Salford LIDS

People all over the North West of England are finding that they have empty church buildings in their back yards. No longer needed for worship, some have been turned into new housing, offices, or workspaces. Here in Ordsall, at the opposite end of the street to Salford Lads Club, is the amazing and magnificent St Ignatius, a copy of a church in Italy. It's been empty since 2004.

Now, LIDS is working alongside people in Ordsall who want to see some change on Huddart Close. We are providing local residents with the means to think about how such a project could mean new training and work opportunities, especially for young people, and we will be concentrating on ideas that could lead to sustainable industries, such as the media, but also the growing trade in tourism around Salford Quays, maybe by providing services like rickshaws and water taxis, (including commentaries with history and heritage of the area explained). The St Igs building has large cellars and they could be used for more practical work in the field of sustainability and low energy, such as building composting toilets for local parks. Any such work needs to be accredited, of course, and Ordsall has a strong track record of working with Salford City College, and has been told by the Vice-Chancellor of Salford University that they might be able to help by hiring rooms for events and training.There are also plans to ensure that 'St Igs' is linked in with all the exciting new developments at Salford Quays such as the BBC's new base at Media City and the new Salford University Media Centre.

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 Community Action IN Salford

Salford LIDS is proud to be associated with 'The Jam', a weekly radio programme that features the voices of Salford residents, mostly reminiscing about life in old Salford, or talking family memories, jobs and fun. There's also input from the Creative Writing group that LIDS runs at Ordsall Community Cafe on a Wednesday at 3pm. There's often poems and stories from members of the group, sometimes radio plays and even songs, composed by attendees. In between we have chat, news and discussion from regulars Jane and Mike, assisted by other members of LIDS such as Christian, Amber and Ross.

You can tune in on 94.4fm at 10am on a Tuesday morning, or log on live at http://www.SalfordCityRadio.org and press the button for 'The Jam'. This will also take you to a page that gives you details of the show, and a weekly Blog that keeps you up to date with the programme contents. 

Members of LIDS were working in Ordsall Community Cafe from January to April this year, 2010, with the Creative Writing group.

This was work paid for by Salford University's "New Mornings" project. As it started winding down in March, it became clear that lots of work had been produced, - poems, stories, radio plays, and songs - and ways were explored to see if everything couldn't be saved in some way, and commemorated  Mike Scantlebury came up with the answer: thinking about the way he had been writing novels over the years, and publishing them on the internet with Lulu.com, he offered to collate the contributions and organise a layout artist to put together an illustrated paperback book. Emily Spruce was duly recruited and the University agreed to pay for the production costs. It's taken a good few months, given a few setbacks - including Emily moving to Australia - but the book is finally here.

Salford has had its own Film Festival for 6 years now - but no Festival is complete without its opposite! Manchester Festival has the 'Not The' Festival, and Edinburgh has its 'Fringe'. Why shouldn't Salford enjoy the benefits of the same?

Salford LIDS is kicking off this year's Salford Fringe Film Festival with a night of short, locally-made drama films at Salford Lads Club. The evening will begin at 7pm and the date is Friday, 29th October. Entry is free but booking is advised, (just to make sure you get a ticket for the Thai Buffet.) The festivities will be opened by His Worship, the Mayor of Salford, Cllr George Wilson, who is hoping the night's programme will include the film he starred in - it's called 'Energy', and we can honestly say, it's the first time the Mayor of Salford met an Alien.

LIDS members are working towards recruiting members for a new project - The Energy Alliance for Ordsall (EAFO).

Why Ordsall? Because members of the New Barracks Tenant Management Co-op have recently undergone an amazing Eco Refit of their houses - double glazing on new doors and windows; internal insulation on outward facing walls; and a Heat Recovery System, saving all that steam and hot air in the kitchen and bathroom and using it to heat living rooms and bedrooms. It's a first for Salford, and people are already coming from miles around to see the improvements. What next for the tenants? Well, maybe the chance to generate their own electricity, through photovoltaic panels on their roofs or nearby public buildings. To do that, they need the support of the institutions, so LIDS has alread met with Salford University; Salix Homes, the local social landlord; Salford City Council's Climate Change department; local architects; and representatives of the private sector providers

On September 4th, LIDS hosted an event where the Lord Mayor officially launched the Energy Alliance, actually in Ordsall.

