Calder Future | Volunteering for Football in Mixenden
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Volunteering for Football in Mixenden
Our existing relationship with the Mixenden Initiative has really helped us to get the ‘V' ball rolling in Mixenden, N. Halifax. This is where we got local Calderdale contractors to build a footpath alongside Clough Bank Beck, and we have worked with the local resident's assoc. and school children in keeping the beckside clean. The opportunity to work with some older youngsters came when the community worker from the Initiative's offices wanted to get lads in to the Leisure Centre football league, and deliver a project to create an allotment area for the local primary school.
Combining the two, he got the young people to volunteer for the practical work, and then Calder Future was able to use its ‘V' funding (targeted at the 16-25 year olds) to pay the expenses associated with getting the group signed up for the league. So, back in the summer of 2008, we worked on the site at the back of the school playground, building a breeze block wall to hold soil, a raised bed which the teachers can use as a planting project with their pupils (see photos). We have carried on with the same 'incredible edible' flavour, utilising the young people's skills to create two other allotments for local residents in Mixenden.
In tandem with the allotment projects, we also involved the youngsters in the nearby ‘natural play initiative' next to Hebble Brook, a project to improve the access path alongside the old mill ponds. There is also great scope for habitat work here, such as putting up bird and bat boxes. During 2009-10 we carried out a major walling project at nearby Rake Bank, under the BBC Breathing Places programme, for the same group of young people.
