-ranging consultation in the community, talking to young people, adult residents, community organisations and public sector services to find out what people wanted.  The resulting programme, called Big Up New Parks, consists of several inter-linked strands of work:

• The ‘Well Cool’ health awareness project for young people and parents;
• The ‘Positive Vibes’ anti-bullying project for young people;
• ‘Creative Streets’ positive creative activities for children and young people on Friday and Saturday nights;
• The ‘Connect’ strand which will bring young and old together through joint creative projects and street events;
• Capacity building and training for residents to deliver their own creative activities;
• A ‘Creative Mentors’ programme for NEET young people.

In addition there will be an annual celebration event to pull together all the strands of the programme and showcase what has been achieved.

We are working with a wide variety of partners in New Parks from the voluntary and community and public sectors to set the programme up, and hope to be starting activities in July.

For more information about Big Up New Parks please contact Chris Wigmore, chris@soft-touch.org.uk

June 2011

Soft Touch supports Clarendon Park Summer Fair

The Clarendon Park Summer Fair was held on Sunday 19 June, and in spite of rather chilly weather there was a great turn out.  

Soft Touch helped to organise the music, which included performances by some of the young people who have attended our projects, and the presence of our distinctive Beatsmobile.  

We also ran a very popular workshop, where for a small charge people could make and take home a clock made from a recycled LP.  Read more in the Leicester Mercury article by clicking here
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Summer-fair-family-day/story-12802350-detail/story.html

Photo: Tom Stallard

July 2011

New reading books for Moat

“These students can be the forgotten children and the books have given them a voice and a higher profile in the college”.  This was just one of the benefits of Soft Touch’s English reading books scheme mentioned by Karen Gregory, EAL teacher, at the book scheme launch on 21 June.

The books are designed to encourage students to progress with reading English and all the stories and photos were put together by a group of young people who themselves receive support with English.  

Karen added: “This scheme has provided value for money as these students would have slipped under the radar and not really been noticed.  

A project like this gets them out and about with motivation and a personal reason to improve. It also gets them to mix, especially out of their first language groups.

It’s too early yet to see the full benefit of the scheme, but I feel all the students’ speaking and listening levels will have improved. They have all gained confidence”.