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Latest NewsAGM 2010- 2011The financial accounts will be available to view soon if you wish to see a copy now please contact us New committee still members needed!After our 24th AGM on September 6th 2011 we still have a short fall in the number of Trustees we would ideally like. We are looking for people with a range of skills from all different backgrounds, to fill the 4 spaces we currently have on our committee, we are also looking for people who have the additional skills to take on the officer roles of Treasurer and Secretary. The skills we are particularly looking for are Financial, Human Resources, Fundraising, Marketing and PR, modern media and networking links. We like to have 1/3 of the committee being made up of either current Carers or those who have recently been a Carer. We also encourage people who have a business background as we are now striving to be as professional as possible in all that we do. We would like a mixture of people from BME backgrounds, different age ranges, maybe some younger people with fresh ideas, maybe you were a young Carer yourself? If you would like more information or an application pack please contact us. We have moved!!!We are now based at HVA’s offices at Jackson Hall. This has lots of benefits such as being around lots of great organisations such as Hope-G, Senior’s Forum and the Boathouse group and of course HVA! From the 8th August our phone number and email address will remain the same, but our address will obviously be different as will our fax number which will be HVA’s ( if they agree to us using theirs!) Our address will be : Association of Carers Jackson Hall Portland Place Hastings East Sussex TN34 1QN Carers WeekRemembering Yesterday, Caring Today We held an afternoon of reminiscence through music on Sunday 5th June at Leeford Place Hotel. The event was organised as part of national Carers Week, which runs from June 13th to 19th, and gave local Carers and the people they care for an opportunity to celebrate the caring role. The afternoon was a huge success, with local musicians giving their time for free to provide live performances of old favourites from the1920s to the 1960s. The Association would like to thank Chris Matheson; Claire Hamill and her choir, Silk Road; Bobby Posner and Will Thompson; Stan Kerslake and Chris Harris and the volunteer waitresses, Katherine, Debra and Alison, who served guests with a delicious cream tea. Knockhatch Adventure Park – Young Carers Trip The Young Carers of the Association of Carers were treated to a fun day out at Knockhatch Adventure Park on Saturday 11th June to celebrate Carers week. 6 Young Carers, a Young Man with Learning Disabilities and the befriending Volunteers enjoyed a day go cart racing, rowing, sliding, bungee trampolining, target paintballing and a game of Lazer quest. They also watched a Birds of Prey display at the park and visited the farm animals. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of public donations and special thanks must go to the late Vera Mison from Eastbourne who asked for money to be given in her memory to the Young Carers to have a fun day out and to Seaport Engineering Ltd. Without these two large donations and the help and support of the Young Carers’ Volunteer befrienders this would not have been such a lovely day, we are so grateful. We urgently need more Young Carer befriending volunteers especially in the Ickelsham/ fairlight area and Bexhill if you are interested in taking out a Young Carer to an activity of their choice each week please call 01424 722309 or visit http://www.associationofcarers.org.uk/volunteering to find out more.
Volunteers WeekNational volunteers’ week is 6th -12th June and the Association of Carers decided to invite all their volunteers to a thank you lunch as they do every year to show how grateful we are to our volunteers and the time and dedication they give to the organisation and the family Carers we help. The volunteers enjoyed a 3 course meal at the new Hastings College’s Coast Restaurant and they were very impressed by the new college’s architecture but even more so by the students waiting on and cooking for them, they were very professional and did an excellent job, so much so that many of the volunteers we saying they were going to come back! A good time was had by all and the AoC believes social outings are an important part of volunteering with them as it helps volunteers build new friendships and feel part of the organisation.
Our Latest Newsletter – Summer 2011Summer_2011[1]Spring NewsletterSpring 2011 pages1-4 Spring 2011 pages 5-8Computer Help At HomeThe Seedcorn Fund have been very kind and once again have agreed to fund a new project for us. The Seedcorn Fund is a grant given by East Sussex County Council to help organisations start new and innovate projects and these grants of less than £5000 really can make a difference to an organisation like ourselves. 3 years ago they gave us the money to look into expanding into Rye and that area, we now cover the whole of Rother! Last year they funded our Young Carers project which is still going thanks to additional funding from the Masons and other people. This year they have agreed to support our Computer Help at home project. The aim of this project is to help Carers learn how to use their own PC’s in their own homes. They say what they want or need to learn and a volunteer shows them or helps set up the computer or specific programmes to enable them to do this. The great thing about it is that the Carer has no need to leave the loved ones they care for alone which they would have to do if they attended classes. Also the help is tailored to suit their needs not general tuition. We have a few volunteers for this project but always need more, any level of experience is welcome all you need is patience and a good teaching manner! Each Carer can have up to 4 sessions but we are happy to help them some more if this isn’t sufficient. How could this help Carers? – Well Carers can learn how do online banking or shopping, which means when they do receive respite they can use this time more effectively and not doing mundane things, they can learn to use email and social networking sites to relieve isolation and increase communication between family, friends and other Carers and there have been many other requests to from installing dragon speak to setting up the TV and DVD player! We are very flexible and this service is open to all Carers of any age but could be especially helpful to those wanting to embrace technolgy at a later stage in life! Telephone Talk and Support ServiceWe have just been awarded £45,000 over 3 years from Comic Relief to start this new service. We have already started the service and we are currently helping 14 people but have capacity to help lots more proving we can recruit volunteers. please visit talk and support to find out more! New LeafletsWe have just had new leaflets designed one is an 8 page rather than a standard 6 page leaflet which outlines all our services including the new ones. We have also had our Young Carer leaflets professionally touched up and printed to make them more appealling to the Young Carers we aim to help. These leaflets will be available from 15th November and will be filtered into the community over the next few coming months. Look out for them in your Doctors, Hospital ward, Pharmacy, community centre and many other places! Volunteers Week 1st – 7th June 20107th June - Volunteers Thank you lunch Every year during Volunteers week we take our volunteers out for lunch to say a very big thank you for the time they have given us, their dedication and their kindness and support they have shown the Carers and their cared for. This year we are back at Bannatyne’s again. Carers’ week 14th- 20th June 2010This year for Carers’ week we took our Carers and their loved ones out for a special afternoon tea over at the Hawkhurst Fish Farm on Thursday June 10th which was a lovely afternoon for those who came and a chance for them to meet up with each other, which was lovely especially when two couples recognised each other from a long time ago! Carer’s week is an marvelous opportunity for us to highlight Carers issues. An issue that we and other organisations seem to find is that wives and husbands who care for their partner in particular don’t even realise that they are carers. Sometimes the Cared for person becomes ill at such a slow rate, that the care increases too gradually for the Carer to realise they are a carer. Other people say that they are a husband or wife and that it is part of their role and that they do not want to be labelled as a Carer when they are looking after someone they love, which is fair enough! Saying this we would like people to recognise that they do play a significant caring role and therefore may need or want to have some help, from a Carers allowance to some respite or much more. By calling a carers’ organisation such as ours we can help you and put you in touch with others that can also help, and remember it is all FREE! Young Carers
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