Pulling Together were amongst 11 Old Trafford organisations who were successful in securing funding from Groundwork Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford. This funding has allowed us to create a Facebook page and Twitter Account. The funding has also meant we could edit our “Right Choice” drama project and create a short trailer to promote the drama dvd.

Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/PTasianwomen

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?q=pulling%20together%20asian%20women’s%20group#!/pages/Pulling-Together-Asian-Women/337266549630992

Marriage Matters Project completed August 2012

Funded by Awards for All, Marriage Matters, which looked at the happy celebratory customs and traditions, but also the serious, painful bits such as Forced Marriages and Honour Killing.

http://www.hennafoundation.org/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/partners-families/forced-marriage/forcedmarriageunit/

Marriage Matters Workshop - My Perfect Wedding

Marriage Matters workshop - flipchart notes

Funders: Awards for All

From October 2011 to January 2012 we developed a drama project funded by BBC, Children in Need.

The Right Choice enabled us to create a series of drama based sessions to address issues which are particularly sensitive among Asian communities. A short film titled “The Right Choice” was showcased on 23 December 2011 for friends and families.

One of the prizes as winners of the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) award was some funding to deliver “The Healthy Eating Options Project”. Lots of recipes for meals and snacks were on the menu throughout Ramadan 2011.

Through BlueSci we were successful in receiving the Mental Health and Wellbeing Grant Award during September to produce the  Creative Feel Good Comic Strip [pdf 4.5Mb]

Be Creative Feel Good was a  project that created a story using the 5 Ways of Wellbeing established by the New the New Economics Foundation (Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Give, and Keep Learning).

The group had a lot of fun making the comic and have been able to incorporate imagery from the outdoor activity day at Winmarleigh Hall, near Preston into the comic.

Winmarleigh Hall is part of PGL who offered a day of activities as a prize from when we won the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, (NCVYS) award.

We had no funding to travel to Winmarleigh Hall and approached Sport Trafford who agreed for us to spend our underspend of the North Trafford Sports Fund towards travel.

The third in the series of OT Comic Strip was completed in July highlighting issues close to Asian women and how they can be resolved. This project was delivered through funding from Co-operative Community Fund. At the end of the project, professional photographer, Becci Scott attended to take photographs of group members. web.me.com/beckiscott/photography2010/home.html.

This project is being delivered through funding from Co-Op.

Co-operative Community Fund

We are very pleased to report that Pulling Together has won The Young Partners Award 2010, through The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS). 9 of us attended the Awards Ceremony at The Lancaster London Hotel on 4 December 2010.

Young Partners Award 2010, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services

As well as the award, the group were presented with £500, 1 years membership to NCVYS, an adventure trip and an opportunity to deliver a workshop to a youth group somewhere in England. It was such a great day for all the members to be part of something national and come away as winners.

From May 2011 we will begin a project on Healthy eating options as part of the NCVYS funding.

Article in Stretford & Urmston Messenger [PDF 2.36Mb]

A small amount of funding from two separate funders has led the group to participate in a Body Image project, looking at Body Art & Image. This project has enabled the group to talk about what Body Image means to them.

Pulling Together are amongst a few Northwest groups who have been successful in securing Community Development Foundation’s - Faith’s in Action grant to deliver a Faiths & Festivals Project.

The Faiths & Festivals Project is very near completion - Laura Nathan who led this very exciting 35 week textile and creative writing project looking at Faiths and Festivals in 5 major world religions using the alphabet has helped the group create 26 cubes of the A-Z of Faiths and Festivals.

A resource pack will shortly be distributed to schools and youth groups in Trafford.

The celebration event took place on Friday 15 April 2011 and was a huge success. If you would like to further information on any of our projects, e-mail info@pullingtogethergroup.org.uk for more information.

Faiths & Festivals

Faiths & Festivals

Faiths & Festivals

Using the Health & Well-being theme, Pulling Together group secured a small amout of funding in October 2009 from Voluntary Arts England to put together comic strips looking at healthy eating and exercise.  Click on the images below to read:

Sportsbarn Comic Strip

Unhealthy Diet Comic Strip

Grass Roots project began in May and we looked into the religious  rituals,  as well cultural rituals that take place, prior to and during  festivals within South Asian communities and compare them to other communities and religions.

Quality Standard Funding

Grassroots Grants

My Place project

Through funding from Community Foundation for Greater Manchester’s Trafford Small Grants we began a new project “My Place” led by Renee Lumley and Sarah Jones, a photographer and graphic artist.

