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

The Marriage Matters , funded by Grass Roots project began in May and we have been looking into the rituals, religious as well cultural that take place, prior to and during marriage ceremonies within South Asian communities and compare them to other communities and religions.

The group has created their ideal bridal dress using paper and rich fabrics. To compliment the dress they have been creating hair accessories, table decorations and designing cakes which have showed the diversity and creativity of the young women.

Importantly, the group has used Marriage Matters to raise and debate the sometimes difficult issues of forced marriages. One whole session was used to discuss the issues of differentiating between forced and arranged. Quite a lively debate took place and the debate and comments have continued throughout each of the sessions.

The End of Project Celebration took place on Friday 7th August 2009 through which the group displayed their creations for their Ideal Wedding and present their findings on issues surrounding South Asian marriages.

If anyone wants information on forced marriages, please check out www.fco.gov.uk/en/fco-in-action/nationals/forced-marriage-unit/

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.