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COMMUNITY FUND (Arts Volunteering )

August 2025

This year, through your generous donations, we have once again been able to support two local charities with their work in supporting local communities, with a specific focus on the arts.
 
The Manju Shahul Hameed Foundation for Mental Health (MSH Foundation) was founded eight years ago by local councillor Manju Shahul Hameed.  It is a local charity focused on making a positive impact on all lives impacted by mental health illnesses and raising awareness through community initiatives. Through their work, the Foundation stress the importance of mental health and seek to raise awareness through education and collaboration. 
A key aspect of their work is the Dementia Cafes run once a month in three different locations in Croydon – at the Coulsdon Methodist Church, at the Clocktower Café in Croydon and at Croydon University Hospital.  I attended two of the Dementia Café sessions in Coulsdon. They are uplifting events, where older adults can come together to enjoy tea, cakes and an afternoon filled with joy. Each session features engaging workshops (on the day I attended, there was a lively Indian dance workshop taking place), interactive activities and lively performances, creating an inclusive and dynamic atmosphere. Students from John Ruskin College volunteer to support and engage with attendees, supporting various art activities.  This intergenerational approach fosters meaningful connections between young volunteers and older participants, promoting understanding, companionship and community spirit. The cafés provide not only social enjoyment for those affected by dementia but also opportunities for young people to learn, contribute and grow through shared experiences.
Through our donation we have supported a number of dance and art workshops at the cafes.
Details of the three Cafes can be found in the posters below.
If you would like to find out more about the Foundation and its work, please visit
http://msfoundations.co.uk

5 million adults in England and Wales have reading or writing skills below the expected level of the average 11-year-old.     (Skills for Life Survey, 2011)
With this staggering statistic at its heart, Read Easy Croydon was established in November 2022 and is affiliated to Read Easy UK.  Read Easy Croydon is a volunteer led organization, totally dependent on fundraising, donations and grants.  Trained coaches provide individual reading coaching to adults in the London Borough of Croydon, typically meeting twice a week for two thirty-minute sessions.  The coaching process uses the ‘Turning Point’ reading manuals from the charity Shannon Trust, which were originally introduced in 2013 to teach adults to read in prison and therefore have proven outcomes.  Read Easy Croydon is run by a management team with specific roles.
Reading is a basic requirement of everyday life, and for many of us it is a skill we take for granted. However, the impact of not being able to read as an adult can be far reaching, impacting on one’s mental health, confidence and self-esteem; as well as practically when faced with bills, road signs, prescriptions, children’s homework and a plethora of other undecodable text essential for everyday life.  
Read Easy Croydon is at the early stage of development and is currently supporting eight reading pairs, with four readers waiting to start the programme very soon.  Our donation will provide training for four more coaches and the resources to allow four new readers to take part in the programme; hopefully with life changing outcomes.
If you would like to find out more about Read Easy Croydon, volunteer or donate, please contact Anju Elmes at croydonleader@readeasy.org.uk
If you know someone who would benefit from the programme and would like to refer them, please contact Georgie Hay at croydoncoordinator@readeasy.org.uk 

Finally. A big thank you to everyone who has donated to our Arts Volunteering Fund.  I hope the above projects illustrate what a difference our donations can make to our local community.  Our funds are running low and we are keen to support other community projects, so, if you can, please donate at any of our meetings or when you renew your membership.  Thank you.

Maria Keenan – Arts Volunteering

August 2024

Harris Invictus is a recently opened Secondary School in West Croydon, on the site of the old Croydon General Hospital- for those of us old enough to remember it! The school has a very diverse school population and they asked us if we could sponsor a wall mural, designed by the pupils themselves, depicting what their school is like. The final work will be unveiled in September.

As we reported in our last newsletter, we have been delighted to also support the work of the South East Cancer Help Centre based in Purley, near Tesco.  Through your kind and generous donations, we have been able to fund resources for the art and craft classes that are held weekly at the Centre.  
The Centre started in 1983 as a small self-help group, meeting in a member’s home, for people who had been diagnosed as having cancer. Over the years, membership increased as more people became aware of the need and the benefit of emotional support, following the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. When Tesco took over the Purley site for development, they provided excellent purpose-built accommodation within the site. There are now over 300 members attending the Centre regularly.
The Centre provides a wide choice of complementary therapies and counselling, offered to members by professionally qualified therapists. There is a range of groups, catering for different needs, such as support, reflection and relaxation, as well as social gatherings for others.
The Centre is mainly funded by voluntary donations and legacies. Fund-raising and publicity have become a very necessary part of the work of the Centre, so they have greatly appreciated our donation.
Each week, a team of volunteers lead art and craft workshops, encouraging members to develop their artistic skills. Craft items are often sold at the centre and at local fairs, raising additional funds for the Centre; while exhibitions of the group’s artwork have been held at Croydon Library, the Clocktower Cafe and the Fairfield Halls.
In recent weeks, the group have been busy knitting resources for the annual Paint Purley Purple campaign, which runs in September and October of each year, raising awareness and funds for the Centre.  Trees and benches in Purley town centre are covered in purple knitting, with more than 70 trees and benches covered in 2023. Your donations have helped fund resources for this knitting project.
More details about the centre and the services they offer can be found on their website www.sechc.org.uk.                                                                              Maria Keenan

