Healthwatch Sheffield are recipients of our Greater Together Resilience Fund for 2025, working closely with us to help build healthy communities in Richmond Park and Wybourn. The health and social care champions, contracted by Voluntary Action Sheffield and one of over 150 local branches of Healthwatch England, were granted £10,000 by Great Places to split between our two key Sheffield neighbourhoods.
Following a period of asking, listening and advising, where they met with customers, residents and our key partners in the area to get a sense of the current provision and where they can fill the gaps to meet demand, they recently kicked things off in Richmond Park on 6 August with a health and community fun day in the sun!
With over 100 residents attending, the day responded to what our customers and residents of Richmond Park told us and our partners from Healthwatch, with a range of health, fitness and wellbeing activities on offer at Richmond Park & Birklands Community Centre, as well as fun for the kids, with face and nail painting, hook a duck, and a bouncy castle to top it all!
Activities through the afternoon included Richmond Park staples such as Chair Yoga, as well as First Aid workshops, Bollywood Dancing for all abilities, a performance and taster session from Unite Martial Arts (as seen as Britain’s Got Talent) and an easy fitness session.
The day was a truly joint effort, collaborating with partners including Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Citizens Advice Sheffield, South Yorkshire Fire, and Sheffield Mind. Residents could drop in and get information and advice from their representatives, as well as those from Talking Therapies, Sendias (for Special Educational Needs), Parent Carer Forum, Richmond Church and Likewise. NHS Health checks were also on offer throughout the day, and residents could also receive energy saving advice.
Customers were also shown the range of services available to them through us as their landlord, with our Financial Resilience Energy Advisor, Andy Wilson, there to answer any questions on saving on bills and staying warm in Winter, and our Heat Network Team was also in attendance to respond to any enquiries about the new communal heating system. Customers could also take the opportunity to chat to their NSM or ASM at the fun day.
A big part of the day was also boosting the presence of the community centre among residents, lots of work having gone on behind the scenes to bring it back to the thriving community space it once was. The start of the next academic year hopes to mark the beginning of this new chapter for the centre, with many regular activities and sessions to come being a part of the health and community fun day. Our Community Partnership Manager, Felix Dyer, was there to raise awareness of the range of existing services as well as scope what customers would like to see going forward.
Reflecting on the day and our work with Healthwatch Sheffield, Felix commented:
We know from localised statistics and what residents tell us that addressing health and well-being is a key issue for Richmond Park. Our partnership with Healthwatch Sheffield has been great for further identifying specific issues from which we can develop relevant projects with appropriate groups. The Health and Wellbeing event was a great way of kickstarting this work – bringing the community and relevant organisation together for a fun and informative day.
Winnie Lukatome, Community Outreach Lead for Healthwatch Sheffield, commented:
The Health and Wellbeing Community Fun Day was a fantastic success – a true reflection of what can be achieved when communities and services come together. It was wonderful to see residents of all ages making the most of the wide range of support on offer, from free health checks and wellbeing activities to energy advice, mental health support, and more. We’re grateful to everyone who attended and to our funders the Great Places Housing Group who made this possible. Events like this remind us of the strength and potential within local communities and we’re excited and inspired to continue building on this momentum to improve health, wellbeing and access to support across Richmond Park Estate, Wybourn, and the surrounding areas.
