Nexus january 2018

NEWS FROM THE HAMPSHIRE CVS NETWORK 

Action Hampshire

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Basingstoke Voluntary Action

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Festivities in Friendly Fareham

Communities First Wessex

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Community Action Fareham

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Community First New Forest

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Gosport Voluntary Action

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Hart Voluntary Action

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One Community

Community Action Fareham, Christians Together in Fareham and Fareham Good Neighbours are hugely proud of the people of Fareham who pulled together Voluntary Services once again to help put on the eighth Christmas Day lunch for people in the borough who would otherwise be alone for this special holiday.  Test Valley With support from a team of enthusiastic volunteers before and on Community Services Christmas Day plus many generous donors, lunch was served for 99 guests and 50 helpers across two venues in the town, as well as home deliveries for those GVA thanks and who weren’t up to coming along on the day itself. mince pies —p2 The Arts Society Solent, the Monday Lunch Club, Newable South East, SPLASH! Project in Gudge Heath Lane Surgery, Right At Home (Solent), Asda and Domino’s Fareham Gosport—p2 all supported the Be a Santa to a Senior campaign, and donations also came Home Helps in from individuals, local councillors and the guests themselves.

Rushmoor—p2 Every guest was assured of friendly companionship, lovely food and Top rating for entertainment plus gifts and prizes to take home. Volunteer helpers, whose hard Hewitt’s —p2 work and dedication was delivered with a smile, shared the festive community Romsey Area Aides— spirit with others. 

Rushmoor

p3 Positive Pathways launch in Havant —p4 Volunteering in tablet form, New Forest—p4 Evaluation of One Community’s Visiting Scheme—p4

Produced by Hampshire Councils for Voluntary Service Contact Julia Allan 023 8090 2457 jallan@1community.org.uk

GVA Says Thanks with Mince Pies

opportunities for people who are struggling to make that first step.

Volunteering is often a stepping stone to developing skills and confidence for employment, and yet even finding the right volunteering placement can be challenging.

To find out more about the project, please contact Sue Greene on 02392 604694 or email splash@gva.org.uk.

RVS Home Help Project On 6 December 2017, Gosport Voluntary Action held its annual Mince Pie Morning, to say thank you to all its volunteers for their fantastic support throughout the year. Attended by The Mayor of Gosport, Councillor Linda Batty, it was also an opportunity to award certificates to those who have completed the Preparation for Volunteering course as the first stepping stone in offering voluntary support within their community.

Pictured above are GVA Volunteers June Green, Pauline English and Agnes Cook enjoying the festivities.

New SPLASH! Project in Gosport Receives Awards for All Grant Gosport Voluntary Action (GVA) is delighted to have received a National Lottery Awards for All grant of £9,978 for their new SPLASH! Project.

The purpose of the project is to consult with, research and develop resources for potential volunteers from disadvantaged groups, who face barriers to volunteering due to a range of issues such as low self-esteem, health issues and disability. Anyone who feels they require support to get into the right voluntary role can potentially join the new SPLASH! team.

GVA invited potential new team members, volunteers and representatives from local voluntary organisations to their first meeting held on Monday January 15.

SPLASH! volunteers will work with local organisations, who currently support volunteers, in order to build on good practice and share experiences across the sector. GVA hopes to literally make a SPLASH! to help open up NEXUS PAGE 2

The Rushmoor Voluntary Services (RVS) Home Help service provides light housework and shopping to frail and elderly people living in Farnborough, Aldershot and some areas in Hart.

Clients can be referred to the service by a relative, GP, Adult Services or other professional. It is a ‘paid for’ service and the hourly rate is very competitive at £12.

RVS allocates a helper to the client who is suitable and encourages a strong relationship to be formed between the client and helper.

All employees are appropriately trained and have been checked for criminal records (DBS).

For many clients the Home Help is the only person they see from one week to the next – this is a very important aspect of the service as it helps to keep clients in touch.

The service currently supports around 300 people and employs part time helpers to provide the service.

Greg Alexander, RVS Chief Executive says, “Our Home Help Service is vital for many people.

With so much emphasis on acute situations in local hospitals, we are proud to be helping older and frail people in the community to remain at home for as long as possible.”

Hewitt’s Cafe Again Awarded Top Rating for Food Hygiene Community First provides a popular community lunch club and Silver Linings, a day opportunities service for older people, at Hewitt’s, a community building close to the harbour in Emsworth.

Hewitt’s is operated in partnership with The Right to Work CIC who provide innovative day

help their own local community in a time of crisis.

TVCS Chairman and member of the Romsey Emergency Planning group Dorothy Baverstock said, “TVCS are about to change their name to ‘Unity – Putting Unity in the Community’ which is an important aspect of our work along with recruiting volunteers not just in the Romsey area but across Test Valley too. This project is just one of the many positive developments that the organisation is involved with to help meet local community needs in this Borough.”

Community Project Launches in Havant services for young adults with learning disabilities offering appropriate and sustainable employment.

