St Helier Festival

Over two thousand people joined us for the St Helier Festival that was open to all. Held in the fields opposite St Helier Hospital the festival had lots of free activities for all ages and proved to be an excellent low cost family day out.

The day was hosted in partnership with the Sutton Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations and Sutton Housing Partnership. Support was also given from the London Borough of Sutton and the many partners who joined together to make the day a fantastic success.

Food from around the world was supplied by Take Two Caribbean take away in Carshalton, the Sutton Babylon Association and the Sutton Albanian Association with a BBQ on the top field manned by SHP staff.

Families enjoyed the free circus shows throughout the day and a circus skills workshop gave younger children a chance to learn new talents and have some fun.

Activities enjoyed by teenagers attending included a display from the Elevate bike project, displays on the skateboard ramp. Coaches and young people from the Crystal Palace Football Team's KICKZ project came along to promote the football initiative and engage with local residents.

Over six resident associations got involved by running community stalls with games and prizes for younger children and families. Support was also received from contractors Apollo, Target, 777, KNK, Smith & Byford, who attended and sponsored activities.

The event was an opportunity for Sutton Housing Partnership and residents to discuss issues such as communication and anti diversionary activities in person. There was also a funky 'talk camper van' especially for this purpose. It was an easy and effective way for residents to gain information and guidance from staff and for us to get feedback on our services. Over seventy residents gave their comments this way, this really helped us to understand priorities for tenants ways to improve our services for the future.

Residents also got to know their neighbourhood managers better in an informal face to face environment as all Neighbourhood Managers attended. Neighbourhood Managers completed a survey on forty-seven residents (29 tenants and 18 home owners) on community issues and found that 80% surveyed felt they were part of the community, out of the 20% who didn't some stated this was because they didn't get involved.

Local school children were invited to design a poster for the St Helier Festival held in June this year.  Here are the winning designs from the competition. Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to our winners who saw their designs turned into posters.

Winner Darren Edmead	Runner-up Joe Mallet	Runner-up John Clifford	Runner-up Nathan Norris

The day built a more positive community spirit. It encouraged residents to have fun together and take pride and an interest in the local community. Thank you to the many people who made the day so enjoyable!