344 Oxford Road Offers New Hope

ACRE establishes a Community Hub to provide services to local communities 344 OXFORD ROAD OFFERS NEW HOPE

By Chloe Jones

Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (ACRE), in partnership with Mojatu and Utulivu, a Reading, Berkshire based organization that works closely with women, children and the elderly, have established a Health & Wellbeing Community Hub. This is aimed at improving the support to our local communities. Located at the Oxford Road Community Centre 344 Oxford Road, RG30 1AF, the hub will be addressing issues concerning health, family, relationships, career progression, knife crime, drugs and alcohol.

Covid-19 pandemic has led to multiple deaths and difficulties among communities globally. However, the Black and Ethnic minorities (BAME) in the UK have experienced three times higher mortality, morbidity, job losses, unemployment and overall social economic and health and other negative effects. The young people were not spared either, with 43% of Black young people being unemployed compared to 12% of the White population. ACRE in partnership with Utulivu Women’s Group and Mojatu Foundation have joined hands in refining the operations of the Oxford Road Community Centre. The partners, using their position of trust, will provide support to local people at this time when they were needed most. These services will include: • Health and wellbeing such as medical checks and awareness raising for healthy living, lifestyle and on countering diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, prostate cancer among others. The hub will also run programmes to support and maintain mental health and wellbeing.

• Chances for individuals to join monthly discussions on current topics that affect the wellbeing of the community. • The hub will also house quarterly Mojatu magazine and online FMB Radio, relevant discussions/topics can be followed up with here • Training and support for individuals interested in developing community leadership. A list of training and leadership programmes will be provided soon. • Employability and skills development especially among younger Black people. This will be through programmes such as Kickstart Scheme, job and volunteering placements, training programmes such as ESOL, English conversations, driving theory with English language support, digital media, community leadership, community journalism and broadcasting among others. • Other advice, guidance and signposting including legal and immigration support. These programmes will be offered either directly by the hub partners mainly ACRE, Utulivu Women’s Group and Mojatu or through partnerships with organisations such as National Career Services, DWP among others. Other services will be offered through signposting to local organisations specialising in the services required by the local communities. For support and to learn more about our programmes, please visit www.acrereading.org/hub Contact us on: Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality, 344 Oxford Road, RG30 1AF.

OXFORD ROAD COMMUNITY CENTRE OPENS FOR CREATIVE WORKS

Oxford Road Community Centre will be hosting life drawing sessions, a healthy and safe space for people to come together. The last few years in Reading we have experienced so much trauma and grieving, losing such close vibrant members of the community. Painting portraits of friends that I lost, as a small tribute to these two very important people was cathartic for me and I want to keep creating art for this therapeutic reason. My goal is to start an online space for people where they can upload any form of art, stories, fond memories, poems, photos, videos or music and hopefully comfort one another and allow space to grieve healthily. With the lowering of Covid restrictions, the centre will be hosting live drawing sessions where Reading residents can join and be together to create art. Anyone can join but it is especially for individuals and families experiencing different forms of grief, loneliness, thoughts of suicide or isolation. Although restrictions have been relaxed, observance of some form of social distancing is encouraged. It is important to feel a part of a community and to exhibit artistic skills and process emotions through art. The community centre will open up and at the broad street mall there will be more information about these sessions and where you can find out about services that will help with grief, thoughts of suicide and suffering with depression.