It matters to us
because it matters to you
Welcome to Matters2Me CIC.
The company that listens to what really matters to you and brings it all together.
About us
The world has changed in many ways over the last 40 years. Some changes like the internet, has had both positive and negative impacts. Financially, the value of products and services has increased, and wages have not increased proportionately. Many services and benefits show the same.
We looked at what we thought were struggles in our own lives and then took the time and listened to local residents of our area and came to the conclusion that life is a bit harder than it needs to be for most people and came up with some ideas that we thought might help.
We arranged our ideas into categories, allowing us to put our focus in three areas; Environment, Youth services and Happy Living. All with the aim of making life a little bit easier and a little bit cheaper!
By concentrating on these three focuses, we plan to address the key areas that significantly impact the well-being of individuals and the community as a whole.
Focusing on the environment can lead to sustainable practices that not only preserve natural resources but also reduce living costs through energy efficiency and waste reduction as well as teaching the younger generations to appreciate and respect the community around them.
Enhancing youth services ensures that young people have access to essential support and opportunities, fostering a generation that is well-equipped to face future challenges.
Lastly, promoting happy living can improve mental health and community cohesion, creating a supportive atmosphere where everyone can thrive.
By prioritizing these areas, we believe our efforts are likely to contribute to a more sustainable, supportive, and fulfilling community for both present and future generations.
We are just getting started, and are waiting for our community centre to be ready for use, which is not ideal in terms of having a central place to bring people together. For now we are working virtually and using the facilities that we are able in the local area.
We will provide updates and information to keep you informed here, and on our Facebook group as we progress, and look forward to building "The Village" with you, for the benefit of all.
Youth Services
Many youths in our area have very little to do and most of what is available costs more than parents or carers are able to pay.
Kids focus then falls in gaming, often alone in their room, where they are at risk of "befriending" total strangers, or going out and socialising with other children becoming destructive in their boredom.
This can then impact their mental well-being and stunt their growth in understanding how to live in the adult world that they are about to enter.
What we need is activities for them to engage with, that are affordable, safe and fall within their interests.
We need for them to learn how to build relationships that have a positive impact in their lives and learn how to navigate the negative ones.
We need for them to learn how to manage their own well-being, and know where they can turn when they need help.
We need them to understand and have empathy around how their actions can impact others and that it nearly always does.
Parents need to be able to have quality time with their children and the finances to be able to do fun things creating memories that will last. Parents need affordable childcare, to be able to get back to work and not feel like they are balancing on a knifes edge. Parents need someone to talk to when they feel unsure on decisions they make around their children.
It's a big ask, but we think theres an answer.
Happy Living
It occured to us that we are all often so busy focusing on the road ahead that we forget about our own needs to achieve a happy life. Over recent years there has been a social media notion for self care, but are we doing the right things or are we spending our money on products and schemes that are short lived and don't give us what we actually need.
For happy living, we believe that everyone needs a few core ingredients. Each of us, individually, need them at different levels but the key points remain which are connection in our relationships, feeling purposeful in what we do and a positive mindset. It seems simple, so where is it going wrong?
Socialising and connection in our relationships.
For those of you that are able to recall what society looked and felt like before the 90's, doesn't it feel like somethings missing? Do neighbours still offer familial support? Do relationships feel as meaningful? It's a difficult thing to really pin down, but we tried to take off our rose tinted glasses and look back objectively and came to the conclusion that since the internet, and social media, relationships between people have changed, empathy towards our fellow man has depleted and many people just don't care for anything outside of their front door. Now don't get us wrong, the internet and social media has it's benefits, but when it comes to socialising and connection, we have people getting dopamine (a brain chemical that makes you feel good) hits from spinning reels and video's rather than actually having meaningful interactions, which eventually leads to living a life that is highly isolated from the rest of the community.
Feeling Purposeful.
One of the people who inspired this whole project had a saying "If you feel a bit down, do a job you don't want to do". The advice sounds completely ridiculous but for us, as humans experiencing life, it actually makes a lot of sense. You drag yourself out to, let's say cut the grass (a job you have been dreading), and when you have finished, you feel a little bit better! Why? You feel better because finishing a tough job releases dopamine and provides a sense of achievement. This surge replaces the anxiety you felt while avoiding the task. It instantly lifts a weight off your mind. You did a thing! and that made you feel purposeful.
Feeling Purposeful can mean different things to different people. It could be through your work, a hobby or just being a pair of ears, when needed. Helping in anything, gives us purpose.
Positive Mindset.
Achieving a positive mindset will again mean different things to different people. Those that have had mental health issues or feel like they have experienced a lot of disappointment, may find that a positive mindset looks differently to someone who tends to enjoy taking on new challenges.
It is not about ignoring reality, it is about choosing how to respond to it and teaching your brain to notice the good, acknowledging what you have over what you do not and building daily habits that boost mental health can change the direction of your life or at the very least improve your mood and level of happy living.
People need to feel a forward motion, we tend to feel that ideas get stale in todays fast moving lifestyle. Most of us actually lose the ability to stop and enjoy what is in front of us, because whilst we are watching the kids play or watching a film, our brains will often be worrying about paying a bill or thinking about doing the shopping.
Our aim, through this project is to reduce many of the problems that we all focus on daily, and create a space that allows for creating healthier thinking habits, gives us time to appreciate the good in our lives and restore our community to a more hopeful one, who feel heard and inturn want to do good in the areas that they can.
Environment
There is a strong feeling from many residents in our local community that "People just don't care anymore".
Fly tipping is a common occurance, mainly due to todays costs for removing waste.
Common areas are often left looking unkempt due to budget cuts.
Many people no longer have focus on the appearance of the outside of their homes. This can be for many reasons including ill health, both mental and physical, budget and time restraints.
It is often not thought about, that when someone doesn't clear the rubbish fallen from their bin, it can be impactful to someone who lives down the road, who ends up clearing it when doing their own yard regularly.
It's another thing lost in time. Now, we are not suggesting that we need to return to a time when one day a week residents dedicate their time to scrubbing their front step out of fear of the neighbours shame or that we can miraculously make the area look like a new estate but, surely there is a middle ground where people are given ways and incentives to play their part in the improvement of their area, starting with their own home and that looking smart could be the the norm.
In the development of our plans for improving our local environment, we needed to find the core identifiers preventing people from wanting to make our area look at it's best. From our research, it appears that there are many reasons, the main ones being that there is some divide between renting and home owners, residents are not always invested in improving an area. Lack of time, people are often working hard in their different roles and so the exterior of their home does not get prioritised. Space, high costs and mental fatigue are also factors, so we need some understanding of how we are all build differently, all face different challenges, have different levels of imagination, different priorities and all have different budgets and may not want to do anything until you have enough money to achieve it.
We have looked at all of these causes and believe we have found a way to support residents to tackle the environmental issues.
Through all of our research we have not found one resident who doesnt want our area to be better, most are just unsure how to start or don't recognise how doing their small bit would make a difference.
We believe if we All do our small bit we can make a big difference!
