Maidenhead Community Empowerment

Rainbow Benches

Sensory garden at Allenby Respite Centre run by Community Lives Optalis, benches painted during garden project throughout pandemic.

A textile as a mask showing the feelings of my co -workers

Investigate whether the iconic ancient Head of Nefertiti is a fraud or not

Quilt called pandemic

Patchwork quilt mostly hand sown. Pieces cut out and put together during the lockdowns and finished in the 2 years. The idea had been started several years before but the pandemic enabled me to finish it.

'Missing Pieces'

Artwork inspired by so many jigsaws completed over pandemic.

Yong Professionals / New Residents Forum to intergrate into local area & community

In the meeting it was discussed how the demographics of Maidenhead will be changing over the next 5-10 years. The population is set to become older overall. However, the population will still have young people moving into the town who are moving out of London and neighbouring counties. Therefore, would a forum for young professionals / new residents to have their say be of benefit? We already have a youth council but this only for people aged roughly around 13-19 and excludes the potential 20-30 year olds.

Oral History Project

During the meeting last week, an oral history project was discussed. Many families have stories about how they came to Maidenhead and events they have witnessed in the past. An oral history project would collate all these stories which could tie into the heritage projects that are already underway in Maidenhead

Heritage Trail

From the last meeting the idea of a heritage trail came up. It would be a great way of involving the community to learn more about Maidenhead.

Virtual Volunteering

The pandemic has meant that much of what we do has had to be done on line. This has created opportunities for people who had perhaps been excluded from volunteering in the past, because they were not able physically to get to an office or other location. It would be good to build on this, even if many things return to being face to face. I think that virtual volunteering could draw on the skills of people who have been marginalised because of disability or illness. It may also appeal to younger people, who in my experience are more confident with computers than those of us who are a bit older!

Creative Arts Exhibition Marking COVID 19 Experience

My friend Eunice is a local artist and sculptor. She feels that many creative people will have been marking the experience of the pandemic with works of art, and there could be an exhibition of these. I think this is a very good idea. There has really been nothing since World War Two that has affected the whole community in the way that COVID has. I wondered if it could be widened to include other forms of expression. These could include writing, photographs, music, video or even recipes for example. Those of us who are not good at art would still feel they could take part! People of all ages and in many different situations have lived through this pandemic, and could all contribute even a few words. It could feel like a shared community project, and create a vivid picture for the future of how Maidenhead and its residents experienced COVID 19.