ECL Annual Report 2014 Annual Report 2014 ECL Annual Report 2014 2
Chair’s Report from Terri Collins
This is Elmbridge Community Link’s 20th Annual Report and I am proud to report that we still keep to our original ethos; to help people with learning difficulties to develop new and existing skills to enable them to gain self esteem and confidence.
We have had a particularly busy year, introducing new activities and learning experiences for our members that are explained colourfully and in more detail on the following pages.
Our success is due to the passion, dedication and love that everyone associated with ECL has and includes my fellow Directors, our wonderful volunteers, our clients, but most importantly our professional staff.
Partnerships We are indebted to Walton Charity for their continued support which takes so many forms, from help and advice to providing office accommodation at Mayfield which is appreciated, particularly by our professional staff.
Our special relationship with Elmbridge Mencap continues and our joint themed evenings help to increase the number of activities available to our membership. The User Forums that we host are attended by various organisations and people with a learning difficulty and cover a range of subjects such as First Aid advice and other safety issues.
The continued support we have received – both in financial and personal terms - from Elmbridge Borough Council. We would particularly like to thank Melanie Bussicott and her team in Community Support Services. As always we are indebted to Sally Dubery and her team at Voluntary Action Elmbridge for their support in signposting people to us.
Health and Safety The Board monitors our health and safety regulations and any incidents are recorded in the appropriate way. I am happy to report that there are no current causes for concern.
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ECL celebrates 20 years! We started life with a handful of members coming to just one activity. Now, in 2014, we have over 100 members taking part in more than a dozen activities. This is what we do…
This is what we do
Digital Project
Learn to use the internet and email. Learn to use an iPad to take photos or Skype. Help us make our own website.
Numeracy and Boardgames Evening
Our games and quizzes on Monday evening. This is so popular that we are looking for a bigger place to hold it so that more people can come along.
Cookery Learn how to cook healthy recipes. This is so popular that we started weekend Cookery
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Next year we plan to do this in the evenings for people who cannot come during the day. ECL Annual Report 2014 4
Magic Music Moments
A music workshop for people with profound, complex and multiple disabilities. We have been running this once a fortnight. It is so successful we want to run it every week.
Weekend Music Workshops
Once a month, on a Sunday, up to 60 people get together to make music and practice for our Christmas concert. It is also very popular and we want to run it fortnightly.
Art and Craft The members create artwork and craft pieces. Next year we want to do new things, like photography and more pottery and jewellery making.
Community Café and Befriending Morning A chance to have a coffee and talk about things.
The members run the coffee shop themselves. We want more people to join and we are looking for more volunteers to help us.
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Themed Evenings
In partnership with other learning disability charities such as Elmbridge Mencap and One to One.
We would like to run more of these. This year we ran X Factor, a Christmas Concert, a Valentine’s Day Disco, a quiz night and a summer BBQ,
Trips
This summer we visited Brooklands Museum and Birdworld in Farnham, where we were able to celebrate our 20th birthday, sponsored by Walton Charity. Earlier in the year some members went to Top Golf in Addlestone for golf lessons.
Elmbridge User Forums
Three times a year, we host the Elmbridge User Forum where, with other local groups, we hear from different organisations, learn new skills and gain qualifications – here’s Erol getting a Red Cross certificate from Jean, one of our Directors.
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Visitors
We welcome visitors to come and meet our members and join in with what we are doing. In January we had a visit from the High Sherriff of Surrey, Dr Helen Bowcock, Dominic Raab MP and Jackie Lodge, Chief Executive of the Walton Charity. In February Councillor Margaret Hicks was a guest at the Boardgames evening and called the Bingo numbers.
We have regular visits from Gemma (pictured here), a rescue dog from the charity Pets as Therapy. We all loved meeting Gemma and patting her.
What you think…
At the end of last year we contacted lots independently. You also said we help you of people with a learning disability in to be more confident, happier and the Elmbridge to find out what they think. We things we do are fun. asked them about things that that do, both day and evening. We also asked our Some of the people we spoke to had never members to tell us what they think. heard of ECL. After we spoke to them a lot of people said that they would like to You told us that you like what we do. You know more about us and join us. said that we have helped you with things like living heathy lives and learning to live ECL Annual Report 2014 7
Money and Fundraising ECL is a charity and we have to work hard to get the money to run all our activities. This year, we’ve run some very successful fundraising events: A dance and raffle at Hersham Sports and Social Club raised £436 The Walton Heritage Day, where we sold cakes and jewellery made by our members, raised £283 The Christmas Raffle raised £1543 The Christmas Concert raised £503 The Quiz in October raised £958
Our success would not be possible without our sponsors and our thanks go to the following for their invaluable sponsorship over the last twelve months: Awards for All, Charity of Robert Phillips, Cobham Rugby Club, Comic Relief, Community Foundation of Surrey, Councillor Margaret Hicks – Surrey County Council Members’ Allocation, Elmbridge Borough Council, The Elsoffer Family, The Grocott Family,The Harris Family, Hersham Sports & Social Club, The Hickey Family, GlaxoSmithKline, Il Forno Bakery Hinchley Wood, Kingston Grammar School, Evelyn Matthews, Oatlands Village Fayre Society, Osborne and Collins, Mickey Page, The Prior Family, Probus, Rotary Club of Walton-on-Thames, RC Sherriff Trust, Jean Rigden, Waitrose, Walton-on-Thames Charity, Mary Wisdom
We’d also like to thank the many people who support us but wish to remain anonymous.
ECL Annual Report 2014
Our People
Staff Charity Co-ordinator Pier Markham (centre) has run ECL for 16 years. She is supported by Llinos John, (on the right) Development Manager, and Project Facilitator Kristina Syrad. Llinos joined ECL in 2005 and Kristina in 2007.
Board Members The Board Members make sure that ECL is run properly and has enough money to pay staff and run groups. They meet about 5 times a year. They are: Terri Collins, Chair; David Bellchamber, Company Secretary; David Middleton, Treasurer; Jean Smith, Director; Jill Gray, Director; Rev Dr Mike Deacon, Director Margaret Hurcombe, Director; Lisa Prior, Director; Brian Robertson, Director and Ann Ledgard, Director
Volunteers Our volunteers help us with everything from helping to run our activities to raising money to keep the charity going. As our members grow in experience and confidence, some of them become in-project volunteers. These volunteers do all sorts of things, from organising drinks and loading the dishwasher, to helping tidy at the end of a session. So thank you very much... we couldn’t manage without you!
In the past year our volunteers worked 1744 hours. This is Mandy Fennell worth £13,952 to us We’re sad to say that Mandy Fennell, one of our former
members, died in August. You may recall that Mandy used to love to sing 'Doh a Deer' and 'Edelweiss' to us. Here she is (on the left) enjoying a day out at Painshill Park.