Getting connected

The Plan P group met on 24th July and the 4th of September.

At our July meeting we discussed ways that we could reach out to the the local community.  We wanted to encourage people to come to our coffee mornings and we discussed other activities that might be of interest.

Peter had borrowed 2  Loan boxes from Fife museums. One box was themed ’50s/60s’ and the other ‘Night out’. The contents sparked off some interesting chats about music, clothes and activities. We wondered if the boxes could be a focus to bring people together for a discussion and decided to try it out at the next coffee morning.

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Loan box items from 50s/60s

We then discussed the DVDs featuring local history, Alan used the projector to show us a few minutes of one of the DVDs. This may be something that local people would enjoy seeing and chatting about. This is an idea we might explore in the future.

Inkwell

Andy and Rita visited some of the people in Elie who were having their portraits created for the Inkwell exhibition at the St Monans Art Festival.

Andy also showed us the portrait he has made of Alan.

Alan Inkwell
Alan’s Inkwell portrait

And here’s the real Alan

 

The group agreed to find some more local people to have their portraits created. Andy agreed to visit again before the next meeting.

Sam from Bield Housing joined us in the afternoon we discussed some other ideas for projects that would allow the group to gain more skills, as well as those that would reach out out to others in the community.

By the time we met again, the group had organised for Andy to meet four more men. Andy brought the ten completed portraits on the 4th September and spent time showing each person their portrait and making sure that everyone was happy to share their story.

We plan to hold a celebration event later in the year, for all those involved in the Inkwell exhibition. We would make sure that everyone was able to attend and bring along a friend or family member.

Internet Café and classes

At the September meeting the group agreed that  although some new contacts had been made through Fife Elderly Forum, not as many as hoped had come along to the coffee mornings. Therefore they decided to change the time from morning to the afternoon, to see this time might suit people better.

After discussing the possibility of having wifi installed in the Lounge, the group thought that a positive direction for the new coffee afternoons, would be to offer free wifi and support for people use the internet. Of course, others may still want to come along just for a cup of tea and a chat. The village is currently having superfast broadband connected, so we thought this might be a good time to encourage people to start using it.

The group also decided that they would like to run some basic classes for residents and also other community members. This idea was popular with people who attended the coffee morning. Eileen would be able to provide the classes. As well as basic classes, people might want to explore using photographs or researching family history.

Eileen, Peter and Roddy are making up a more detailed plan of what the group might need to make the ideas for an ‘internet café’ and computer classes happen. They will discuss these idea with Sam.

Our next meeting will be on 16th October