July 2023 

The Arts Society Croydon Area   has been supporting Croydon Health Services NHS Trust with donations towards their Drama and Music Therapy Support Group for children with Epilepsy, a life changing diagnosis with far reaching consequences.
Five families recently attended an Epilepsy Peer Support Group provided by Croydon NHS paediatric arts therapies service.
 The epilepsy consultant and specialist nurse referred children to the group, run by a drama therapist and a music therapist, with an additional different drama therapist joining each week to support. There were six weekly sessions each lasting 90 minutes and held in the evenings after school in therapy rooms in the hospital.
Feedback from the families included the following:
“ It was fabulous. I think the overriding thing would be the level of support from everybody. I  came in with a preconceived idea of ‘ I’m going to be a little bit guarded here’ but it wasn't the case. It was such an open forum, everyone was on the same page. It was safe, it was easy to talk to everyone.” (Parent)
“ For me it was lovely. I loved to see how much our child was getting out of it……it was me and my child doing something together, which was very specific to them because it was their epilepsy and a really special kind of bond. It kind of made us closer to be honest.” (Parent)
“I got to have fun…I met other people…..I went home happier than I was before.”  ( Child Aged 10)

SHAKESPEARE ROCKS!

18th August 2022

The return to normal ‘service’ has at last enabled our society to renew our sponsorship of a local school from our Young Arts fund.

The Arts Society Headquarters has also now agreed that the Community Grant can be given to schools or other institutions, to purchase materials necessary to enhance musical, artistic or dramatic performances.

To this end, TASCA gave Broadmead Primary School in Croydon money comprising the Community Grant and further donations from members to buy costumes and props for their recent Year 6 end of year play. The title of this extravaganza was “Shakespeare Rocks” and it provided a rollicking journey through some of Shakespeare’s plays, together with songs and dances.

The school was overwhelmed with our gift and as Sarah Hunter the Head teacher said to us after the performance, the children felt as though they were real actors.

These pictures are from some of the scenes of the play taken on the last night of the play.

Kenley Academy Mosaic

The final completed work was fixed on the wall in June 2018.

The outside of the school was given an uplift.  it was thought that a mosaic would be a good idea  saying "Welcome to our Academy" which the children , their siblings and their parents  could see for years to come.

Each year the society’s members make voluntary donations to a fund to support the arts in local schools.

Each June an email is sent to all the Primary Schools in Croydon inviting bids for a grant to be used to carry out an art project. All the bids are judged for their ability actively to engage pupils, teachers and parents in the project.

During the Summer Term of 2017, the pupils of Geenvale School made a banner.  Most people had a chance to see this banner at our meeting on Thursday 11 January 2018.

Our  next project will start at Harris Academy in Kenley at the end of February 2018.

Greenvale Junior School Art Project

In May 2017 Greenvale Junior school was involved in a project.  The theme chosen for the banners was dogs and flowers.  A dog called Heidi was a weekly visitor to the school.  This meant no child was excluded if they did not have a dog.

The project lasted for three days over a period of three weeks.

The  children from different age groups, Art ability, background and also children with special needs, learnt how to draw dogs in five different ways, their dog character and various flowers.  They used ink pens, pastels, and collage with tissue and organza and felt appliqué.

Wolsey Infant School Art Project

”The Friendship Tree”

The work done by the pupils centred round the story of saving a tree that was scheduled to be pulled down to make way for houses.  Out of this developed activities involving the whole school associated with the environment and friendship.

The centre piece of the work was a large model tree.  Some pupils covered it with different shades of brown paper to resemble the bark of the tree.

