As part of our work with Community Organisers groups of KeyRing Members, staff and volunteers have been taking part in Community Organiser training.
Steven is a Member in Sheffield. He took part in two days of training in London and told us all about it.
Our journey to London
We went to London from Sheffield station. Our support made sure that we were on the right train.
Frank Steeples met us in London and took us to the Imperial Hotel and we were shown where to go for our training.
Training
People came from all around the country: Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham and Sheffield.
We all introduced ourselves to the group.
We talked about why we are here and how to do Community Organising training with other Members.
We want to bring people together and work with other forums.
We talked about communities and were given lots of pictures to talk about in groups.
We had to choose a picture and explain why we liked that particular one.
A lady in our group chose a cat picture because she said she loves cats.
A gentleman chose a dog picture because his own dog had passed away, this made him feel sad.
The group chose 1 picture to stand with, we weren't allowed to touch, but had to memorise it.
Experiment
We were given: 2 eggs, a carrier bag, a balloon, masking tape and string. We had to try and find a way to protect the eggs from breaking. Everyone took turns in wrapping eggs in masking tape and string. Then put wrapped eggs in plastic bags. Blow up balloon. Tie balloon to bag. Let bag go... it drops gently to the ground and tutors check the eggs. 1 was cracked the other was not... Conclusion: how to protect others.
After training we all went for a meal and enjoyed a social evening. Frank bought us all a drink at the end of the evening.
Day 2. More training then the...
Journey home
2 Support workers from Newcastle caught the train with us to Doncaster, where we had to get off to catch the train back to Sheffield.
Faith was struggling with her bag and a kind gentleman named Mark came to help her & asked where we were going. It was teaming with rain and some places were getting flooded, so Mark said that he would sit with us for the journey home. When we were nearly at Meadowhall, the train stopped and all the lights went out! Mark said not to worry, he would find out what was happening and get back to us.
A message came over the speaker that there was a power cut and the train line to Meadowhall was flooded! We sat for about 30mins and the train went back to Doncaster. Mark stayed with us.
Back in Doncaster we were ushered to a waiting room and Mark spoke to train staff. We waited another 2hrs and was told there is a coach waiting to take everyone to Sheffield. Mark was not happy with that. He asked for a taxi to ensure we all got home safely to our doorsteps.
A taxi arrived for us. There were lots of taxis for other people as well. There were floods everywhere and lots of people were stranded, but Mark stayed with us all the way home to make sure we were safe.
The taxi took us all to our doorsteps. Mark lives in Barnsley, but he stayed with us all, until we were home safe and sound...
WHAT A HERO!!!