Steve Parkinson from the Toy Library, to deliver a presentation.
Minutes:
Steve Parkinson of the Toy Library, formerly known as Bulwell Toy Library, delivered a verbal presentation which was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
The history and development of the Toy Library was outlined from its establishment in 1978 to its current multi-faceted model which includes:
i. Promotion of the belief that every child benefits from belonging to a family and every family benefits from belonging to a community;
ii. Support for children, families and communities to develop, grow and thrive together through play;
iii. A family mentor service with local peer volunteers which to date has worked with 606 individual children under four years of age, providing 429 families with a family mentor, and provided a total of 16,328 interactions;
iv. Providing activities at various community sites, including the Toy Library , local parks and the recently leased 10 acres of Barkers Wood;
v. Government funded nursery places at the Toy Box Nursery based at Snapewood Primary School.
Whilst the local community of the Bulwell area remains the focus of work for the formerly named Bulwell Toy Library, other opportunities such as facilitating family festivals have arisen which enable income to be generated from other neighbourhoods and even Cities, which can be used to support the Toy Library in the local Area;
The next step for the Toy Library is to help support children and their families with the transition from primary school to secondary, but also with the transition to teenagers.
Whilst thriving and exceptionally successful now, there have been times in the past when the Toy Library was on the verge of folding. Thanks to the generosity of local ward councillors who provided one-off funding to buy time for the organisation to secure external funding, the scheme is now celebrating 40 years of local activity.
The Committee’s questions were responded to as follows:
(a) Volunteers join the Toy Library for a variety of reasons and all contribute differently. If someone is volunteering with a view to gaining work experience to help get work, then this is actively supported;
(b) The Toy Library supports ‘Small Steps Big Changes’ (SSBC) programme which has seen a significant improvement in the language and reading levels of local children starting school. It is only when the children which started the SSBC programme in 2015 start school that the statistical improvement can be formally confirmed.
Members of the Committee welcomed the update and expressed how proud they are of the achievements and development of the Toy Library as a local organisation, thanking Steve Parkinson and all the staff who have contributed to its success and beneficial engagement of the local community.
In honour of the 40 year anniversary of the organisation, Neighbourhood Development Officer Celia Knight had baked a cake for Steve to takeaway and share at the Toy Library, and cake to be shared with the Committee at the meeting.
RESOLVED to record the Committee’s thanks Steve Parkinson for his attendance and presentation and the Committee’s congratulations for the ongoing success of such a valuable community asset.