East Brighton Trust held a successful reception and awards evening at Moulsecoomb Primary School on the evening of April 20th to celebrate the people, organisations, and communities from the heart of East Brighton who are making a positive difference to those living in the area. 

With over £800,000 distributed so far by East Brighton Trust to good causes and local groups and organisations, there were many positive stories to tell of people doing good things for good causes. With a dedicated staff team and a committed board of directors and a new purpose and strategy to lead it, East Brighton Trust is now well on its way to releasing its first £1m of funds to local enterprises.

The event was introduced by, Adam Sutton, Headteacher at Moulsecoomb Primary, followed by an introduction to East Brighton Trust by Interim Chair, Warren Carter, before a speech by Brighton Mayor, and Councillor, Lizzie Dean. Drinks were supplied by The Bevy with food from Haylea’s Cafe.

Ty Goddard of East Brighton Trust, said “The inaugural East Brighton Champions Award is really important to the Trust. We want to recognise, celebrate and champion all the good work being done in our community with the people of East Brighton. This is a celebration about potential; about the people who make the area what it is.”

The awards' winners were as follows:

Christine Harrop, nominated by Alan Cooke, Craven Vale Association: 

“Christine has volunteered at the Craven Vale Food Bank since long before Covid, and is now an indispensable part of the team. Since lockdown ended, Christine has taken on an increasing number of roles in the community, from keeping our lively notice board up-to-date , to organising free twice-weekly gentle gym sessions, including the acquisition of all the equipment; and, as our resident artist, painting a beautiful mural of our community.  

Christine has also played a significant role in making Craven Vale a better place to live. We're lucky to have so many champions, but Christine is a number one."

Class Divide, Nominated by Ty Goddard, Director, EBT

“Class Divide is a grassroots campaign fighting to draw attention to the deeply unjust educational attainment gap for young people from East Brighton and the communities of Whitehawk, Manor Farm and Bristol Estate in Brighton and Hove. Supported by the Crew Club, these campaigners with purpose have put this issue firmly on the City Council's agenda and their podcast rightly draws attention to this key issue in powerful ways."

Maha Mustafa, nominated by Trust for Developing Communities

“Maha has community spirit running through her. She works as an Engagement Worker for TDC and is a Board Director at East Brighton Trust. Maha supports people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to identify their needs and links people to resources and services. It's a great example of a 'Social Prescribing' Project. Maha's journey with TDC started when she had support from a Community Development Worker to run groups in the BME community to bring people together. Maha then joined as a volunteer and has now progressed to working within the team.”

BACA mentoring scheme and the BACA mentors- nomination from Jack Davies, Principal, BACA.

"A unique scheme to support a whole year. Inspired and pioneered by community organisations across East Brighton, this whole Year 7 mentoring scheme is unique across the City and shows the commitment of this fantastic community to support their local school. We have mentors from our closest communities, across the city, and even ex-pupils. Each of the scheme's 43 mentors gives up their time to mentor a small group of pupils at the school. Already it is making a difference.

Received by Grant Philipps on behalf of the mentoring scheme. 

Ends

University of Brighton students and staff joined the local community to clean up the area around Moulsecoomb station as part of the Community Spring Clean 2023. 

 Supported by East Brighton Trust, Brighton & Hove City Council and the University'sActive Student volunteering service, the event on 23 March saw volunteers collect 17 bags of rubbish, with the more unusual items including a bike helmet, a bra, a charity collection box, and a toilet seat!

 The Community Spring Clean 2023 runs alongside the national Great British Spring Clean organised by Keep Britain Tidy. Research from Keep Britain Tidy found that more than 8.5 million adults in the UK have done litter-picking at least once in the past six months, showing that there is both a need and a desire for this kind of community action. For this eighth year of the Great British Spring Clean, the focus is on taking pride in your local community. 

 Mark Eslick, Head of Placements, Internships & Volunteering at the University of Brighton, said: "We're really pleased to have linked up with East Brighton Trust for this year's Community Spring Clean. Volunteering to litter-pick is a simple action that anyone can do to make an immediate and visible difference to their area, so it was great to see so many students, staff and neighbours taking part.

 “Lots of people who took part in last year’s Great British Spring Clean reported that taking part made them feel more pride in their local area. We hope that this clean-up will have a really positive impact on our University community including our neighbours here in Moulsecoomb.”

Alasdair McGregor from East Brighton Trust said “We’re delighted to work alongside the University and other projects across the city. East Brighton Trust listened to residents about areas that needed a Spring Clean like Westlain Belt, behind BACA, Craven Vale and the station area."

During June and July this year East Side Print CIC ran a series of 6 free workshops for residents of East Brighton and a drop-in workshop as part of Refugee week. These were all funded by East Brighton Trust and delivered in partnership with Whitehawk Inn and Brighton and Hove libraries to provide space for the workshops to take place.