The youngest pupils painted their hands, stamped them on a piece of paper and cut out the pattern to make the wings of a dove of friendship.  Two wings  were covered with feathers and stuck on to the body of a dove.  Many doves were constructed and then set to perch on the branches of the tree,

“Friendship apples” were made from polystyrene balls painted in different colours and covered with the flags of different countries.  The apples were hung from the tree.

Small figurines made from Modroc, were painted with different colours  and then attached to the trunk of the tree helping each other to climb the tree.

Enthusiastic parents helped with this activity, coming into the hall one Friday afternoon and having an enjoyable and productive time.

The tree is the centrepiece in the library.  Around the walls is artwork consisting of skyscraper buildings surrounded by trees.  More leaves and figures conceal pipe work.  Pin-up boards show drawings of trees made by blowing liquid paint to make branches and dotted with colours to show autumn leaves.

In the school year 2010/11 over 500 children from three schools were involved in three very different activities:

  • producing dry-point etchings
  • constructing a large mosaic for an external school wall
  • designing and making a felt wall hanging for the Parish Church.

The wall hanging commemorated not only the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, but also the re-designation of the Parish Church as a Minster. The pictures illustrate the children working on the wall hanging.

For all the projects, photographs and films were taken showing the children working. A DVD was produced for each school and for the Society.

These grants to the schools were funded by the voluntary contributions from our members and by a grant from NADFAS. These enabled a specialist artist to be employed in each case to guide the children.

Hayes School Mural

Over 40 years ago a swimming pool was built by parents of The Hayes School, Kenley. In 2011 it was linked to the main building by a covered entrance and additional facilities added. This means that pupils from special schools and community groups as well as those from neighbouring schools can now use the pool.

In January 2012, the school, held a competition for the pupils to design a mural with the theme “Water” to be put on the wall of the new entrance. Over a period of several weeks sixteen talented artists from the school, helped by three students from the Oasis Academy, Coulsdon, completed the mural. The entrance now provides an exciting and stimulating welcome to the pool.

Redgates School

The Society has also been supporting work at Redgates School, Selsdon

Redgates is a small school in Selsdon for children in the Borough of Croydon who are severely impared. An artist helped the pupils to construct a collage. all the children worked in small grroups tocomplete the collage which now hangs on a wall inside the school. As soon as the children enter the school, they are taught a sign language called Makalon. They sent this message using the sign language to thank the Society for its help

COMMUNITY FUND (Arts Volunteering )

August 2025

This year, through your generous donations, we have once again been able to support two local charities with their work in supporting local communities, with a specific focus on the arts.
 
The Manju Shahul Hameed Foundation for Mental Health (MSH Foundation) was founded eight years ago by local councillor Manju Shahul Hameed.  It is a local charity focused on making a positive impact on all lives impacted by mental health illnesses and raising awareness through community initiatives. Through their work, the Foundation stress the importance of mental health and seek to raise awareness through education and collaboration. 
A key aspect of their work is the Dementia Cafes run once a month in three different locations in Croydon – at the Coulsdon Methodist Church, at the Clocktower Café in Croydon and at Croydon University Hospital.  I attended two of the Dementia Café sessions in Coulsdon. They are uplifting events, where older adults can come together to enjoy tea, cakes and an afternoon filled with joy. Each session features engaging workshops (on the day I attended, there was a lively Indian dance workshop taking place), interactive activities and lively performances, creating an inclusive and dynamic atmosphere. Students from John Ruskin College volunteer to support and engage with attendees, supporting various art activities.  This intergenerational approach fosters meaningful connections between young volunteers and older participants, promoting understanding, companionship and community spirit. The cafés provide not only social enjoyment for those affected by dementia but also opportunities for young people to learn, contribute and grow through shared experiences.
Through our donation we have supported a number of dance and art workshops at the cafes.
Details of the three Cafes can be found in the posters below.
If you would like to find out more about the Foundation and its work, please visit
http://msfoundations.co.uk

