Grove park in London is an established community and our church is moving in! We are keen to encourage strong community links so are planning an exciting day in August 2016. We want to organize activities which people may not have experienced such as juggling, alongside other games that they may not have done since school, such as the sports day races. There will be crafts for the art lovers, Wii games for the IT enthusiasts, and balloon modelling for the children. There are dog lovers on the estate so why not put on a dog show! A 'well being tent' with attention to hair and hands, music and a DJ.
We want to value the local people so prizes and medals will be awarded for any competition.
We will invite local services such as the mounted police, ambulance and fire services, CAP debt recovery information.
Our aim is to give the community an opportunity to enjoy themselves and meet with each other to prevent the isolation that some people on the estate feel.

What we'll deliver:

• Creating a fun and challenging day for the whole community
• Bringing the community together
• Giving children and adults on the estate experiences they may not have had
• Increasing the feeling of well being for people whose lives can be quite challenging

Why it's a great idea:

Our church has organised a fun day in another part of Lewisham, but not as big as the one we plan. We have a team of workers, technical, stewards, children's workers who have experience of organizing and setting up such an event. The estate we are moving into, statistically shows a high level of deprivation and we have done a small survey to introduce ourselves. People were extremely trusting and told us that they wanted activities for youth and wished that the estate could have something to bring them together. There also seem to be a lot of dog lovers on the estate. The church feels passionately that an event such as this would bring all members of the community together. People were even saying that the nearest doctors was 4 miles away! We want to bring this event to them to help bring cohesion on the estate. We have worked closely with Lewisham council in the past bringing support to members of the community and are asking for some money from the Lewisham Small and Faith Fund.

Steps to get it done:

• A team of technical people, stewards, and general helpers will be arranged for the day
• One person will project manage the event
• The costings and funding will be managed by the project manager and treasurer
• The events organiser will do the marketing and booking of the venue
• Then they will arrange the bookings for the artists and events, equipment, food etc

We believe that knowledge is power so on the day we will provide useful information on such things as 'dealing with debt'. This information comes from the CAP organisation as we are planning to open a CAP debt centre within our church to support people who need help in managing their finances.