Tag Archives: Bolton residents free training

We’ve just rolled out our latest timetable of free customer involvement training sessions, which are open to Bolton residents and held at community venues across the borough, and the Bolton at Home head office.

There are 14 free courses available in total, each ranging in subject and length, including new courses for this year such as DIY, cooking and computing.

The training programme has been running for three years and has grown to offer 14 different courses, some of which are accredited and offer a qualification.

Community learning can have a hugely positive impact on people’s lives and the community they live in. Our customer involvement courses are a free resource for people to come along, enhance their knowledge in a particular area, or learn something completely new.

For some of our customers, these courses help to equip them with life skills that you perhaps aren’t taught through the traditional education route, or perhaps they weren’t taught whilst growing up. For others, the courses help to satisfy a hunger to learn.

Residents wanting to find out more can call Sully on 01204 335649 or visit the Be Involved page at www.boltonathome.org.uk.

Last night (Wednesday, April 20) the stars of Bolton’s communities came together at our annual ‘Stars of the Community’ awards. We hold the event each year to reward local volunteers who work to improve their neighbourhoods.

Winners on the night included groups and individuals across ten categories who were nominated by others members of the community and Bolton at Home officers.

Our awards are designed to celebrate the hard work and fantastic achievements of our customers and community groups in improving their neighbourhoods and building stronger communities. Well done to each of our winners and nominees, all of whom have contributed to making Bolton a better place.

It’s always a delight to meet people who are real stars in their communities.  This event gives us a chance to show our appreciation.

We held a special tree planting ceremony yesterday (Wednesday, April 13) to mark the transfer of Bolton Council’s housing stock toBoltonat Home. We planted the tree at Shackleton Grove, Johnson Fold.

The event was also part of an environmental improvement project, as we’re currently redeveloping a piece of derelict and misused piece of land into a natural space for community use.

Along with members of the local community and project partners – Johnson Fold Residents Association, BoltonWISE and West Bolton Neighbourhood Team – I planted a double cherry tree at the site.

We’re very proud of the work that’s being carried out at Shackleton Grove. Our partners and members of the local community have been working together to turn an overgrown area that attracted fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour into an attractive natural space that can be enjoyed by all.

The tree planting is a small nod to Boltonat Home’s recent transition to a registered housing provider, which will help us to improve homes and estates, benefiting our customers.

We’ve just held a special event at our Tonge UCAN centre to launch the Tonge community’s very own website www.tongeonline.co.uk.

The website has been put together and launched by a local community group and volunteer youth project, Tonge Action Group (TAG). As well as unveiling the website, the launch event was a chance for our TAG members to show off the new skills that they have acquired since the group  formed in 2009.

TAG was launched with the aim of giving the local community a voice, a website and a regular newsletter, all of which is run by people from Tonge and the Haulgh. The group meets every Friday at Tonge UCAN Centre where members learn new skills in art, design, journalism, presenting, filming, digital media, producing short films, radio or designing and managing websites.

I’d like to say a big well done to everyone at TAG for all of the hard work and commitment that has resulted in the launch of Tonge’s very own community website.

When the group first approached me 18 months ago, it had no funding in place and was driven solely by the desire of its members to bring an innovative media group that would offer an alternative to the usual sporting schemes and clubs typically on offer to young people.

The launch of the website is a significant landmark for everyone involved and a resource which we feel the Tonge community will benefit hugely from. The new site gives residents information about what’s on in the area and includes photos, music and videos, as well as a bit of history of the area.

Over 70 of our sheltered scheme residents have celebrated ‘Getting Digital’ at a special awards event.  On Wednesday (March 9) residents from across the borough came together at Slaterfield II where they were presented with certificates for participating in our ‘Get Digital’ programme.

We’ve been running ‘Get Digital’ to introduce residents in our sheltered schemes to computing and the internet after winning a grant from the National Institute of Adult Continued Learning (NIACE).

At each of the schemes, a ‘Get Digital’ tutor delivered seven weeks of basic tuition, plus a further four and a half day of expert tuition sessions for the residents.  

It’s great to see so many of our residents taking advantage of this free scheme. The internet can open up a whole new world for people once they have the knowledge and confidence to use it. Well done to everyone who completed the programme! 

The popularity of the ‘Get Digital’ programme and the positive feedback we have had from residents is fantastic.  On the back of this, we’re already looking into ways we can increase our digital offering to residents across all of our schemes.

We have an ambitious, but not unrealistic, goal of delivering a five year digital programme, combined with a community development approach, to all customers from Bolton at Home sheltered schemes and members of the surrounding communities who are over 50.