Once again, Hope for Belper will be aiming to add a bit of seasonal warmth by handing out cups of hot chocolate at the town’s annual Christmas Eve carol service in the Market Place.

This will be the third such project for the team following similar handouts on New Year’s Eve 2007 and Christmas Eve 2008.

The carols get under way at 8pm in the Market Place. This year’s event will be led by Belper Baptist Church minister Ken Reynard.

Above: The group of young people responsible for this year’s successful Dreamscheme project on Belper’s Parks Estate. Below: the tape-cutting ceremony that took place a the conclusion of the work. Pictures courtesy of Derbyshire County Council.

The dust has settled, the BBQs have been put away, and life for the young people who made the Dreamscheme the great success it was have settled back into more familiar rhythms.

I hope their memories of that week will be fond and proud as they certainly showed what can be achieved if you put your hearts and backs into a project.

The weather was kind to us over the Dreamscheme week and all the outdoor tasks were completed. Staff at the Belper Children’s Centre are now the happy recipients of a new back garden complete with large shed, seating area, bird feeders and newly painted buggy store.

But the young people’s achievements did not stop there. During the week they produced bat boxes for the local park, carried out an estate clear-up day collecting a large amount of rubbish from local residents homes and, on the concluding day, planned and delivered a community BBQ for well over 100 adults and children.

The young people hand made and delivered invites to local residents, baked cakes, cooked over 200 items on the BBQs, supervised a bouncy castle, helped the Children’s Centre staff with face painting and showed people around the new garden.

It was clear through comments from passing residents that the young people’s hard work was very much appreciated and the positive message of the Dreamscheme, that ‘young people can do wonderful things’ had come across loud and clear.

Our thanks go to all the adult volunteers who supervised and encouraged the young people over the week (and for the intrepid few that chaperoned them on the trip to Alton Towers!). Also thanks to the long suffering residents of Alder Way who put up with noise, skips and mess, the Children’s Centre staff who were so accommodating and enthusiastic, the Fire Service for attending with a big shiny fire engine, and local businesses Amberol for supplying the planters and Galafield Home and Garden for their expertise and design work.

This project would not have been possible without the generous financial support of many private donors along with grant support from Derbyshire Community Foundation, Amber Valley Housing Community Chest Fund, and Derbyshire Constabulary.

There will be a full report produced over the next few weeks and we will make copies available as far as we are able.

Gareth Greenwood – Coordinator, Hope for Belper

Hope for Belper’s second Dreamscheme project got under way today .

This year’s scheme, which follows the successful project in the Whitemoor area last August, is based on the town’s Parks Estate and will run until Friday.

The scheme was promoted through assemblies at Belper School and the first 20 intrepid young people to return the booking form have been allocated a place.

Much of the work of this year’s scheme will be taking place in and around the Family Centre on Alder Road, with the young people aiming to provide a facelift for the garden.

“The main idea behind Dreamscheme is that young people can do wonderful things! Too often we hear the opposite,” says H4B chairman Gareth Greenwood

“Dreamscheme gives young people an opportunity to have fun together in a safe and supervised context doing things that benefit the community. They learn new skills, achieve news goals and build their confidence and self esteem.”

As well as the landcsaping work around the Family Centre, the group of 20 young people will also be organising a community BBQ.

We’ll let you know how they get on.

Part of the original vision of “Hope for Belper” when it was first launched last year was to organise things which people can invite their friends and neighbours along to and so build bridges within the community.

With this in mind we are launching a walking club this month under the Hope umbrella which we hope will be one small way in which we can do this.

We will aim to do five or six walks a year which will be a mixture of difficult, moderate and easy walking – a couple of hard slogs in the Peak District, some family-friendly rambles around Belper, and one or two like in between.

We know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who like this sort of thing we reckon it will be a great way to build friendships.

The first walk will be on Saturday 9 May and will start from the junction of the A6 and A610 at Ambergate at 10,30am. It will follow a route up Crich Chase to the war memorial, back to Whatstandwell, across to Alderwasley and finally back to Ambergate via Shining Cliff Woods.

The route is eight miles long in all so including a break for lunch we would expect the walk to take 4-5 hours.

If that sounds like too much effort, the half-way point is the Derwent Hotel, Whatstandwell, so you are welcome to join us (or leave us!) at that point.

If you would like to come along, please email Paul at nottinghamroad@hotmail.co.uk. And remember to invite a friend!

Hope for Belper volunteers were out in force for the second year running at the town’s annual Good Friday “Walk of Witness” handing out hot cross buns to passing shoppers in King Street.

It’s a small gesture, but the feedback we got from members of the public certainly suggested it was appreciated!

We hope it showed something of God’s love for us on the day on which we remember how He demonstrated that love on the Cross.

After the success of the screening of ‘Evan Almighty’ last year, Hope for Belper partnered with the local primary schools again this Easter in distributing free tickets to a showing of ‘Ink Heart’ at the Ritz Cinema.

The cinema was hired by Hope for Belper and free refreshments were also provided. Everyone who attended had a great time and children left we a bookmark by which to remember their visit.

Our thanks go out again to the Head Teachers who distributed the tickets.

A young HopeforBelper volunteer takes part in the recent clean-up

A few brave souls from the Hope for Belper Team gathered in the Leisure Centre car park on Sunday 5 April.

After we got kitted out, a local youngster cycled by and asked if he could give a hand. There was a surprising amount of litter all around the perimeter of the car park and in amongst the shrubs.

After about two hours we had collected more than 15 black sacks full of rubbish and this made a big difference to the look of the area. Afterwards a drink and chips were enjoyed by all.

Hope for Belper’s first project of 2009 has been designed with the credit crunch in mind.

Called The Basic Idea, the basic idea is to provide basic food and toiletry items to familes in financial crisis.

Boxes for collection of items are being put in local churches with the intention that those who would like to and are able to do so will purchase one extra item to put in them every time they go shopping.

We are also looking for volunteers to pack and deliver boxes as families are referred. We anticipate that this will not be a big commitment, especially in the first few months.

If this is something you may be able to help with, but would like more details, please contact ggandhg@aol.com  or  jo.lambourne@gmail.com.

There are some projects that just seem so timely and demonstrate God’s uncanny knack of spurring people in to action.

‘The Basic Idea’ appears to be one of those and it has got off the ground with a tremendous groundswell of support from congregations around Belper.

See the projects Page for updates on the progress of this project and contact details for finding out more and how you might be involved now or in the future.

Hope for Belper people congregate in the Salvation Army Hall on the Market Place after handing out hundreds of mugs of hot chocolate on Christmas Eve, 2008 – the concluding event of ‘Hope 08.’ The initiative, now known as ‘Hope for Belper,’ will continue to carry out more random acts of kindness during 2009, starting with something called The Basic Idea – more details here very soon!