Community Focus Group (1st October 2025)
Categories:
Rethinking the organisation of the community events in Darwin Green
Photo from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-people-during-golden-hour-207896/
The Community Focus Group meeting took place on 1st October 2025 at the Community Rooms, gathering local residents from Darwin Green and King’s Court along with people from the Council’s Community Team, and a local Councillor.
Please keep in mind that these are the notes from attendees. They may be incomplete, inaccurate.
Events brainstorming
With more attendees than the last sessions, the first objective for this meeting was for people to meet the team from the Community Focus Group. After that, attendees had an extensive brainstorming session for new community events and activities:
Mental health improvement
One of the main priorities for the participants was to find ways to improve mental health for the residents, in particular for young people.
“Mindful photography” was suggested as a way to implement that, via photography workshops or competitions. This would provide people with a positive focus, rather than anti-social behaviour.
Besides photography, other initiatives could be investigated, too.
Regular clubs and activities
Regular activities through clubs would help people meet on a regular basis, and enjoy activities together. Ideas include:
- Chess club
- Photography club
- Lego club
- Paint & sip / arts & crafts sessions
- Coding club (would need laptops and Internet access)
- Financial management workshops (using games like Monopoly)
- Board game evenings
Parent engagement
Other events could help stay-at-home parents meet. For example, coffee mornings to discuss online safety for children could be an idea. This could potentially be connected to the Livies Pavilion restoration project?
Holiday events
For Halloween:
- There will be Halloween-themed holiday lunches for children
- Pumpkin carving is possible during holiday lunch (nap time slot)
- Should there be a treasure hunt, as happened a few years ago?
For Christmas:
- There will be a partnership with New Life Church for Christmas carols on a dedicated event, along with (non-alcoholic) mulled wine and biscuits
- There should be a Christmas tree on the Plaza. Note: the Council no longer helps fund the Christmas tree, it will be just Barratt providing support.
Other one-off events:
- Some parents from the neighbourhood proposed litter picking sessions with children for the Central Park area. The Council Community team may have some pickers to lend, if necessary.
Next steps and Residents’ Association development
The brainstorming session was great to collect ideas on events attendees would like to see in Darwin Green, but there was no concrete planning yet. The next steps, for a follow-up meeting, will be to sort priorities and start organising new events or clubs.
As a step towards better planning, residents are encouraged to formalise the Darwin Green Residents’ Association. It already has a constitution and officers, but the association itself has had little activity over the last years so it should be revived and formalised. Among other advantages, it would then become possible for DGRA to apply for grants, such as those provided by the City Council to run residents’ associations and fund community activities.
There are discussions with the current officers, in particular to do the administrative paperwork with the people with access to the existing bank account for the association. After that, we’ll need an AGM (Annual General Meeting) to vote for new (or renewed) officers and update the constitution if necessary. Leaflets may be posted to mailboxes to promote the AGM.
The three main officer positions to fill in the Committee for the association are Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, who (I understand?) should all be local residents. Other roles can exist as well. This means that if you consider taking an active part in DGRA’s activities and if you consider being part of the Committee, now is a good time to get in touch. Contact Sue from the Council team, or talk with fellow residents involved in meetings or in the association, or send us a message!