Welcome to the Spring Newsletter
At the end of each month CLC holds a Dress Down Day for chosen charities. The last one was at Easter and the chosen charity was for ‘Help for Heroes’ where £70 was raised. Some staff even wore Bunny Ears as you can see
below!!
Many thanks to everyone who donated and participated!!
Pauline Ashmore (Support Worker, Network 4) is going to Africa next month to do volunteer work with the street children for 3months. Just £3 can pay for a Malaria injection which can save a life. All contributions will be appreciated. Every penny donated will be spent on the medication and supplies needed for the children.
Network 4 have decided to raise money for the cause and would like to ask for your support also.
Please contact
Kirsty Leonard on (07977175334)
One of our longest serving staff members retired at the end of March. Most of
you would have had some contact with Terry Turner over the years and we are all sorry to see him go but wish him well for the future. We held a ‘goodbye buffet’ for him at the office and presented him with his gifts and he also had a good night out with staff just before Easter.
Renovation work on the Activity Centre has just been completed and we now have excellent facilities for training and a range of different meetings or activities. All bookings are to go through Sam Hilton who is based in our Finance Department. We also hope to have a new name for the venue so watch this space.
Once again the newsletter is packed full of interesting information and topics so we hope you enjoy the read.
Chris and Rick
Relatives’ Forum Update
Relatives’ Forum – Held 3rd March 2010
The first Relatives Forum of 2010 was held on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 at the Community Lives Consortium Office.
As promised, we discussed the Consortium’s Policy on supporting service users to go on holiday.
We looked at the process from the planning stage through to the end result. Alice O’Sullivan, Operations Manager, joined us for this discussion and talked us through a very informative presentation.
An open discussion followed with lots of questions and concerns expressed by relatives.
Alice and Chris explained more about who is involved in the planning of a holiday, this includes relatives (where appropriate). We also talked about the financial implications of a holiday on service users.
Meanwhile, if anyone wishes to discuss future holiday plans for their relatives or if there are concerns about a planned holiday, please contact the Service Co-ordinator at your relative’s home.
Don’t forget that if you want to raise any issues with the Relative Representatives on The Board, or if there are any topics you would like us to discuss at future meetings, please ring Janice Connick, on 01639 701040 or Cliff Alden on 01792 424947 or you can ring Wendy or Chris at the Consortium office on 01792 646640.
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Janice Connick Committee Member |
Cliff Alden Committee Member |
Wendy Evans Community Services Officer |
Christine Brian Director of Community Services |
Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF)
UNISON and the Consortium have had a major 3 year project approved to help and encourage learning in the workplace. The project is called Connecting Learners and we will be the lead organisation to work with other employers throughout South Wales in the voluntary sector and particularly within social care. The project will be run by a project manager supported by a part time administration worker and we will shortly be advertising to fill the posts. The project is funded by the Welsh Assembly and is a further acknowledgement of the very successful partnership we have with UNISON.
Membership Drive
Here is an update on the Membership Drive. We currently have 148 members, which includes a mixture of 36 service users, 16 relatives, 54 staff, 5 related professional agencies and 37 miscellaneous people. Members can vote to help make decisions and also elect members of the Management Committee.
Members can vote to help make decisions and also elect members of the Management Committee.
Are you interested in becoming a Member?
If you are, you will need to fill in an application form, these are available from Debbie Chegwen at the Consortium office, this will cost £1 and you will be sent a Share Certificate in the post.
NVQ Update
"Congratulations to the following staff who have achieved NVQ awards
since the December Newsletter":
A1 Assessor
Gethin Bibbs
Ellen Lewis
Rachel Daniels
Christine Ackerman
Theresa Trotman
Level 2 Care
Donna Drewson
Phil Hawkins
Tracey Nicholas
Alyson Lewis
Gordon Jones
Laura Grady
Ian Simpson
Lauren Tanner
Tracey Sims
Level 3 Care
Claire Beynon
Sharon Jones
Cunnick Phillips
David Wolfe
Ilona James
Karen Thomas
Andrea Richards
Kelly Mainwaring
Level 4 Care
Sheree Lewis-Jones
Catherine Winkworth
Lynn Morgan
Well done and thank you to their assessors who worked hard to help them gain these qualifications!
Sue Cole
Tenant Participation - Information and Stories 
Te
nant Participation Officer
Julie Davies
Hello everyone, well Christmas has come and gone and so has Easter. It’s good to have some milder weather and lighter evenings. We have some really interesting stories for you.
Huw Gethin’s Story
Huw went to see Katherine Jenkins in concert at the Cardiff International Arena in March. Huw said it was a brilliant night out. Katherine is from Neath which is where Huw lives.
Katherine did a lot of dancing and had some very good supporting acts. Huw stayed overnight at the Hilton Hotel.
Huw was accompanied by staff member Peter Williams who Huw always enjoys being with.
In June Huw is going to see Paul McCartney at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Tenants Assembly
We are holding our first Tenants Assembly on Tuesday, 15th June 2010 at the Manor Park Hotel in Clydach.
It will be a good evening - 6.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. We will be showing what the Tenants Lives Group do and telling you how you can get more involved in what Consortium does.
There will be lots of stands giving information. We have a free buffet and lots of raffle prizes.
Coastal Housing and Tenants
Coastal Housing Group held an event at the Liberty Stadium on Thursday, 1st April. It was a good event with lots of stalls giving information and a free lunch. There was a band playing music throughout the day and a prize giving session after the free lunch.
There were trips arranged around the Liberty Stadium. Here is a photo of Christopher Edwards and Paulo Sousa, manager of Swansea City Football Club.
