The Springs' Life Resource Project

'The Springs' is part of the social and community action of Hemsworth Christian Fellowship. It was born as the result of the church asking itself over a number of years 'what are we here for'? It began as a small seed simply finding out local needs and responding with the resources available, applying for small grants where necessary. Gradually the vision widened, and eventually the church received funding for 5 years from the New Opportunities Fund to set up and develop the project, and it became one of several Healthy Living Centres throughout the country, a government initiative to combat health and social deprivation at grass roots level. The project has several strands:

• Counselling - training and service to the community
• Older people's work - including Luncheon Club and Community Cafe
• Strengthening Families - including Post-Natal illness support, parent and toddler groups and a parenting project
• Drug work - support for parents and carers of mis-users, and training and awareness in schools and community
  Drug misuse figures 2007

Lifelong learning and creativity are also at the heart of what we are about, and so we have a number of art classes and a creative writing class. In addition to these, we run regular IT classes from complete beginner, and a number of one-off days for internet use and card / calendar making.

The church employs 8 people through the project, and a number of volunteers regularly help out. Other partners and funders of the project include: Coalfield Regeneration Trust, Eastern Wakefield Primary Care Trust, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, Wakefield LEA, Shaftesbury Society, Age Concern, and other smaller grant-making trusts.