Tesco Community Grants scheme will enable Ballymoney Mens Work Shed & Social Centre to cover the costs of materials, training & mentoring for its local community.
The Ballymoney Mens Shed received the money though Tesco’s Mental Health Grant supported by the supermarket’s community grants, which uses the money raised from the levy on carrier bags to fund projects across the UK that aim to improve the mental health and wellbeing of people in the local community.
Ballymoney Mens Shed will re-open in June and need woodwork and joinery training to enable them to pursue hobbies, interests and contribute to the shed and the wider community. The mens shed is a place where people from the area can meet up to socialise, maintain good health and wellbeing, make new friends, learn new skills, and work on projects.
Due to Tesco’s funding, the Mens Shed will be able to offer basic woodworking & joinery training to members, non-members, and especially to vulnerable people in the local community such as the unemployed, elderly, isolated and those with long term health problems, in an attempt to boost their health and wellbeing.
The £1000 grant will provide much needed funds to the Mens Shed during the post Covid-19 pandemic and especially with an increasing demand from the community for more training and classes.
Covid-19 has heavily impacted how local communities have been able to socialise and support each other, and with lockdown restrictions lifting across the UK, the members of the Mens Shed began to explore ways in which they could raise funds to expand and upgrade the workshop & social centre.
Richard Orr, Secretary at Ballymoney Mens Shed at the time, said:
“We are very grateful for the funding from Tesco that will allow us to enhance the work-shed and social centre – helping more people in our local community. The work we have done already has demonstrated an improvement in self-confidence and overall health and wellbeing in men involved with the shed, so we are delighted to be able to continue this work on a more regular basis.”
“With these funds, we plan to provide six workshops over the next year, each lasting three days and participants would be expected to choose two projects to work on (e.g., bird box and window box). Where possible, training and mentoring would be provided by local trainers, but other members would be involved depending on choice of projects and they would have full access to facilities of the social centre including tea, coffee, pool table and darts.”
“We will also provide a celebration event at the end of each workshop for family and friends to be there for handover of certificates.”
The Mens Shed have been involved in a number of existing community projects such as building a shed for a local charity, repairing furniture, making bird and window boxes and Christmas decorations such as Christmas trees, reindeer & wreaths.
Tony McElroy, Tesco’s Community Manager for Northern Ireland, added: “It’s great to see how members of Ballymoney Mens Shed have shown such commitment and passion towards improving their local community. This is an excellent example of how a Tesco Community Grant can have a positive impact on local communities.”
Tesco works in partnership with Groundwork to deliver its Community Grant scheme,which provides grants to thousands of local projects in communities across the UK, all voted on by customers in store.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop using the blue token given to them at checkouts. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding of between £4,000 and £1,000.
Community groups and charities can apply for funding and Tesco customers and colleagues can nominate projects that theywould like to see receive a boost. Just ask in store for more information or visit the Tesco Community Grant website,tescocommunitygrants.org.uk.