The meals at Hewitt’s are all prime cooked daily from fresh ingredients by a team of around six young adults with learning disabilities, supported by The Right to Work staff. This is a wonderful example of supportive and inclusive communities where people with learning disabilities and older people support each other with opportunities and services.

Havant Borough Council Environmental Health carried out a spot inspection of the catering services in December. Tim Houghton, Community First Chief Executive, said: "Community First is delighted to announce that Hewitt’s has retained its award of the top rating of 5 since 2012. This is a wonderful achievement for our partner staff with learning disabilities and our service users who can have confidence in our high standards of nutrition and food hygiene. We know that a 5 rating is hard to achieve even for commercial caterers and is therefore to the enormous credit of all our Community First and partner staff."

Romsey Emergency Planning Supported by Area Aides Emergency Planning in Romsey is moving a-pace now as winter sets in. Test Valley Community Services (TVCS) is hoping to support the planning team by recruiting a Romsey ‘Area Aide’ on each street. This person will know who are the frail, elderly or disabled people on their street and who will be the main contact in the case of a real emergency when an evacuation may be required.

Following the recent launch of the Romsey Emergency Plan, the Romsey Area Aides project was agreed as a positive way that people could

On Thursday 14 December the new Big Lottery Funded project, Positive Pathways, officially launched. The event was held at Leigh Park Community Centre and was attended by over 60 people. Community First was successful in receiving the grant from the National Lottery Fund for the project that works with Havant Borough residents who need a little bit of help to volunteer in their community, to increase participation in volunteering especially for those who are long term unemployed, or want to reconnect with their community but do not have the confidence to do it alone.

Janet Duggan, Volunteer Service Manager at Community First, commented: “It was fantastic to see so many people from across our community who came to find out about the impact Positive Pathways is already having on people’s lives. As well as hearing from service users we had presentations from the DWP Havant Job Centre and SE Hants Better Local Care. We also had entertainment from the Artscape Ukulele Band, Space Rats, who played a selection of Christmas NEXUS PAGE 3

songs at the end of the launch.”

Geraldine Swain, who attended the event, spoke about her journey from being out of work to volunteering in the community and into paid employment. Geraldine said: “Through Community First I had the opportunity to volunteer, which changed my life as I was struggling with depression and anxiety. I passionately feel that group volunteering helped me to move forward and reach goals and improved my confidence and self-esteem. The tools and skills I learnt are now enabling me to support other people back into work. I wish the very best to the new Positive Pathways Team and hope their journey is as successful as mine has been”

are a fantastic addition to our service as they combine the very best of what the centre has to offer: cutting edge technology with a personal approach, meaning that the perfect volunteer role is literally at your fingertips.”

Trainee GPs Evaluate One Community’s Visiting Scheme

Volunteering in Tablet Form No, it’s not a pill that you can take to find the perfect volunteer role, but it could be even more effective. To welcome in a brand new year for volunteering, from January 2018 Community First New Forest’s Volunteer Centre drop-in advisors, Geoffrey and Viv, will be proudly demonstrating their new tablet-technology at various locations across the New Forest.

The advisors are themselves highly experienced volunteers with a wealth of local knowledge. Between them they run monthly sessions in Hythe, New Milton and Ringwood and bi-monthly in Fordingbridge. They are always delighted to meet local people during their drop-in sessions and help them to seek out the perfect volunteer role or roles.

Community First New Forest’s new online volunteer system was launched last year and is already getting great reviews from users. Boasting over 270 local roles, the system offers volunteers a quick and efficient way to browse and sign up for a whole wealth of volunteering opportunities.

To compliment this technology Geoffrey and Viv will now be using new portable, lightweight tablets at the drop-in venues to help volunteers search and apply for roles quickly and easily on site.

The tablets were funded by generous donations from the Dibden Allotments Fund (for Hythe) and a sponsored bicycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats by Community First New Forest’s Joint Chair, Mary Faulk. Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator Lorraine Lambert said, “The tablets NEXUS PAGE 4

One Community has been running a Visiting Scheme since 2015 in Eastleigh and Fareham, where volunteers are recruited to visit isolated older people, and people who find it difficult to get out, to provide them with companionship.

Four trainee GPs from Health Education Wessex have joined with Hayley Hamlett, the scheme coordinator, to focus on the prospective implementation of a loneliness assessment tool to demonstrate the value of the scheme with the aim of enhancing GP referral rates through a demonstration of the value of the Visiting Scheme.

Key objectives of the work are:  Identification and implementation of loneliness assessment tool (LAT).  Integration of tool into One Community proforma and documentation.  Training and updating volunteers.  Key performance indicators to be identified, charted and analysed.  Analyses of the referral pathway.

Results will be available during Spring 2018.

Pictured above are Hayley Hamlett with Jason Gupta and Tinashe Hwara at the presentation of their study at a Public Health and Primary Care Presentation Day on 14 December, at Southern House, Otterbourne.

Happy New Year to All Our Readers!