Anyone looking for a FREE activity to do with under 11yrs over the Easter weekend, why not join us in Easton Gardens on Saturday, 30th March, at 2pm for our big Easter Hunt? Find the coloured tokens and exchange them for some of the incredible goodies our fabulous Community Crafters have been creating over the last couple of months.

NB: We’ll also be launching our ‘Summer of Fun’ Raffle to raise funds for a programme of other free events for local children and young people, so bring along your pennies if you fancy having a go 😉

At The Bridge Inn, Preston today with some of our fabulous older clients.

ICA minibus driver David said, “What a wonderful day out with my friends from the ICA lunch club. First time at the Bridge Inn, Preston. Every thing was spot on, from the time we got to the venue. A huge big thank you from all of us. Would highly recommend.”

Really proud of what ICA achieves week after week, with a team of just four part time staff and an army of amazing volunteers.

The island’s ageing population and increasing levels of deprivation, health inequalities and poor social mobility, means we’re up against it 365 days a year, like so many other Portland based community organisations.

It’s one of the reasons that supporting local is so critical. Invest in local and the money stays right here on the island.

Massive thanks to all of of you – our clients, volunteers, Board of Trustees, partners and funders for supporting our work during the last funded year.

We really couldn’t achieve what we do without you and can’t wait to continue our journey together over the coming year.

The National Lottery Community Fund

Portland Town Council

Dorset Community Foundation

Active Dorset

Hall and Woodhouse

Great Portland Youth Council session with a workshop from UK Parliament. We had some very interesting discussions about our democracy!

Over the last four weeks, 12 budding young entrepreneurs have been learning how to create a pop-up business, from developing a basic business plan through logo design, pricing and promoting to product creation.

They then got to sell their creations, either brownies or jewellery, at our first Maker’s Market on Saturday 24th February for young people on Portland.

In total, their combined net profit was £348. Well done to all of them, for not only coming up with some fantastic ideas but also getting everything made and sold.

Big thank you to tutors Becky Simmons, Charlie Pascoe and Joy Sangster, and volunteers Mary Mills and Paula Bolt who helped to deliver the four sessions:
Session 1 – Business Planning
Session 2 – Brand, logo and marketing
Session 3 – Product creation
Session 4 – Maker’s market event

We’re planning to repeat the course, so keep your eyes peeled.

The Maker’s Market forms part of ICA’s The Portland Project, in particular the Children, Families and Youth workstream. This work stream is supported and part funded by Portland Youth Council. Additional part-funding comes from the #iwill initiative (via Dorset Community Foundation) and National Lottery Community Fund.

#iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £66 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. Dorset Community Foundation is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.

With the new improvement project for the High Angle Battery now well into its planning stage and with the first stage improvements just about to start, Dorset Council are working with Dorset Coast Forum and Portland Library and ICA to run a community-based engagement event in March. Here we will be listening to and collecting any memories, photos or stories you may have related to the Battery.

Please see details below. If you can’t make the event you can upload your content directly onto the Dorset Coast Forum website or pop into ICA, where can help you to do this.

Thanks to everyone who supported Portland Youth Council today at The Island and Royal Manor of Portland Rotary Club‘s Table Top Sale.

The team did really well to raise £91.20 on their stall, which was combined with a generous donation of £115 from The Rotary to make a grand total of £206.20!

All the money raised will be going towards the Youth Council’s ambition to bring more affordable activities for young people on to Portland.

Not a bad morning’s work!

Huge thanks to Pat Salmon and the team at The Kimberlin Club and Westcliff Community Centre for hosting a fabulous evening of Mr & Mrs, with a raffle to help raise much needed funds for our older people’s projects.

Thanks also to the three wonderful couples for being such good sports entertaining us all. Congratulations to winners Barry and Annette Sellen, who demonstrated their superior knowledge of each other after 51years together!

Amazing work done by Lillian and Connie from the Portland Youth Council tonight. They’ve created a stunning window display in the b-side Outpost, Fortuneswell.

The design agreed by the Youth Council includes quotes they’ve collected from members of the community sharing what they love about living on Portland.