July 2016
In this issue:
Page 2 & 3 Read All About It Celebra ons, Events and Congratula ons
Page 4 Diary Dates Informa on for carers and Customer Council key dates Election Results At the final Customer Council mee ng of the term Andy Rawnsley Pages 5 & 6 thanked all the Councillors who were elected in 2013 for their hard Service News work over the last three years before handing out cer ficates. Keep up to date with all This kicked off our third Customer Council elec ons which were held in all the news from Aspire services throughout May. Councillor Adam Ogilvie tweeted that “pre‐vo ng dancing got everyone in the mood for vo ng” at Hillside. In fact there were elec on par es, fantas c speeches and bun ng galore at our services throughout Leeds during vo ng me. With 50 representa ve and deputy Pull-out seats up for grabs there was a lot of compe on. In total more than 700 votes were cast and 11 people won a further term of office. Congratula ons Learning Disability to all the newly elected Aspire Customer Councillors. People who use our Week 2016 service were also supported to cast their votes in the local elec ons and the Round‐up of the week’s referendum on membership of the European Union. events with photographs
www.aspirecbs.org.uk
Top: The first mee ng of the new customer council representa ves Bo om (le to right): Cath and Lisa at the Rothwell Fulfilling Lives elec ons, Stephen at Waterloo and Francis, Ailsa and Alan at the East North East Fulfilling Lives elec ons River Deep, Mountain Real Smoothies High Aspire was invited to be part of the Family Fun Day Expo at the Congratula ons to everyone who Leeds World Triathlon Series. We thought it would be a great completed the Whernside challenge. event for unveiling our new smoothie bikes, Aspire gazebos, Around 20 members of staff together with flags and publicity material. Not surprisingly, the smoothie Andrew from Wetherby braved the blisters bikes drew a lot of interest from adults and children alike. and midge bites to climb the highest A er all, how o en do you get the chance to make your own mountain in Yorkshire. Janice Judd smoothie by pedalling a bike a ached to a blender? It wasn't (Aireborough Community Base) has kindly just spectators who wanted to have a go ‐ we had a surprising volunteered to set up a regular walking number of Triathlon compe tors using the bikes a er they group which aims to get out and about once completed their races! Despite the rain over 250 people a month. The group has already climbed blended a smoothie whilst learning about Simon’s Seat and two more walks are in the the work of Aspire. We also took the bikes diary: 20th August (Great Whernside from along to Woodhouse Moor for the Leeds Sky Ke lewell) and 24th September (Buckden Ride. The sun shone down on the long Pike). Plans are also being made to queue of people wai ng in line to try the complete the Three Peaks walk later this bikes. Thank you to the staff and people year. who use our service who ran the stalls and to everyone who came along to support us.
Top: Stephie at the Triathlon Bottom: Stephie, Andrew and Ian and the Aspire smoothie bike team at Leeds Aspire staff complete the Whernside challenge Sky Ride
Congratulations To … … people who use our service who have recently completed the Stamp Out Bullying course with Connect in the North. From September the course graduates will be going round day services to pass on this learning to others.
… Julie who won Britain’s Got Talent run by Leap the Bridge. She beat 22 other finalists at the event held at the Tiger Tiger club night in June.
… everyone who has graduated as a Good Lives Leader a er comple ng training with Leeds City Council.
… everyone who works at the White House Café which has been awarded 5 stars at the hygiene inspec on.
… Lorraine Grainger, Sue Duncan and Melvyn Gollick who have all re red. Lorraine worked for Leeds City Council and then Aspire for 26 years, Sue completed 11 years and Melvyn has worked with us for 13 years. We wish each of them a long, healthy and happy re rement.
… staff members John Barr and Chris Muir who raised over £1000 from a sponsored swim. The money will be used to buy sensory equipment for the Sco Hall Respite Unit.
2 Birthday Celebrations We’ve had a bumper crop of special birthdays recently. John from Audby Lane celebrated his 70th birthday with friends at his local social club. Vernon from Church Lane (photo on right) also turned 70. His support staff think Vernon could be the oldest man with Downs Syndrome living in Yorkshire. The theme of his party was Christmas because that’s his favourite me of the year. Lots of people came to the party including the Yorkshire Evening Post and you can see the ar cle they wrote about Vernon at: h p://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/ health/70th‐birthday‐milestone‐for‐leeds‐gent‐vernon‐1‐7921239.