The workshops ran every Thursday Morning for two hours and included all materials and refreshments. They were designed to be inspiring, absorbing, fun and accessible to everyone and the funding from East Brighton Trust meant that local people could attend for free. East Side Print tutors Louise Bristow, Moose Azim and Cath Bristow are all skilled facilitators and were able to differentiate each session to meet the varying needs within each group. Numbers attending each session were limited to 8 - 10 participants, partly dictated by room size and also being mindful that some vulnerable people may feel nervous working in larger groups due to covid.

Smaller numbers also ensured more attention and a relaxed atmosphere where participants could work at their own pace without feeling rushed.

The drop-in workshop at Whitehawk Library, “Printed Postcards for Hope and Peace” ran as part of Refugee Week. Participants created two postcards , one to keep and one to send a message of friendship to a new neighbour, refugee or asylum seeker. An exhibition of the postcards produced during the drop-in were exhibited at Jubilee library as part of Libraries week from 3rd - 17th October.

Here is some feedback from some of the participants who attended the weekly workshops:

• “Thanks so much! Great workshop, very proud to have my own design on a tote bag!”
• “A wonderful gathering for a creative outlet otherwise beyond my funds - free classes are the way!” Sian
• “Walked into East Brighton print workshop feeling anxious. Left East Brighton print workshop feeling like an artist. Thank you!”
• “At Whitehawk Inn I produced a piece of art by using Cyanotype printing. It was such a rewarding workshop, thank you”
• “Enjoyed this so much. Lovely to be around other people learning an ancient art. Really brought me joy”
• “Really enjoyable. Lovely to be in a creative space, fun to socialise and really helped my mental health”
• “I came to the workshop with two residents from the local brain injury unit. The workshop was gentle, interesting, with a wonderful facilitator, who worked with my clients in alignment with their specific needs. We all enjoyed ourselves and learnt that art is available for everybody”

Hearts for Hope was an Our Place arts project for East Brighton as part of Brighton Festival in May 2022. 

East Brighton community groups worked with a local artist to create a community artwork for this year’s Festival and everyone was invited to join in! 

The artwork ‘Hearts for Hope’ consisted of 240 brightly painted hearts hung in trees
and placed in wondows around East Brighton. Alongside this, the group approached East Brighton Trust to fund some book bags to encourage local children to get involved. As well as providing activities for the children, these book bags helped promote other Our Place events to families in the area who might not otherwise have realised that Brighton Festival had come to their doorstep!  

The Sussex Bears Wheelchair Basketball team has gone from strength to strength since launching in 2017. We’re immensely proud to be able to say that East Brighton Trust was the first funder to support the group when they were first getting off the ground and since then the Sussex Bears have gone from strength to strength. Founder Ricky Perrin recently got in touch via Sussex Community Foundation to say thank you for being there at the start of their story.

As well as being the only wheelchair basketball team in Sussex currently competing in the national basketball league, the team is committed to developing future talent and supporting the local community. They deliver a varied programme of outreach – building a pathway to rolling sports for people who’ve been injured or newly diagnosed with a chronic illness, delivering social prescribing across the city, delivering training sessions for local networking events and developing a Wheelchair Basketball academy at BACA in Moulsecoomb.

The team is now competing at the highest level for a local team in 10 years and this short film offers a superb insight into the importance of wheelchair sports:

mASCot is a parent-led peer-to-peer support network for families who have a child or young person with an Autism Spectrum Condition. mASCot delivers a range of activities for parent/carers and children, including through a group set up in East Brighton in 2020.

Autism is a life-long developmental condition that, amongst other issues, affects social interaction, sensory processing and emotional regulation. The mASCot East Brighton Girls' Group is a place where autistic primary-school aged girls can meet with others to socialise, make friends and have fun in an autism-friendly environment. They do all sorts of activities, from arts and crafts to slime-making and Lego. Each week there is one main craft activity, after which the girls are encouraged to do some physical and / or interactive play to let off some steam and, importantly, get to know each other.

In 2021 the group applied to us for funding to purchase some play equipment and games to help the girls play together. The funds went towards:

1)      an indoor mini-trampoline

2)      A play-parachute (good for building cooperation and social interaction)

3)      a set of sports-day type equipment (e.g. sack race bags)

4)      an indoor pop up football set

5)      two inflatable exercise / play balls (good for sensory regulation too) and an electric pump

6)      a set of board games (e.g. Kerplunk, Buckaroo, Guess Who?)

7)      a small gazebo for summer park meets

8)      three end of term guest facilitators (Bubble Man, Live-Love-Hula, Music Mike)

In May, EBT were invited along to meet the group. We enjoyed talking to the girls and their parents/ carers and seeing them getting stuck into their craft activity.

