A summary of all the speakers from the last COP meeting of the year, with external links included
Yesterday we were at the Egremont Community Centre for our final COP of 2024, amidst an already lively atmosphere in the centre with people making treats for their Christmas afternoon tea later in the day.
Egremont Community Centre
Eric, the treasure of the Egremont Community Centre welcomed us to the COP. Egremont Community Centre has a long history of supporting the local community, and although have recently changed their name, have a strong desire to support the local community in any way they can. They have a variety of activities going on at the centre which can be found on their Facebook page. Eric also offered the opportunity to have a coffee with anyone who would like to work with them in any way.
Men Too
Anthony Wood spoke about the organisation Men Too, a men’s mental health and wellbeing organisation. They offer free counselling sessions to men as well as a variety of group work sessions. The also highlighted their informal listening service for anyone who was in crisis while waiting for their counselling appointment.
Involve Northwest - Clear Minds & Brighter Times
Marta from Involve Northwest discussed two of their mental health projects, Clear Minds and Brighter Times. These are mental health sign-posting services.
Brighter Times is a community based mental health project that works alongside the CWP Crisis Lines by supporting people with their overall wellbeing. They place focus on helping people to identify and address any practical or social barriers that are influencing their mental health negatively by linking them into the most appropriate avenue of support. 
Clear Minds is a community based mental health project that focuses on helping and enabling individuals to empower themselves to make positive changes and take control of how they feel. They work alongside Everyturn Talking Therapies to support people with their practical issues in addition to their therapy.
Marta also discussed some upcoming trauma workshops she will be hosting at the Carrbridge Centre in February.
CWP – Adult's mental health
Sallie Taylor spoke about the adult mental health work happening within the CWP. They are currently undergoing a process of transforming community mental health and are beginning a process of bringing the work they do out into communities. They want to improve access to mental health support and support the efficiency of the support they offer. They are working at investing funds into the local community mental health programs and are considering how they can develop longer-term solutions.
DWP
Adrian, the new Partnership Manager (previously Deputy Manager), discussed the support that DWP can offer to those who have been victims of domestic violence. He outlined some of the provisions that can be made and encouraged those who might be struggling to inform the DWP who can help support from a benefits perspective. He outlined the support that work coaches can offer to make sure that they are not impacted financially during what can be a very difficult time.
One Wirral – Macmillan
Jenny Patton the Macmillan Transformation Manager spoke about her role in supporting the transformation of the cancer journey with holistic personalised care and support. She is working on a program which she hopes will be Co-produced by both cancer patients and local VCF organisations to improve the support than can be offered to people going though a cancer diagnosis.
They have some upcoming co-production workshop sessions happening at the beginning of the new year.
30th Jan
31st Jan
4th Feb
11th Feb (Online)
Jenny mentioned if there was interest in these sessions to contact Liz Ryan, their Engagement Officer, to discuss more.
Energy Projects Plus
Energy Projects Plus quickly outline for us again the work they do around energy; improve energy efficiency, alleviate fuel poverty and reduce the impact on the environment through energy and sustainability projects.
They also outlined some current projects that might be of interest to local groups. They have a support scheme at the moment with energy saving measures where they can provide items like but not limited to; air fryers, headed blankets, oil radiators, mattress toppers etc. This project can only been accessed once energy saving advise has been sort in order to support with lasting changes. They also offer a boiler repair and replace scheme and a white goods replacement scheme.
Their fuel debt support service can be accessed with even the smallest amount of fuel debt as people are encouraged to address debt early as to not let it snowball. The team also investigate bills before paying off a debt to ensure the bills are correct and not errors.
University of Liverpool Brett Centre for Entrepreneurship
Richard Leighton the resident entrepreneur for the University of Liverpool came to discuss some of the entrepreneur schemes currently running in partnership with the university. Looking at Creative, social enterprise and impact related business and offered support for social enterprise through the university. He spoke about the monthly entrepreneur meet up and the work he was doing with young enterprise schemes in the city. He also highlighted his own enterprise work with social housing schemes.
Friends of New Brighton Marine Lake
Friends of New Brighton Marine Lake came to update about the work they are doing to improve the Marine lake. They discussed the progress they had made with the feasibility study and the various funding applications they had sent. They highlighted the film they made following Peter Flowerdew, a diligent caretaker of the Marine Lake that has won some awards in various film festivals. They have a few events looking to raise money coming up with a New Brighton run on the 23rd December, a swim on the 26th December and a swim on the 1st January in conjunction with the sailing club.
Energise Cycles
Joe from Energise Cycles discussed the work the do with the local community around cycling. They have recycled over 1000 bikes and provided them to the local community as well as providing 80 bikes to kids over last Christmas with a similar number being given this year. They are a community focused cycling hub who run training schemes, repair schemes, cycling courses (Mountain biking) and work with vulnerable young people to get them engaged in productive pursuits. They are been gifted land by peel port and are hoping to build a BMX track and cycling track at their facility.
One Wirral Enterprise
Paul Wood from One Wirral came to discuss the enterprise arm of one Wirral. He highlighted the range of software solutions they have built for primary care and offered the opportunity for VCF groups to look to see if any of the solutions could work for them. One Wirral are working on a CRM to capture and measure social impact and are looking to co-design the platform with the VCF to make a solution viable for use across the sector. He is interested in hearing from anyone who might want to be part of that conversation.
If you want any more information or would like to contact any of the attendees, you can e-mail zel.rodgers@wcvs.org.uk or alex.fisher@wcvs.org.uk
If you want to speak at the next COP meeting, please let Mark know via mark@wcvs.org.uk
The date and location of the next COP meeting will be agreed and available to RSVP early in the new year.
A special Christmas message from Chris Shaw and Amy Butterworth - See you all in 2025! 🎄
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