Pub Quiz
Annual General Meeting
Onside - a quality organisation
"One of the best things we have ever done"
English Heritage/Whitley Court Project
Accreditation for Volunteer Induction Training Course
Welcome to Jim
Volunteer Perspective
Race for Life
Pub Quiz
Onside held its very first pub quiz on Thursday 4th May 2006 at: Blackpole Inn, Blackpole Road, Worcester.
11 teams took part in what proved to be a very enjoyable evening and was won by "Ladies plus One" (pictured below right) who not only took home the title, but also a bottle of wine each donated by the Chair, Tescos and Threshers. "Brainless Babes from BRAG" also took part and are seen right with their Onside mugs!
Half way through the quiz a raffle was held with some fantastic prizes such as vouchers for free meals, massages, beauty facials, manicures, cinema tickets and other gifts such as a handbag, teapot, photo frames all donated from local businesses in the Worcester City area. Onside managed to raise a substantial sum from the evening which will go towards supporting the Learning Disability Advocacy Project. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who supported the event. A lot of interest has been expressed in a future event - so watch this space!
Annual General Meeting
on Tuesday 26th September 2006 between 11.30am and 2.00pm
at Perdiswell Young Peoples' Leisure Centre, Droitwich Road, Worcester
This year the speakers will be some of Onside's staff members, volunteers and users who will be reporting on developments within the organisation:
the growth of the Carers Advocacy Project; the launch of the LifeLinks website whose aim is to connect people with learning disabilities and an overview of our volunteers and their perspective of working with Onside
We hope very much that you will be able to attend the meeting and join us for refreshments afterwards
Onside - a quality organisation
Onside was pleased to receive approval from a Community First mentor acknowledging that we have reached level one in the self-assessment quality tool, PQASSO and are well on our way to achieving level two. Thanks goes to Rachel Russell for her continued hard-work and efforts in championing the implementation of PQASSO.
"One of the best things we have ever done"
by Joe Fern
Simon Collett, Project User, and Joe Fern, Volunteer Enabler, were set up in an enabling partnership by LifeLinks for Simon to pursue his interest in taking up some voluntary work. They are currently volunteering with Worcestershire Wildlife Trust (WWT):
"Our first involvement was working at a Trust site close to the West Midlands Safari Park near Bewdley clearing bracken and scrub from an area designated an important heath land. We have also worked on a marsh site close to Feckenham digging holes for fence posts. This sounds simple enough but not when you take into account the fact that the holes were filling up with smelly marsh water quicker than the volunteers could dig! The fencing was needed to control long-horned cattle grazing the land.
Both Simon and I feel that the main benefits of volunteering have been: the friendships made with other volunteers; learning more about the countryside and, in particular, the critical importance of the WWT sites in providing habitats for what are sometimes endangered species; and developing skills in conservation work.
We are continuing our support of the WWT and would encourage anyone interested in voluntary work, the countryside and having a good time to contact the Trust at Lower Smite Farm."
English Heritage/Witley Court Project
Recently English Heritage invited Lifelinks to take part in an Art Project based at Witley Court - now a spectacular ruin but formerly one of the finest stately homes in the country. It begins in August and we will be meeting on four occasions over that month. The aim of the project is to create a sculpture or piece of artwork which will go on display at the Open Day on September 9th. Entry is free for all!
Due to funding only a small number of project users are involved in the project, including several adults with learning disabilities from Wyre Forest, however we are hoping more funding will be secured to extend the project for a whole year. Then the focus would be environmental e.g. building bat boxes, creating habitat piles and creating willow sculptures.
English Heritage stipulated that all participants were under the age of 25 years. A few Lifelinks volunteers will be offering their support too. It promises to be a very enjoyable and exciting few weeks!
Accreditation for Volunteer Induction Training Course
We are delighted to report that we have recently been approved as a National Open College Network Centre. This means that we are now able to offer our volunteers the opportunity to work towards an OCN Unit Qualification. The units currently available are:
" Advocacy Training at Level 2 which will be achievable on completion of the Volunteer Induction Training course
" Advocacy Good Practice at Level 3, which can be gained through shadowing and working as a volunteer advocate
There will be no test or exam to sit - volunteers can choose to submit a folder of evidence to show that they have met the criteria.
Our volunteers do a fantastic job for us, often giving up a considerable amount of their own time and we hope that this will give added value to those who feel that an additional qualification will be of benefit. It could be particularly useful for those who are looking for employment in this field or similar areas of work. Eight new volunteers are currently attending the latest Induction Training course and most of them intend to go for accreditation. However it will only be offered as an option, and will certainly not become a requirement for volunteers.
We also hope that some of our experienced volunteers will be interested - and if you would like to find out more please do contact me to discuss the process and to find out what is involved. I anticipate that it should be reasonably straightforward and not too time consuming to put together a folder of evidence with my support.
It will be great to put forward a number of our volunteers for OCN accreditation as it will be another milestone for Onside!
We plan to run the next training course in October, so if you know of anyone who would be interested in joining us as a volunteer, please contact Jackie Murrall, Volunteer Coordinator on 01905 27525 or e mail her on info@onside-advocacy.org.uk. As you know, we always need more volunteers!
Welcome to Jim
Hi, my name is Jim and I recently joined Onside as a Project Development Worker on the LifeLinks team. I will be working on a new project that expands LifeLinks to include support for people with mild mental ill health and those who have a dual diagnosis of a mild learning disability with a mental health issue.
I first became involved with Onside a couple of years ago when I developed the Organisation's website. I've also been working on an online message board for LifeLinks - a space to organise social events and for people to chat and share their artwork or photography. Apart from various internet pastimes, I like nothing more than to create abstract mixed media art - which is 'mixed' in the truest sense as I like to combine anything I can get my hands on at the time! I am also father to two beautiful daughters, Genie Lyra and Maia - they have allowed me to indulge my innate romanticism by naming them after stars.
Volunteer Perspective
I took part in the Onside training program over Christmas and then I've shadowed some of Onside's paid advocates and development workers before taking up my own partnerships.
Some of the situations I was briefly involved in whilst shadowing covered a range of issues:
" An elderly couple who were experiencing a noise nuisance problem from their neighbour's grown up children
" An elderly lady who lived alone in a privately rented house which is in quite a poor state of repair
" An elderly man who had severe debt problems because he'd taken out quite a large mortgage and had spent the money and wasn't able to pay it back
" A young partially sighted man dealing with some debt problems
I became involved in providing some advocacy support to some of the people I was introduced to whilst shadowing. I provided support to write letters and assisted a partner keep on track with their debt repayment plan. Following this I have taken on several partnerships where I was able to give more input.
So that's the story so far. I have to say that some of the situations the people I've met have found themselves in are rather challenging, but there's a real sense of satisfaction in helping them resolve things. Apart from anything else I think they appreciate having someone who is non-judgemental to talk to about their problems.
Race for Life
Rachel Russell joined 750 000 women this year to raise money for
Cancer Research UK. Rachel ran the 5km Race for Life at Worcester Race Course and in Worcester City Centre on Sunday 11th June 2006. She managed to raise £150.00. She would like to express her sincere thanks to all those who sponsored her.
www.raceforlife.org
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