During this year’s Brighton Festival, a range of creative writing by children from East Brighton was on display as part of the Little Green Pig Young Writers takeover - a weekend of free activities celebrating the creativity, imagination and hopes of local children and young people through workshops, performances and writing activities.

EBT funding supported children aged 7 to 11 from across Little Green Pig’s after school clubs to write poetic and powerful messages to the planet. These could be viewed by the public over the weekend of 21^st and 22^nd May at the Riwaq, an outdoor structure specially designed for this year’s festival by architects Marwa Al-Sabouni & Ghassan Jansiz.

Little Green Pig is a creative writing charity which works with children and young people who face challenging circumstances; supporting them with creative writing initiatives that build confidence, literacy, and provide a platform to be heard.

The charity has a long history of working with families in East Brighton. They first became a part of our East Brighton Trust community in 2017 when we awarded them a small grant to deliver a nature-writing based project named “Garden Words” that took place at Moulsecoomb Forest Garden. During the workshops, Year 4 pupils from Moulsecoomb Primary School had a chance to explore their environment and create original poetry inspired by the outdoors. The aim was to encourage teamwork, free expression and creativity whilst helping to improve the children’s confidence and self-esteem. As Little Green Pig told us afterwards “Being in the garden encouraged participants to pause and absorb their environment, and to think about creative writing as a response to sensory experiences. The children were encouraged by our volunteers to develop their interest in it without the pressures that they may face in the classroom if writing is normally a challenge for them”.

Following the success of this project, work has continued in the area and now a new generation of Little Green Pig after school writers is emerging in East Brighton.

This year we were delighted to support the organisation again with their special creative writing project “Letters to the Earth: Planet Power”. This involved 30 participants from two of their East Brighton after school writing clubs, aged 7 to 11 from Years 3 to 6. Local schools represented included Moulsecoomb Primary, City Academy, St John the Baptist, Middle Street, St Marks CofE plus home-educated children.

The grant from East Brighton Trust covered the costs of delivering workshops to help children create ‘Letters to the Earth’ – their own poetic and powerful messages to the planet. During the workshops the participants were also encouraged to bring their writing to life with visual artwork and illustrations. The letters have been beautifully printed and illustrated by the children onto banners  thanks to the artists at East Side Print and the finished pieces will now be exhibited in community venues and local spaces, starting with this year’s Brighton Festival.

The contributions from East Brighton children are joining Letters to the Earth written across the globe, from indigenous community activists to famous artists, giving the public the chance to read what these young writers from Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb have to say about the climate and nature emergency.

As Little Green Pig summarised so beautifully in their application to us “These are letters written about their fears, hopes, frustrations and love for the earth and the dangers of climate change. It will allow them to feel part of something bigger and know they can make a difference via their own writing, imagination and literacy skills. It will be an opportunity for them to learn about the power their writing and words can have, giving them a voice, and increasing their confidence, communication skills and hope for the future.”

In March 2022, parts of our neighbourhood were turned into a Window Wanderland - an open-air art gallery created by local people.

The Whitehawk Arts Collective and Manor Gym worked with local people to create hundreds of pieces of art. They hosted workshops at various locations across the area where people could learn how to make their own stained glass design out of tissue paper.

These are now on display at three locations across Manor Farm and Whitehawk:

• The Manor Gym (best viewed from the path to the South of the Gym and at the gym entrance)
• Bristol Estate Community Room (search BELTA Brighton on google maps)
• Whitehawk Library (best viewed from inside the library during the day)

The team at East Brighton Trust was thrilled to sponsor this project and we loved seeing it come to life with a walk around the area for the launch weekend starting Friday 18th March. Read more about it here →

The works of art will remain in place for the next few months so if you didn’t manage to catch them this weekend you still have a chance.

Well done to everybody who took part and special thanks to Sarah Griffiths of the Whitehawk Arts Collective for making this fantastic project happen. 

Watch this space for details of the next East Brighton Window Wanderland! 

 

 

Chomp Moulsecoomb is a lunch club in Brighton for families feeling the financial pressure in the school holidays.

During the pandemic, local families asked for a recipe book that would help them cook healthy meals on a budget, so Chomp Moulsecoomb partnered with East Brighton Trust and other local organisations to make one.

Here at East Brighton Trust we are thrilled to have sponsored this book and we thoroughly enjoyed working alongside Chomp Moulsecoomb to see it through to publication. 

Please below to enjoy the recipes and share them with your friends, family, colleagues and everyone you know.

Chomp Moulsecoomb recipe book →

Email us at [email protected] with pictures of what you've cooked or tag @ChompMoulsecoomb on facebook or instagram.