2-MINUTE READ

March 2025

Strengthening Community Wellbeing Together

We’re pleased to share our latest progress as part of our ongoing work to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Donnington. Thanks to the dedication of local partners, residents, and stakeholders, this place-focused initiative is gaining momentum!

Driving Change Through Collaboration

The objective of this work is to create long-term improvements to people’s health and reducing inequalities across the community.

Since launching this work, we've seen an incredible response from local groups, services, and individuals keen to get involved, with 94 people from 49 organisations — spanning voluntary, public, and private sectors — now involved in this work. By combining insights, expertise, and ideas from our stakeholders, we're building stronger connections and beginning to influence meaningful changes for Donnington residents.

Working Together for a Healthier Donnington

In October 2024, we launched a Stakeholder Working Group, bringing together local organisations and community voices to help steer this work. Since then, we’ve held two face-to-face meetings and an online catch-up session to keep conversations going.

• Our first event on 10th October at Donnington Community Hub welcomed over 20 people from 16 organisations. This meeting introduced the work and highlighted Donnington’s unique characteristics and opportunities, setting the stage for collaborative action. Read more about this in our November 2024 update here.

• Our second event on 17th December at Silver Threads Hall saw 15 people come together from 13 organisations to build on those early conversations, discuss plans for 2025, and continue to share ideas for improving health and wellbeing in Donnington.

Bringing the Community Together

As part of our work, we partnered with Silver Threads Hall to co-design a Community Health & Wellbeing Event on 29th October 2024. This event brought together local voluntary groups and services to connect directly with residents.

With around 100 attendees, the event created a fantastic opportunity to:
✅ Hear directly from local people about what matters most to them
✅ Share helpful resources and advice
✅ Spark new partnerships and ideas to improve wellbeing

As a result of the positive feedback received from this event, we have planned another, with our next Community Health & Wellbeing Event taking place on Saturday 12th April at Turreff Hall, Donnington. This event promises to be even bigger and better than the first, please come and join us, we can’t wait to see you there!

How You Can Get Involved

If you live or work in Donnington and want to be part of this movement to improve wellbeing and reduce inactivity, we’d love to hear from you! Your insights will help inform our work.

• Residents: Come along to the Community Open Day on Saturday 12th April. Please complete our Adults Survey or Children & Young People’s Survey.  And you can sign up to receive updates via email.

• Stakeholders: Please share these surveys within your networks and sign up to join our stakeholder group via our webform.

Strengthening Partnerships Across Donnington

Our partnerships have been key to driving this work forward, and we’re proud to be collaborating with a wide range of local services:

• Telford & Wrekin Council – We’re part of regular multi-disciplinary team meetings with Telford and Wrekin Council which solely focus on Donnington, with representation from teams including Safer Stronger Communities, Community Support, Public Health, and Family Connect, ensuring shared learning and better connected working to support Donnington residents.

• Healthcare Partners – Strong links have been developed with Donnington Medical Practice, its Patient Participation Group, and Newport & Central PCN. We’re now engaged in regular meetings as part of the Newport and Central Primary Care Network Steering Group as well as continuing engagement with Donnington Medical Practice, including having recently attended a successful drop-in day at the medical practice, all to ensure access to healthcare services for Donnington residents is prioritised.

• Education Providers – We’ve been working with local schools including Donnington Wood Junior School, St Matthews Primary School, Donnington Wood Infants School and New Road Academy to offer training qualifications, look at diversifying the health and wellbeing offer and to better connect children and young people with local activities, initiatives, and services. As part of this work, we’re hosting 2 School Games events which include a range of health and wellbeing focused ‘taster sessions’ and ‘try it activities’ in April for both St Matthews Primary School and Donnington Wood Junior School, supported by young leaders from New Road Academy.

• Mental Health – As a result of the feedback gained from residents, we have actively pursued a partnership working closely with Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) Talking Therapies as well as a range of other local health and voluntary community sector partners to pilot a new piece of work supporting older adults’ mental health, with the objective to reduce barriers to accessing services, ensuring people are able to receive the support they need in a way which is accessible and suitable for them. We hope to expand this initial work to cover a broader age range following the pilot.

Exciting Plans Ahead

Our work continues to gather pace, and there’s plenty to look forward to:

✅ Community Health & Wellbeing Event – Saturday 12th April, 11am until 2pm at Turreff Hall
✅ School Engagement Events – With Donnington Wood Junior School and St. Matthew’s Primary School in April
✅ Older Adult Mental Health Pilot – Supporting older residents with their mental health and wellbeing
✅ Ongoing Stakeholder Engagement - Continuing to work with partners to improve health and wellbeing across Donnington through a place-based approach

✅ Continued Residents Engagement – With the continuation of the community engagement surveys and a residents working group soon to be established.