5 million adults in England and Wales have reading or writing skills below the expected level of the average 11-year-old.     (Skills for Life Survey, 2011)
With this staggering statistic at its heart, Read Easy Croydon was established in November 2022 and is affiliated to Read Easy UK.  Read Easy Croydon is a volunteer led organization, totally dependent on fundraising, donations and grants.  Trained coaches provide individual reading coaching to adults in the London Borough of Croydon, typically meeting twice a week for two thirty-minute sessions.  The coaching process uses the ‘Turning Point’ reading manuals from the charity Shannon Trust, which were originally introduced in 2013 to teach adults to read in prison and therefore have proven outcomes.  Read Easy Croydon is run by a management team with specific roles.
Reading is a basic requirement of everyday life, and for many of us it is a skill we take for granted. However, the impact of not being able to read as an adult can be far reaching, impacting on one’s mental health, confidence and self-esteem; as well as practically when faced with bills, road signs, prescriptions, children’s homework and a plethora of other undecodable text essential for everyday life.  
Read Easy Croydon is at the early stage of development and is currently supporting eight reading pairs, with four readers waiting to start the programme very soon.  Our donation will provide training for four more coaches and the resources to allow four new readers to take part in the programme; hopefully with life changing outcomes.
If you would like to find out more about Read Easy Croydon, volunteer or donate, please contact Anju Elmes at croydonleader@readeasy.org.uk
If you know someone who would benefit from the programme and would like to refer them, please contact Georgie Hay at croydoncoordinator@readeasy.org.uk 

Finally. A big thank you to everyone who has donated to our Arts Volunteering Fund.  I hope the above projects illustrate what a difference our donations can make to our local community.  Our funds are running low and we are keen to support other community projects, so, if you can, please donate at any of our meetings or when you renew your membership.  Thank you.

Maria Keenan – Arts Volunteering

August 2024

Harris Invictus is a recently opened Secondary School in West Croydon, on the site of the old Croydon General Hospital- for those of us old enough to remember it! The school has a very diverse school population and they asked us if we could sponsor a wall mural, designed by the pupils themselves, depicting what their school is like. The final work will be unveiled in September.

As we reported in our last newsletter, we have been delighted to also support the work of the South East Cancer Help Centre based in Purley, near Tesco.  Through your kind and generous donations, we have been able to fund resources for the art and craft classes that are held weekly at the Centre.  
The Centre started in 1983 as a small self-help group, meeting in a member’s home, for people who had been diagnosed as having cancer. Over the years, membership increased as more people became aware of the need and the benefit of emotional support, following the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. When Tesco took over the Purley site for development, they provided excellent purpose-built accommodation within the site. There are now over 300 members attending the Centre regularly.
The Centre provides a wide choice of complementary therapies and counselling, offered to members by professionally qualified therapists. There is a range of groups, catering for different needs, such as support, reflection and relaxation, as well as social gatherings for others.
The Centre is mainly funded by voluntary donations and legacies. Fund-raising and publicity have become a very necessary part of the work of the Centre, so they have greatly appreciated our donation.
Each week, a team of volunteers lead art and craft workshops, encouraging members to develop their artistic skills. Craft items are often sold at the centre and at local fairs, raising additional funds for the Centre; while exhibitions of the group’s artwork have been held at Croydon Library, the Clocktower Cafe and the Fairfield Halls.
In recent weeks, the group have been busy knitting resources for the annual Paint Purley Purple campaign, which runs in September and October of each year, raising awareness and funds for the Centre.  Trees and benches in Purley town centre are covered in purple knitting, with more than 70 trees and benches covered in 2023. Your donations have helped fund resources for this knitting project.
More details about the centre and the services they offer can be found on their website www.sechc.org.uk.                                                                              Maria Keenan

July 2023 

The Arts Society Croydon Area   has been supporting Croydon Health Services NHS Trust with donations towards their Drama and Music Therapy Support Group for children with Epilepsy, a life changing diagnosis with far reaching consequences.
Five families recently attended an Epilepsy Peer Support Group provided by Croydon NHS paediatric arts therapies service.
 The epilepsy consultant and specialist nurse referred children to the group, run by a drama therapist and a music therapist, with an additional different drama therapist joining each week to support. There were six weekly sessions each lasting 90 minutes and held in the evenings after school in therapy rooms in the hospital.
Feedback from the families included the following:
“ It was fabulous. I think the overriding thing would be the level of support from everybody. I  came in with a preconceived idea of ‘ I’m going to be a little bit guarded here’ but it wasn't the case. It was such an open forum, everyone was on the same page. It was safe, it was easy to talk to everyone.” (Parent)
“ For me it was lovely. I loved to see how much our child was getting out of it……it was me and my child doing something together, which was very specific to them because it was their epilepsy and a really special kind of bond. It kind of made us closer to be honest.” (Parent)
“I got to have fun…I met other people…..I went home happier than I was before.”  ( Child Aged 10)

SHAKESPEARE ROCKS!

18th August 2022

The return to normal ‘service’ has at last enabled our society to renew our sponsorship of a local school from our Young Arts fund.

The Arts Society Headquarters has also now agreed that the Community Grant can be given to schools or other institutions, to purchase materials necessary to enhance musical, artistic or dramatic performances.

