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(click here
to go to main news page) Hilt decided to pursue this award in order to gain official recognition of the quality of its extensive staff training programme and to gain advice on how we can improve it in the future. Another aim was to be able to attract the best staff to work for Hilt, as recruitment to some posts if often difficult.
The assessor’s report, however, has given Hilt some very useful ideas for future staff development, such as improving communication with staff, clarifying the roles of different staff, and encouraging all managers across the organisation to take more responsibility for the development and training of staff. Hilt is determined to continue improving its staff development and to renew the award when it expires in 2007. HILT GETS LICKED HILT had a stall at the Learning Disability Today Event on November 24th. This is a large annual event that takes place at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Many other organisations had stalls there too. The Wild Bunch offered musical entertainment and there was food and drink available. HILT staff were there to promote Hilt as an organisation and to talk to other people about the kind of service we provide. A number of staff took turns at sitting in the stall and chatting to people who were interested in finding out more about HILT.
A number of HILT service users and staff came along to show their support. The HILT stall looked very striking. It had a yellow and red design to ensure that HILT would stand out from the crowd. Lots of people showed interest in joining HILT as volunteers or applying for staff jobs…………and the lollies went down particularly well. Thanks to Aminur, Kathy and Sarah for helping to drive all the stuff needed for the stall to and from the venue.  FROM
VOLUNTEER TO MANAGER
Congratulations to Lauren Davies who recently became Deputy Manager at one of HILT’s new projects in Islington. Lauren joined HILT as a volunteer in 2003, and later applied to join the staff team as a Support Worker. She was successful in her application and joined a dedicated and highly skilled staff team who were involved in setting up a new HILT project at Tollington Way. Lauren previously studied Art History in Brighton. When she came to HILT she was new to London and new to support work. We’re sure that everyone will be pleased for her and wish her lots of luck in her new role. OUTWARD BOUND HILT has recently agreed to recruit volunteers for another charity called Outward Housing. Outward is a similar organisation to HILT. They work in Walthamstow, and also provide support to adults with learning difficulties who want to live independent lives.
Israel talked about what it’s like to get support from a volunteer, Richard talked about recruiting and supporting volunteers, and Ji Min was able to give a first hand account of what it’s like to be a volunteer in HILT’s Outreach Service. Two volunteers will start at Outward in December, and another three will join the organisation in January. Volunteers from Outward will be joining in volunteer meetings at HILT. We hope there will be a long and successful partnership between the two organisations and hope that their volunteers, staff and service users all benefit from the experience.
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The
route to obtaining the award was extremely straightforward for
Hilt. We chose to go for the full assessment immediately and this
involved staff questionnaires and interviews, conducted by an
independent assessor from Capital Quality Limited. The assessor
also examined our organisation policies and procedures, annual
reports, accounts and organisation charts. At the end of the assessment
process the assessor wrote a report which recommended we should
be given the award without any further organisational changes
and development.
We
had goodies to give away including copies of HILT’s Annual
Report (which is also a 2005 calendar) and free lollies with the
HILT logo on them. There was a competition to rename HILT and
a computer where people could look at the HILT web site.
Outward
staff and managers have had a number of meetings with HILT, and
in December, HILT’s Volunteer Co-ordinator, Richard Brattan,
Service User, Israel Forest and Outreach Volunteer, Ji Min Shin
all went along to Outward’s offices for a meeting with some
of their managers.