Micky from Albert Court (photo on le ) has been seriously ill and has spent a lot of me in hospital. Now he’s home Micky’s support staff decided to throw a special carnival themed party to celebrate his birthday. There was a steel band, BBQ and dozens of red, yellow and green cupcakes for everyone.
Marathon Men Congratula ons to Tim Snell and Paul from Endecliff who completed the Leeds Half Marathon in May. Tim had run the marathon before but, by his own admission, that was ‘a long me ago’! Tim and Paul had been looking at some old pictures and sharing memories of Barbara who lived at Endecliff up to her death. It was then that they hatched their plan to take on the Marathon challenge in Barbara’s memory. That Sunday was very hot and Tim remembers how grateful he was for the water that was on offer to runners coming along Kirkstall Road whilst Paul thinks the best part was hearing everyone cheering them on.
Homegrown Talent Skyfallers have been keeping pre y busy over the last few months with performances at Wharf Chambers, Tiger Tiger for Leep the Bridge’s club night, Ramshead Wood and Meanwood Valley Fest. They have more gigs booked in including a big night out at East and West Ardsley Social Club. The band’s Tuesday rehearsals now take place at Garforth Leisure Centre with a regular Open Hour where all people who use our service can go along and join in.
Dramarama performed Hairspray at Rothwell Leisure Centre and at the Down Memory Lane event. They’re now rehearsing for a performance at the ‘Olympics for All’ at John Charles Centre. Finally, the Ginger Cat Theatre Company presented ‘Dreams’ at the Tenfold Marketplace event, morris dancing at Picnic in the Park and performed at the Independent Travel Trainers awards.
Beside The Seaside People who go to Naburn Court community base (pictured right) had a day trip to Bridlington recently. They play bingo every week with the residents from the sheltered housing unit which is based upstairs at Naburn, and they all decided to go on the ou ng together. Everyone had a great me walking along the promenade, visi ng the arcades, feeding the seagulls and, of course, ea ng fish ‘n’ chips.
Dan, Chris and Lisa (pictured right) were supported to take a holiday in Majorca. Whilst there they went on a boat trip to watch the sun set and visited Marineland. They all achieved some great things and said they had had their best holiday ever. 3 Future Planning for Family Carers We are delighted to announce that we will be working in partnership with Carers Leeds to run regular joint events providing informa on on topics that are par cularly relevant to family carers of people with a learning disability.
Our first informa on session will be held on Friday, 7th October and the theme is future planning. Clare from Clarion Solicitors will talk about what families need to know if they, or other rela ves, are thinking of leaving any money or property to someone with a learning disability. This will include informa on about Discre onary Trusts, choosing trustees, safeguarding people’s income, legal obliga ons for parents of disabled people and more. Clare will be happy to answer ques ons and there will be a private room available to talk individually a er the session if required.
The first of these sessions will take place from 10:30 un l noon at Wes ield Chambers and will be followed by a light lunch. Places are limited so please ring 0113 378 1919 to book your place as soon as possible.
Day Service Training Days Annual training for staff who work in our day services has been arranged and the centres will be closed as follows:
7th Sept ‐ Bramley centre and West North West community bases 12th Sept ‐ Ramshead Wood and East North East community bases 21st Sept ‐ Rothwell centre and South South East community bases
DIARY DATES st 1 August
Aspire’s 1st Anniversary
10th August Olympics for All ‐ Why not come along and watch if you’re not taking part in the games?
