Welcome to Well Doncaster Blog! I’m Nick Germain, I’ve been Well Docnaster’s Project Manger for about a year. I have been working in Public Heath for seven years with roles including commissioning, health improvement and public health intelligence. I am passionate about improving health and the importance of prevention, and the critical role this will play for future public servicers. Outside work I enjoy running and keeping active, while also juggling the demands of a young family.

Well Doncaster has been up and running for 18 months now and work in Denaby Main (just Denaby to locals) has focus and clear goals that are both challenging and achievable.

We have developed ambitious plans with local people to drive the work in Denaby.  The vision for Denaby Main is twofold: to make ‘Every Day a Good Day in Denaby’ where residents feel supported by their community in a safe and clean environment, and also ‘Destination Denaby’, whereby Denaby is a place where people want to live, work and visit.

To achieve this we have 6 workstreams that focus the work and help us turn our ambitions into reality.

• Making it happen on the Crags – exploiting our physical assets
• Denaby-dosh – creating an enterprise culture
• Denaby assets – building on what we have
• Den-ergy – celebrating arts, culture and local talents
• Dena-bloom – improving green space and the environment
• Dena-do – creating and supporting local leaders

Future posts will focus on these work streams as they move forward. We have lots of plans in the pipeline that we are excited to share with you, including the development of arts and culture, encouraging and supporting enterprise, developing a strategy to utilise the Crags and a local evaluation which will capture real impacts.

However if these plans are to lift off the page and become real then it is essential that we work with local people and allow them to lead the way.  There are fantastic people living and working in the area who are passionate to see Denaby thrive, and these people will be the biggest factor in success. It is always good to drop an inspirational quote into a blog so here goes – as Mahatma Ghandi said “be the change that you wish to see in the world”.  This is such a fitting description for the people we are working with, and would hopefully inspire others to get involved where they want to make a difference for the friends, family and neighbours.

An early impact within Well Doncaster has been the introduction of the Denaby Bumping Space, facilitated by People Focused Group, a local organisation providing peer support. Social isolation in a major issue in today’s society and this is especially true in Denaby Main; the Bumping Space offers a weekly place where people can meet and socialise but also where they can share their skills and experiences with each other, helping to make everyday a good day in Denaby!

To catch up with the work we have done so far take a look at our Activity Reports. In there you will find more detail about Denaby Bumping Space and other elements of work that has been taking place in Denaby.

Well Doncaster March 16 Activity Report

Well Doncaster Aug 16 Activity Report

We welcome your comments and questions so get in touch.

Nick.