Group members had the opportunity to take photos of themselves, each other, personal items, local streets, schools and other things of interest in Old Trafford that have influenced them and helped to define their heritage, culture and who they are becasue of where they live.

Day to day issues such as impact of crime & drugs on communites and the usual issues affecting Asian women were hotly debated while thinking about solutions.

The images were designed into a series of draft postcards by another artist, Monir Ali. From the drafts a series of 4 creative postcards were selected to be printed.  The My Place postcards  will be used to market and promote our website.  Download postcards [pdf 2.2Mb] Or click on the thumbnails below to see the postcard images.

My Place postcard	My Place - Music
My Place - Peace	My Place - Us

A huge celebration event  to mark the end of this project took place on Friday 15th May. However, we also  celebrated a short “Wonder Women” project and a project/exhibition that was undertaken by a small group of the young women as part of The Inspiring Leadership Development Programme.

Pulling Together members have been working on The OT Comic Strip that has been funded by John Grant Davies Trust. The group have been busy taking photographs on the newly acquired Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras to create a series of issue based comics.

We have been very successful in gaining funding from Trafford College’s Neighbourhood Learning Team to purchase photographic and video equipment which is being used with previous resoures to create the OT Comic Strip.

My Place Project

Trafford Neighbourhood Learning Capital Fund enabled Pulling Together to purchase 2 Apple Macs, 2 printers and mobile internet for 18 months. This package has meant members have the opportunity to learn about the creativity of Macs over PCs. A big favourite has been the mobile internet through which members while attending the group can surf the net, download music, research & print out information and update this website.

Mrs Bev Hughes MP Launches Website

The group came up with a new logo design which reflects the ethos of the group - ‘all members pulling together to ensure that Pulling Together is at the forefront in providing exciting and challenging activities for women and children.’ This logo has been incorporated into this website and will be used in all future publicity and marketing.

Friday 10th October saw the official launch of www.pullingtogethergroup.org.uk web site by Bev Hughes MP

During October and November with funding from Help Yourself Fund from Save the Children/British Gas we developed and delivered Their Past Our Future Project - a communication project between generations leading to written and oral histories.

The end of project exhibition took place at the end of November and was seen by many family members and community leaders. Some young people who saw the the personal stories and the suitcases said they felt inspired to ask their parents and grandparent questions about their experiences.

A case study of Their Past Our Future Project can be seen at www.helpyourselves.org.uk/helpyourselves/what-we-do/

Their Past Our Future

We have completed the Learning for Fun Project which took place with funding from Children in Need . This 23 week project was exactly what the title of the project said ‘Learning for Fun’, i.e. a series of workshops covering a wide range of fun arts and cultural activities with a learning outcome.

Making music from recycled materials

The varied activities have included theatres & gallery trips, looked at ways in which we can care about the environment and learnt a lot about recycling.

Director of Science/Deputy Head of Urmston Grammar School

Part of ‘Learning for Fun’ were presentations from professional Asian women. The Director of Science/Deputy Head of Urmston Grammar, a trainee GP, a Pharmacist and PCT Interpreter provided the group with their thoughts on their chosen careers.

Learning Scripts for Mother India

The funding  also enabled us to create a script for a puppet performance of an epic 1950s’ Bollywood film, Mother India. The performance of our Mother India took place for friends and family.

PTG workshop

Trafford Neighbourhood Learning Capital Fund enabled Pulling Together to purchase 2 Apple Macs, 2 printers and mobile internet for 18 months. This package has meant members have the opportunity to learn about the creativity of Macs over PCs. A big favourite has been the mobile internet through which members while attending the group can surf the net, download music, research & print out information and update this website.

Recently the group came up with a new logo design which reflects the ethos of the group - ‘all members pulling together to ensure that Pulling Together is at the forefront in providing exciting and challenging activities for women and children.’ This logo has been incorporated into this website and will be used in all future publicity and marketing.

Friday 10th October saw the official launch of www.pullingtogethergroup.org.uk web site by Bev Hughes MP

We had a double sesssion at the launch where over 40 women and children were able to access the website, learn about the forthcoming projects and had a bite to eat.  We began the Help Yourself Intergenerational project by disscussing the questions that needed to be asked to create the stories of the lives of parents and grandparents.

Mrs Bev Hughes MP Launches Website

Their Past Our Future

During October and November with funding from Help Yourself Fund from Save the Children/British Gas we developed and delivered Their Past Our Future Project - a communication project between generations leading to written and oral histories.

The end of project exhibition took place on Friday 21st November. Very soon we will be posting some of our stories, so keep checking.