Walk around Pudsey Park (with Your Health Ma ers & Ven‐ tures) 10:30 to 12:00
26th Au- gust
th 11 Sept Aspire at the Great Middleton Park Show
23rd Walk around Golden Acre Park (with Your Health Sept Ma ers & Ventures) 10:30 to 12:00
26th Sept Aspire AGM - 2:00 to 3:30pm at Hillside, Beeston
4 Satisfaction Surveys Winning Awards - Again Thank you again to everyone who completed The Making Time Project is being piloted in the south and either a customer or family carer sa sfac on west of the city through partnership working between survey earlier this year. We received 333 Aspire and Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire (CPWY). completed customer forms and 319 family The project offers training to pharmacists and their staff carer forms which is a very good return rate of to help them provide a be er service to people with a 37% and 41% respec vely. Overall the surveys learning disability by allowing extra me to talk about indicated a high level of sa sfac on with the medicines, health advice and other local services. There’s majority of ques ons being scored even higher been a great uptake by people who use our service, so it than in previous years. There were a few areas was wonderful to hear that the project has won not only where people indicated reduced sa sfac on. the Chemist and Druggist Public Health award, but also For people who use our service this was about the Pharmacist Community having a say in who their keyworker is, how to Innova on award. Nigel get involved in changes in the service and Hughes from CPWY said “the increasing social ac vi es. Family carers also support and professionalism of highlighted social ac vi es as an area of less Aspire has been a key factor in sa sfac on, together with communica on, the project’s success”. staffing issues and transport. Customers from Richmond Hill a ended Leeds City Council’s Independent Travel Training awards at the Civic Hall recently. They helped organise the event and were very much involved on the day mee ng and gree ng people, ge ng them to sign in, showing people to their Healthwatch Leeds works to gather the views of seats and even taking part in the proceedings by doing a people about their experiences of health and speech. People we support took part in the travel social care services and they use this feedback training for which they won an award and got a special to influence future service provision. We are men on from Julie Ha on ‐ delighted that Healthwatch has agreed to Head of Passenger undertake research with some of the people Transport ‐ for all their who use our service and family carers. They hard work. It was a great will a end some customer and family carer event and everyone was mee ngs, and make their survey available very proud of their through their website, in order to explore achievements. further the areas which indicated lower sa sfac on through our own surveys. We think this independent research will provide us with Shalom an invaluable perspec ve on what further We love telling people about the work of Aspire and we ac ons we can take to improve the service. o en receive requests from people who want to visit our services. Mostly these requests come from local people In August we will be undertaking our first staff so we were both surprised and delighted to hear that an survey as Aspire and will let you know the organisa on from Israel wanted to visit us! The Shalem results of this in due course. Founda on provides support to people with a learning disability and Rothwell day service hosted a visit of 20 people who wanted to learn about the opportuni es that Sad News are available for people with a learning disability in the We are sad to report the death of United Kingdom. Vivienne Gibson, a much‐loved person who we have supported Right: Edgar at Rothwell Art Session over the years. She will be missed by all those whose lives she touched. Our deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.
5 Hello and Goodbye On Yer Bike Staff Hello to Councillor Rebecca Charlwood who is the Have you ever thought about ge ng a bit fi er? new Leeds City Council execu ve member for What about reducing your carbon footprint? Are you health, wellbeing and adults. We’d like to take this put off by the cost of buying a bike? Well we have opportunity of thanking Councillor Lisa Mulherin, just the thing for you because, in partnership with Halfords, we launched our staff Cycle2Work Scheme the previous holder of the por olio, for all her st th support and wish on 1 July. Employees have un l 19 August to her well in her new apply directly through the Halfords Cycle2Work Children and website but don’t worry, this is just the first window Families role. for applica ons and there will be more open later in the year. The cost of the bike you choose will be (L to R) Cllr Rebecca deducted from your monthly wage Charlwood and Cllr Lisa Mulherin over 12 months. What’s even be er is that Halfords will take old bikes off you, refurbish them and CQC send them to third world countries to help with transport and As a provider of ‘regulated children’s educa on. ac vi es’ our supported living and respite services are Free Football Tickets regularly inspected by the Care Leeds United have given us some free ckets for Quality Commission (CQC) to their home games throughout the season. The check that they meet the ckets must be used by people who use our service expected standard. CQC and the member of staff or volunteer who is inspectors speak with the suppor ng them to a end. Please e‐mail requests people who use our service, for ckets to [email protected] family carers and staff during their inspec ons, look at paperwork and visit the service. In fact the people a ending one of our regular customer And Finally …. mee ngs had a surprise visitor when a CQC We have published our inspector dropped in on them! So far 4 Aspire 2016/17 Annual Plan. services have received their formal CQC reports and Copies have been given to we’re delighted to tell you that all have been rated all the people who use our as “overall GOOD”. service and staff. Family carers who have not already Day Service Modernisation had a copy via their son/ All preparatory work for refurbishing the daughter will receive theirs with this newsle er. Also Po ernewton day service building has now been you can find it on our website at: done. This took a bit longer than we expected, but www..aspirecbs.org.uk/aspire‐publica ons the builders have now moved onto site and work has begun. News Team
Progress has steamed ahead on the new community News writer & editor – Carol Benson base at Richmond Hill. When it opens shortly this e‐News producer/narrator – Shaun Pilkington base will provide more places than the previous Newsle er producer – Rebecca Heim community base with more space and facili es. Reporters – Ailsa Ryder, Caroline Terry & Tim Snell
Don’t forget to tell us your good news stories so we The newsle er is available as a hard copy or to can let everyone know about them. Please send download from our website. If you prefer to watch them to: an accessible e‐news version, this [email protected] can also be found on our website The next issue of our newsle er will be out in: at: www.aspirecbs.org.uk October 2016
Aspire Community Benefit Society Limited is a registered society in England and Wales under the Cooperative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. Registered number: 7062 HMRC Charities Reference number: EW36148 VAT number: 215 0549 36 Registered Office: Unit 2 Westfield Chambers, Lower Wortley Road, Leeds LS12 4PX
Monday 20th June Euro Football Tournament
Each year Learning Disability Week gets bigger and be er, and this year was no different, with ac vi es being held every day of the week. Events were kicked off at the 5‐a‐side Euro football tournament which was as hotly contested as ever. The men’s final was won by Northern Ireland (Aspire’s East North East 2 team) who beat Ireland (St. Anne’s) 2‐1 following a penalty shoot‐out. Aspire’s West 1 team won the ladies final in a thrilling game which ended 5 goals to 3, and Italy (The Bridge) took the Fair Play trophy bea ng Turkey (Hamara) 3‐2.