LIDS member Amber Sanchez has an interest in boats and boating, and was therefore the ideal person to look into the feasibility of acquiring a floating museum for Salford Quays. The need is wide - for a ship that could accommodate exhibitions, concerts, social events and perhaps even workshop space for artists. LIDS has an example in mind - some years ago the theatre group 'Walk the Plank' brought their ship to the Quays, and moored up while they were preparing a show for the Commonwealth Games. Something like that would be ideal for the new venture, and Amber has searched the docks and slipways of Britain to see what is available.

We hope her proposals can be presented to the Community Committee later in the year. Meanwhile they can be found here.

LATEST NEWS: the proposal will be presented to the Langworthy and Ordsall Community Committee on 2nd November 2010, 7pm, Ordsall Everyone Centre.

New Videos

Thanks to the following funders, Salford LIDS has been able to start making short videos, both drama and documentary.

We are hoping that these short films will all be available on the internet, either on the LIDS website or Vimeo.com and will be offered to Salford Film Festival for showing next November.

Thanks to funders:

John Grant Davies Trust

Ordsall and Langworthy Community Committee

The Co-op Members Fund

 Other News:   SALFORD LIDS 'MEMORY FACTORY'

SALFORD LIDS HAS BEEN WORKING TOGETHER WITH THE BBC, SALFORD UNIVERSITY, AND ORDSALL CAFE, TO PRODUCE MEMORY PACKAGES.

THE BBC WERE DELIVERING 'CREATIVE WRITING' SESSIONS LAST YEAR IN ORDSALL. LIDS CONTINUED THESE IN EARLY 2010 AT THE ORDSALL COMMUNITY CAFE, TUESDAY afternoons, 1p.m to 3p.m.

As we have an actor and playwright Ross in our group, he has offered, with the help of a few friends, to act out the plays so they can be broadcast on the Salford LIDS radio programme, 'The Jam', 6-7pm Sundays on www.salfordcityradio.org, (some shows now saved on Mixcloud.com, filed under 'Mike', with the name of the show as 'The Jam').  -  See our 'Online Radio' page for more links, click button at top of this page.  -

Other plans include recording stories from older people and making C.Ds and covers into memory presentation packs, and we hope to visit local sheltered housing and nursing homes to act out the plays and gather more materials.

CREATIVE WRITING

Who knew where it would lead?

'Creative Writing' workshops at Ordsall Community Cafe started in January 2010 and began by carrying on the path started by the BBC, which mainly involved writing radio plays, (and some poetry). But soon, with the help of local folksingers Jane and Mike, and Salford character Albert Thompson, moved in song writing. The group wrote songs and then performed them, first at Refugee Week at St Philip's Church on Chapel Street, then at Ordsall Festival.

These sessions were funded by Salford University's 'New Mornings' project, but this came to an end in April 2010. Not without a bang! The University ran a competion at the end of their time, and six members of the Ordsall group scooped prizes, including recording machines and portable video cameras. Amber's contribution won Second Prize and is featured on the Video page, (above). Here you will also find Jane's contribution to the competition, a song about her local church.

Finally, 'New Mornings' paid LIDS to consolidate the work done in Creative Writing and put it out in the form of a book. This will be released in September 2010.

Salford LIDS has spent the last couple of years doing what we do best - going out and talking to people.

However, some of these conversations are so interesting that we have asked permission to record, archive and put them up on the internet.

Ordinary people have been telling us what life was like for them in the past, and what they have learned from their experiences. These recordings have been put into the form of podcasts, or broadcast as short extracts on Salford City Radio. In the next few months, we will be establishing an On-line Radio site, which will bring these snippets together.

We have found it's a great way of linking people up. Some of the people who have been to Salford exhibitions in the last year, like 'Re-tracing Salford' at the Langworthy Cornerstone and the URC church on Chapel Street, are now firm friends. Some, turning up to look at the pictures and maps, have met people they haven't seen for years, old friends and neighbours that they have lost touch with. It's a great outcome to a fascinating study.

As we have always known -

Experience of community development action shows that 'ordinary people can do extraordinary things'.

But people need information, and time to develop the skills and confidence that will make things happen.

Salford LIDS has been around since 1999, and is used to the idea that we can provide the up-the-date information, links and access to tools that can enable you to take more control of your life.

We have always made the time to sit down with people and see what they need.

Our approach is all about making the most of life.

It can be fun and - most of the time - it's free!

The Contact Us page gives you a link, if you want to keep in touch.