| (click here
to go to main news page) HEART-WARMING HOUSE-WARMING
Despite gridlocked traffic in the area due to various accidents that evening, everyone who Sheila had wanted to come, were able to turn up. Sheila enjoyed playing music, dancing with members of her family as well as other friends, and members of staff. There was lots of wonderful food and drinks for everyone due to the efforts of Sheila and staff who had worked with her during the week. All of the hard work by Faith, Bukola and Tracy during the evening itself ensured that Sheila, and everybody else had a very enjoyable evening. It was a truly memorable event for Sheila as it symbolised the start of a new and exciting phase of her life in her new home. It was nice to see so many of the other tenants from this Supported Housing scheme sharing this happy night with her. TELLING TALES
The second HILT Manager’s away day was held on March 21st. The morning session gave the opportunity for feedback and progress reports from the previous session. In the afternoon Barbara McIntosh, Co-Director of The Foundation for Learning Difficulties gave an inspirational presentation. Its focus was on the life stories of individuals living independently in the community with learning difficulties and/or mental health issues. All the individuals in the stories Barbara told had given their consent for her to talk about their lives. She was able to relay information about the lives of individuals living in the UK, USA and Canada which highlighted both some of the differences and similarities between available systems of support in these countries. Barbara spoke about how the individuals in her stories had chosen to set up a ‘Circle of Support’ among their friends and relatives and/or involving professionals they had come into contact with through support services. She gave examples of how the people in these support networks changed over the years but who were able to provide consistent enabling support that assisted in individuals’ desires to live their own lives as independently as possible. Many HILT Managers were able to contribute their own stories to the session about the changes and moves towards greater independence they had witnessed in the lives of HILT service users.The focus of the session related to the work that many HILT service users and support staff have already done around Person Centered Planning. Many Managers also came away from the session feeling inspired to work towards encouraging greater levels of independence among service users through consultation with them about their hopes and ambitions as well as staff training and greater community interaction. We’d like to thank Barbara for her input and encouragement and we hope she will be back again soon. Any staff Service Users, Managers and staff are encouraged to get in touch so their stories can be published on the Internet or Intranet. Anyone with stories to contribute should contact Richard ROSIE'S REWARD
The Millennium Volunteers Scheme was set up in the year 2000 to honour the achievements of young people (aged 16-24) who volunteer in their local communities. In Hackney the scheme is run by Hackney Voluntary Action with whom HILT have close links. Many of HILT’s younger volunteers join the scheme and receive certificates in recognition of their achievements. Millennium Volunteer of the Year 2004 is a national event. Awards are given out in different categories for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Rosie received 3rd place in the Care Support and Mentoring category for her volunteer work at HILT last year. Since completing her volunteer placement Rosie has begun work as one of HILT’s Sessional Bank staff and has also become one of HILT’s “Good Neighbour” tenants at Rotheley House. In her spare time she's studying for a Psychology degree at UCL THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
You may well ask…………. As reported in the February’s HILT news, a group of HILT service users and volunteers have begun to attend weekly karaoke sessions. But the celebs mentioned above are not part of their star-studded audience. Instead, they were among the wax figures that our singers saw when visiting Madame Tussaud’s Museum.
As you can see, our lads took the chance for a number of photo-opportunities with the wax celebs. Who knows, if their singing career really takes off we may see waxworks of them in Madame Tussaud’s in the not too distant future. |
Sheila’s
house-warming party was a very pleasant occasion for Sheila and
everyone who attended. It took place on March 18th.
HILT’s
Rosie Lee has snapped up another award. Rosie was a volunteer
with HILT during 2004, and was recently honoured at an awards
ceremony for Millennium Volunteers held at Battersea Arts Centre.
Victoria
& David Beckham, Samuel L Jackson, Princess Di, Arnie, Saddam
Hussein and Naomi Campbell – what connection do these famous
names have with a gang of intrepid HILT service users and volunteers?
On
a day off from their other regular commitments, service users
Israel, Simon and Joseph headed off for the museum at London Bridge
accompanied by volunteers Taras and Cheol Hee. All received the
star treatment by getting in for free and being allowed straight
to the front of the queue by Madame Tussaud’s staff. “It
was a great day out”, said Israel, “some of the waxworks
look really life-like”.