The spor ng theme con nued with the equally compe ve boccia Tuesday 21st June tournament. Waterloo Court made it to the final but were pipped at the Tenfold Marketplace Event & post by Craegmoor’s Ardsley House who took the trophy on their first Sponsored Walk at Swinsty Reservoir me of entering the compe on. At Swinsty Reservoir the supported sponsored walk was well a ended and they raised almost £500 for the charity Africa’s GiŌ.
We thought Learning Disability Week was the perfect me to launch the new Safe Places app so we did this at the Tenfold Marketplace event. We were joined at the launch by Andrew Culkin from Safe Places Community Involvement Company who have led development of the app, and Leep 1 performed their Mate Crime rap. Anyone with a smart phone can download the app for free and use this to find their nearest Safe Place in Leeds. In the future it is hoped more Safe Place organisa ons will sign up to make their informa on available so people Wednesday 22nd June will be able to find a Safe Place wherever they travel in the country. Boccia Tournament,
Down Memory Lane & A packed audience danced the night away at Meanwood Valley Fest where Sky Fallers played live in the barn. The band also entertained the Meanwood Valley Fest crowd at Wharf Chambers later in the week as part of the BEYOND! Art Fes val.
It was back to school at our Down memory Lane event at Armley Mills where people relived the days of strict teachers, slate boards and learning by rote. Thank goodness for the Victorian tea room, vintage cinema, home‐made pot‐pourri bags and performances from Dramarama, all of which made for happier memories! There were some fabulous ou its modelled on the catwalk at this year’s fashion show. The designers had clearly spent many hours adding fabric, paint and other items to the nurses uniforms to ‘up cycle’ them. It was also clear Thursday 23rd June that the models have been perfec ng their glamour walks and poses! Fashion Show, Catherine - Artistic
The Parkside Suite at John Charles Centre for Sport was packed to the ra ers Customer Achievement Awards & and Creative for the Customer Awards event and emo ons were running high as the winners Photography Competition Winners David - Outdoors were announced. Well done to everyone who was nominated for an award, and Nature and to the winners:
Audby Close - Making a Difference Award
John - Creative Maggie - Active Award Award
Stephen - Get Me!
Friday 24th June Picnic in the Park Ian - Most Helpful Melvyn – Smile Award Award Caroline, Chantelle & George - Going the Extra Mile Award
Fiona - Achievement Award David - Friendship Award
Leep 1 - Event of the Year Award
Also congratula ons to the winners of the 2016 photography compe on. It was terrific to see huge copies of the winning Sunday 26th June photographs on display at the Le Bank gallery as part of the Wetherby Fun Day BEYOND! Art Fes val.
The weather stayed (mostly) dry for Picnic in the Park. In addi on to the usual popular ac vi es and stalls we had some new guests this year. The smoothie bikes were kept busy throughout the day as was the photo booth and Ronnie the Rhino made a welcome appearance too.
A very busy week was rounded off at the Wetherby Fun Day. There was face pain ng, delicious cakes, a raffle and smoothie bikes. The star of the show however was an hilarious game of Human Frustra on where people took the place of game pieces and moved around the giant board according to the number of dots that had been thrown on an enormous inflatable dice. The event raised an amazing £1400 for Mar n House Children’s Hospice.