AWARD FOR BRINGING GENERATIONS TOGETHER

Nethergate Special School in Clifton, nearby Laura Chambers Lodge residential home for people with dementia and Notts County Football Club, have received a national award for a joint project that brings two generations together. The Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Jeannie Packer, presented all three with the National Association of Care Caterers’ award for Innovation, for the way they are linking different sections of the community to promote healthy living.
The school provides a weekly lunch club for the residents of Laura Chambers Lodge, organises entertainment days and provides transport so that residents can visit libraries and other places and events, including Goose Fair in the company of young people. The 12 pupils, aged from 11 to 14, run the lunch club at their school, escorting the older people across to the school, serving meals and spending time with the residents.
Each week the pupils go across to Laura Chambers Lodge to help establish and tend a vegetable garden of raised beds for the residents to grow vegetables for their kitchen. The luncheon club grew from a healthy eating programme and cookery course with the pupils run by the City Council’s school meals and catering section to encourage awareness of good food, diet and health.
The third partner in the project is Notts County FC where students take part in the club’s Football in the Community programmes that shows them the most effective ways of keeping fit and helps them exercise. The students have put this into practice by taking part in the Robin Hood Fun Run. Notts County also arrange school visits to the club and support sport at the school.
The Lord Mayor said: “This partnership draws the community together so that young people and the elderly can get to know each other. It breaks down barriers between the age groups, fosters a greater understanding between generations and their different needs and is a model for community action.”