The ALT Group – Press Release
Saturday 10th March 2018
Consett, County Durham

Local community group, The ALT Group, officially opened Consett Community Fridge this weekend. The Community fridge is a food sharing initiative to help divert good, edible food from landfill to local people. After a successful trial in February the project officially opened its doors to the public on Saturday with the help of MP Laura Pidcock.

Overview

2017 has been a year of great change, learning and achievement for The ALT Group, this year has brought some large hurdles to be overcome and our group has grown and become stronger because of it. This year we changed our Mission Statement to more accurately reflect what we do, and what we hope to achieve in Consett.

The ALT Group is a Community Interest Company and currently helps around 50 people each week to make friends and socialise in their communities. Our current services include our Community Meal at Blackhill Club, Community Garden at Blackhill Club and Quiet Time. This year we were also able to complete our first Transforming Project with Transforming Barnardo's Blackhill and we are preparing to launch our next project a Community Fridge & Veg Shed.

Over the past 12 months our volunteers have received training and support in order to develop their skills and understand better practices for businesses and catalyzing change in today's world. As a fast growing organisation we have learned, through experience the needs in our local community and the resources required to make our plans a reality. Our Directors have spent time developing a Business Plan to create a sustainable model to fund our projects. This year we have also conducted market research in the local area for business projection purposes as well as collecting feedback for our services and collect face to face information from local residents about the social and environmental issues they face.

We have continued to collaborate with Blackhill Club, Growing Durham, Groundworks and Fairshare and have maintained helpful relationships with other local organisations such as PACT House and Food 4U. In 2016/2017 we were able to make collaborator links with Leadgate Task Force, Sustrans and Barnardos charity shop in Blackhill. Throughout the year we have continued to work with donors and supporters who help us provide our Community Meal and have had great support with our Community Garden project. We have received financial support to fund our projects from Seedbed Foundation, and Greggs Environment Fund as well as on going support from Tesco Bags of Help (& Groundworks).

In November 2017 The ALT Office was created...this meant amazing news for us, but a lot of shopping to do for our service providers. When you are a small C.I.C. with strong ethics and a limited budget this is no easy task!

We live in a world that can be very busy and very demanding of us. Often, many people live in a state of stress and we rarely take time out for ourselves to relax.

Stress can have huge effects in our lives, from stopping us being able to sleep properly, causing aches pains and muscle tension and the longer term health effects can include mental health problems, heart and blood pressure problems and more,

March

The ALT Group was proud to start our Blackhill Club Community Garden project in February with great support from the public. Over the past three months we have had more than 20 local residents volunteer or help with the garden project in so many ways and it is has made a fantastic start!
Despite the grey, damp weather, our first Action Day had 6 volunteers armed with spades and shovels and we started with our first task of finding the car park edge and creating borders for flowers around Blackhill Club's huge grounds.

The team also managed to build some compost and storage bins from reclaimed materials which we will use to make our own organic compost.

During March we welcomed NCC students who volunteered with our group and helped out with our meal service and garden project. During the week they were with us we welcomed some families along to join us planting trees. We managed to plant 5 trees on the grounds, some are fruit trees, some are suitable for birds, bees and butterflies. The first tree planted was named “Amelie” after Amelie Weeks, 8, the volunteer who planted it and “Jes” Tree was planted by NCC volunteers.

The ALT Group, a newly formed local community group is fundraising with a twist this weekend, hosting a Pop-Up Shop sale at local venue Blackhill Comrades Club from Thursday through to Sunday.

The sale will include a mix of art prints by local artists, pre-loved furniture, clothes and home products as well as locally made crafts with tea, coffee and refreshments on sale through the whole event. Families and children will be catered for with a play zone and face painting available for the kids or gel nails for the adults.

During the Pop-Up Shop event, The ALT Group team will be providing information sessions about the organisation and their future plans for community activities, including their Community Garden project plans that was started in February.

We are delighted to announce that Tesco has teamed up with Groundwork to launch its Bags of Help initiative in hundreds of regions across England and Wales. The scheme will see three community groups and projects in each of these regions awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag charge.

The ALT Group applied for this funding to make our first Community Farm dream and reality and we are overwhelmed with excitement to be able to announce...

We have been shortlisted for the first ever public vote!

Bags of Help offers community groups and projects in each of Tesco’s 390 regions across the UK a share of revenue generated from the five pence charge levied on single-use carrier bags. The public will now vote in store from 27 February until 6 March on who should receive the £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 awards.

For more information please visit  www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp
You will find details of how to vote in store, and voting begins 27th February until 4th March.

If you would like to be involved in this project please Contact Us

From a Very Happy ALT Group Team :D

The ALT Group, a newly formed local community group has teamed up with local venue Blackhill Comrades Club to offer free entertainment, to the community in Consett on Thursday night.

Animal Show host and Magician Steve Lucock, 50 from Blyth has previously featured on Britain's Got Talent and Channel 5 Series, 41 Dogs In A 3 Bed Semi, received a warm welcome to the venue and entertained over 100 guests and volunteers with his comedy and education show alongside live animals.

In between the laughter, children and adults were introduced to many creatures including a Meercat, Skunk and Zante the Fox who are all rescued by Steve's animal rescue charity, Saviours Haven Sanctuary.

It was a very proud moment at The ALT Group when we saw our first ever write up in the local paper! And what a wonderful pictures of our Volunteers :)

Please take a look...
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http://www.consettstanleyadvertiser.co.uk/news/13800225.Free_hot_meals_and_chance_to_socialise_at_Blackhill_Comrades_Club/