To this end, TASCA gave Broadmead Primary School in Croydon money comprising the Community Grant and further donations from members to buy costumes and props for their recent Year 6 end of year play. The title of this extravaganza was “Shakespeare Rocks” and it provided a rollicking journey through some of Shakespeare’s plays, together with songs and dances.

The school was overwhelmed with our gift and as Sarah Hunter the Head teacher said to us after the performance, the children felt as though they were real actors.

These pictures are from some of the scenes of the play taken on the last night of the play.

Kenley Academy Mosaic

The final completed work was fixed on the wall in June 2018.

The outside of the school was given an uplift.  it was thought that a mosaic would be a good idea  saying "Welcome to our Academy" which the children , their siblings and their parents  could see for years to come.

Each year the society’s members make voluntary donations to a fund to support the arts in local schools.

Each June an email is sent to all the Primary Schools in Croydon inviting bids for a grant to be used to carry out an art project. All the bids are judged for their ability actively to engage pupils, teachers and parents in the project.

During the Summer Term of 2017, the pupils of Geenvale School made a banner.  Most people had a chance to see this banner at our meeting on Thursday 11 January 2018.

Our  next project will start at Harris Academy in Kenley at the end of February 2018.

Greenvale Junior School Art Project

In May 2017 Greenvale Junior school was involved in a project.  The theme chosen for the banners was dogs and flowers.  A dog called Heidi was a weekly visitor to the school.  This meant no child was excluded if they did not have a dog.

The project lasted for three days over a period of three weeks.

The  children from different age groups, Art ability, background and also children with special needs, learnt how to draw dogs in five different ways, their dog character and various flowers.  They used ink pens, pastels, and collage with tissue and organza and felt appliqué.

Wolsey Infant School Art Project

”The Friendship Tree”

The work done by the pupils centred round the story of saving a tree that was scheduled to be pulled down to make way for houses.  Out of this developed activities involving the whole school associated with the environment and friendship.

The centre piece of the work was a large model tree.  Some pupils covered it with different shades of brown paper to resemble the bark of the tree.

The youngest pupils painted their hands, stamped them on a piece of paper and cut out the pattern to make the wings of a dove of friendship.  Two wings  were covered with feathers and stuck on to the body of a dove.  Many doves were constructed and then set to perch on the branches of the tree,

“Friendship apples” were made from polystyrene balls painted in different colours and covered with the flags of different countries.  The apples were hung from the tree.

Small figurines made from Modroc, were painted with different colours  and then attached to the trunk of the tree helping each other to climb the tree.

Enthusiastic parents helped with this activity, coming into the hall one Friday afternoon and having an enjoyable and productive time.

The tree is the centrepiece in the library.  Around the walls is artwork consisting of skyscraper buildings surrounded by trees.  More leaves and figures conceal pipe work.  Pin-up boards show drawings of trees made by blowing liquid paint to make branches and dotted with colours to show autumn leaves.

In the school year 2010/11 over 500 children from three schools were involved in three very different activities:

  • producing dry-point etchings
  • constructing a large mosaic for an external school wall
  • designing and making a felt wall hanging for the Parish Church.

The wall hanging commemorated not only the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, but also the re-designation of the Parish Church as a Minster. The pictures illustrate the children working on the wall hanging.

For all the projects, photographs and films were taken showing the children working. A DVD was produced for each school and for the Society.

These grants to the schools were funded by the voluntary contributions from our members and by a grant from NADFAS. These enabled a specialist artist to be employed in each case to guide the children.

Hayes School Mural

Over 40 years ago a swimming pool was built by parents of The Hayes School, Kenley. In 2011 it was linked to the main building by a covered entrance and additional facilities added. This means that pupils from special schools and community groups as well as those from neighbouring schools can now use the pool.

In January 2012, the school, held a competition for the pupils to design a mural with the theme “Water” to be put on the wall of the new entrance. Over a period of several weeks sixteen talented artists from the school, helped by three students from the Oasis Academy, Coulsdon, completed the mural. The entrance now provides an exciting and stimulating welcome to the pool.

Redgates School

The Society has also been supporting work at Redgates School, Selsdon

Redgates is a small school in Selsdon for children in the Borough of Croydon who are severely impared. An artist helped the pupils to construct a collage. all the children worked in small grroups tocomplete the collage which now hangs on a wall inside the school. As soon as the children enter the school, they are taught a sign language called Makalon. They sent this message using the sign language to thank the Society for its help