Rainbow Project Referral scheme

The Penlee Cluster launched ‘The Rainbow Project in September 2022 which consists of family workers engaging with and supporting our local community (West Penwith) with the aim of reaching out and helping those in need. We are now happy to announce we have launched our new referral form for local families.

How it works:

Please fill out a referral form and send it back to molly.blewett@penleecluster.org.uk . Please note; You can apply as an organisation on behalf of someone or you can self refer.

Wait for a reply; Once we have received your referral form, we will be in contact to arrange to meet in a private and confidential space in Penzance, or we can arrange a home visit if preferred.

Meeting; During our first meeting, we will go through the referral form and discuss what support is required and how we can help with your support needs.

Support; We can offer weekly / fortnightly or monthly support sessions for up to 6 months. Should you feel you require more support after the 6 months, you are able complete a new referral form.
Our current family worker Molly has over 4 years of experience working with and supporting young families and people in all areas mentioned in the referral form. Please see below the projects she has developed and worked on over the past year.

Holiday clubs for children aged 6 – 11 years in West Penwith; Planning and creating daily holiday club activities and trips out in Cornwall and Devon over half terms and four weeks over the summer holiday. Summer 2023 had 40 children attend daily and children were able to participate in the following activities over the four weeks. All children’s feedback was extremely positive, and they all enjoyed the activities and exploring new places.

Junior leader programme 10 – 17 years. Alongside holiday club for 6-11 year olds, the older children are able to take part in a leadership programme to begin to learn the world of working alongside helping to lead group games / activities with an adult leader.

A free soft play session, activities and food for local school children and their families based at Sea Life Soft Play over the winter months. (St Johns Church, Trewartha Terrace, Penzance TR18 2HE.)

Working with young people offering 121 support sessions to look through progression routes for college, university, supporting to create CV’s, looking for work, applying for volunteer work and work placements. Assisting with booking appointments, support around benefits, council tax, universal credit. Advice around budgeting, managing money, applying for childcare, support around physical and mental health and support with accessing community groups.

Offering weekly support to children who were going into foster care. Running school assembly’s, organising and running afterschool clubs.

A free weekly Saturday morning play session for dads/grandads/male guardians and their children / children in their care, based at Sea Life Soft Play.

Approaching and making a link with Nancealverne School who visit Sea Life Soft Play weekly for private school play sessions. Meeting with their pupil parliament, staff and children for their expert input on creating a safe sensory space in Penzance. Enabling the school to offer fundraising events and parent coffee morning at Sea Life Soft Play to gather funds for their school trips 2024.

Birds on the branch line was a free return train journey from Penzance to St Ives, for low income families and specialist groups alongside local schools. The project was funded by GWR to explore and celebrate the heritage of song birds and their habitat on the St Ives Bay line. We created a magic train ride trip for young children and their families, where they saw if they could spot birds in the marshes, created songs and participated in art and craft activities. Once at St Ives each family was given a trail map, which we created and approached local shops to see if they were willing to place clues in their windows. Lots of shops and businesses participated and we made links with two St Ives churches who kindly offered their space to provide hot drinks and refreshments for the children and families.

The Buddy scheme is an intergenerational programme which consisted of a child buddying up with an older member and meeting weekly for an hour to participate in various activities which they plan together. This project has advantages for both members:

· Children engaging with an older member who may not have grandparents, family that live away or those who just want to be a part of the project.
· For older members who are perhaps suffering from isolation and loneliness, their family has moved away, or again who just want to be a part of the project.

The Rainbow Project future plans

Creating a safe sensory space; We are excited to announce we have secured a space for this project and are currently looking into funding bids.

Creating forest school type play space; Thrilled to reveal we have a location secured for this project and hope to be running sessions in 2024.

Expanding buddy scheme; After the success of running this project in local schools and having wonderful feedback, links are now being made with other organisations; so please look out for updates.

Download a Referral Form

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