Chris and Ashley Pope won goodie bags. Here are some photos of people who attended the event.
Learning Disability Week
Learning Disability Week runs from Monday, 21st June to Sunday, 27th June.
People with a learning disability experience poorer health and poorer healthcare than the general population.
Mencap is working in partnership with a number of organisations and healthcare professionals to work towards better health, well-being and quality of life for people with a learning disability.
There will be various events held through out the week to highlight Mencap’s concerns. I will let you know about them when they have been planned.
Health Fair
Swansea People First (Peer Health Advocacy Project) are holding their 6th Annual Health Fair 2010 - 'Fit for Living' at the Liberty Stadium on Friday 18th June 2010 at 10.30am and ending at 3.30pm.
It will be a fun packed day with stands and speakers. There will be displays on all aspects of health and well-being and a free buffet. If you want any more information please ring 01792 405333 or email: info@swanseapeoplefirst.co.uk.
Special Olympics 2009 – Leicester, UK
On Saturday 25th July last year, 2,400 learning disabled athletes from across Great Britain arrived in Leicester to celebrate the start of the 8th Special Olympics GB National Summer Games.
The event is held every four years and provides a week of Olympic-styled sports competition for learning disabled athletes from across the country.
Nineteen venues across the region will play host to the sporting events, with Leicester City football Club the setting for the Games Village and the Universities of De Montfort and Leicester housing the athletes during Games week.
The oath of Special Olympics is ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt’ and Swansea Stingrays hoped that their swimmers would go to the Games and try their best.
Nine swimmers who train with Swansea Stingrays Disability Swimming Club were part of the 30+ strong Welsh Swim Squad who were competing at the Games. Three of them are supported by the Consortium. They are Phillip Davies, Leighton Parry and Victoria Smith all of who live in Killay.
All three swimmers performed extremely well during the competition and came away with various medals for each of the events they entered, so well done to you all and what an honour it must have been to represent your country at the Olympic Games.
Thank you for sharing your stories. If you would like more information on the events you have read about please contact me on 01792 460252 or email me on julie.davies@communitylives.co.uk.
Don’t forget we want to see your holiday photos in the next newsletter so start clicking away!
Julie Davies
Tenant Participation Officer
Hi Everyone! - The Spict Team would like to thank all the staff that came to the first Spict Showcase Event. It was nice to see and share some of the work that staff are doing with the people that they support! Everyone took part.
Kelly at New Rd has done some Flip work with Sarah, Julie and Leanne. The staff at Gwynfe have done some lovely work including some Christmas flip videos and Snapshots. Jessica from Tulip Lodge has also done some Flip daily diary films.
The staff at Heol Islwyn have also done some great Snapshots and Photo-story support plans.
All the staff thought the meeting was great and want a longer meeting next time with a computer workshop!
To see some of this work please follow this link:-
www.communitylives.co.uk/support_tenants/news/srp_tenantnews/SPICTInformationStoriesandUpdates.shtml
The next Spict Showcase Event will be on: Thursday the 10th of June
What did you think about today?
Here is a snap shot of what everyone thought of the SPICT Training on the day!!
What did you think was working?
Here you told us what you thought was working.
Sad News ................
DEAN HOLLOWAY
With much sadness Dean passed away at home 22nd March 2010. He came into the Consortium 18 months ago. In the short time he lived at TY RHOSYN he had such an impact on everyone who got to know him. 
He had a lovely sense of humour and always had a smile on his face. He will be greatly missed by everyone and never forgotten.
Hi! My name is Sarah Bonell, you might recognise me from the last news letter. I am the Swansea People Support Officer and my job is to help anyone who would like to use the website.
Swansea People is a safe and fun way for people to meet on-line, share photos and videos, meet new friends and stay in touch with old ones.
It is a great way to see what is going on in your area with lots to do, all in the activity planner. Most of the social and sports clubs are on there but if you know of any clubs that you go to and enjoy, let me know!
To start using the site go to www.swansea-people.co.uk and type in your username and password below and away you go!
If you have not got an account, register at www.swansea-people.co.uk or drop an email to sarah.bonell@communitylives.co.uk
Green News Flash! 
Plastic is now being recycled in Swansea!! Hooray!!
So your pink bags are on their way!
Remember to:
Wash It
Squash it
Bag it!
600 million batteries are thrown away every year, so don’t forget to bring them in the office for recycling.
We have recycled over 20kgs of batteries so far!
We have now started keeping a record of the amount of paper recycling we do and it is an amazing 1514.55kgs since June!
Also if you have any queries or any articles you would like to add to the next Newsletter please contact me on the office number below or email me at debbie.chegwen@communitylives.co.uk
Plus I would be grateful for any comments or feedback about this Newsletter.
Thank you to everyone who passed me the articles for this issue.
Debbie Chegwen
Dates for your diary:
Dates for Your Diary |
Venue |
Date |
Time |
Management Committee Meeting |
Board Room |
15/06/2010 | 2.00 pm |
Service Coordinators FORUM |
Training Suite |
20/07/2010 | 10.00 am |
Staff Sub Group Meeting(not forum) |
Board Room |
23/06/2010 | 2.00 pm |
Tenant Lives Group Meeting |
Training Suite |
26/08/2010 | 10.00 am |
Staff FORUM |
Training Suite |
30/06/2010 | 10.00 am |
| Team Coordinators Forum | Training Suite | 28/07/2010 | 10.00 am |
| Housing Support Coordinators Meeting | Board Room | 24/06/2010 | 10.00 am |
