Spring has sprung

At Jigsaw4u the last couple of months have been as busy as the weather, so we are sorry to be bringing you this blog a month late. But as is with spring (and the beginning of a new tax year) we have been busy with new beginnings - New projects, ventures and exciting things to come for the rest of the year.

So this is what we we've up to at Jigsaw4u HQ....

Project Updates

The grief team ran a very successful 6 week grief support group in Feb and March and are already concentrating on the next group due to start in May.

The Disabled Children’s Participation Project has been extended until April 2014, so we expect more exciting things from them over the year. Over Easter they ran a session for the young people around safeguarding, and the importance of understanding safeguarding as a young person, then after all that hard work they got to go bowling! Everyone had a great time and can’t wait to do something like that again, maybe over the summer holidays.

Our current Domestic Violence worker, Emma Webb has just secured the new full time post at Jigsaw4u working on Domestic Violence with Sutton Women’s Aid. Congratulations Emma!!

The Home School Links project are looking to join up with other projects at Jigsaw4u to do the art exhibition again, which was such a brilliant success last year! Hopefully we can get even more young people involved this year, and create some amazing artwork that represents our young people and their feelings about Jigsaw4u. The theme this year is 'putting the pieces back together'. Can’t wait to see what creations come out of the exhibition this year.

We started our new volunteer training programme in April which we are 3 weeks into now, all new volunteers will receive training for all projects across Jigsaw4u from working with young children, disability awareness through to domestic violence and many others. We want our volunteers to be equipped for any situation that might arise during their time here. And we hope to give people an insight into things they may never have thought of trying before. Hopefully our volunteers have been enjoying themselves and want to come back! The next training programme will run in the Autumn so get in touch if you'd like to be involved.

Fundraising News

Sharon Clack has been busy getting the donations and raffle prizes in, here are just a few.

·         10 free Burrito’s from Chippolate in Wimbledon

·         The All England Tennis Club donated a large holdall and Bard Back Book all about Wimbledon Tennis

·         £250 donation from Next

·         15 Easter eggs donated from Asda

Carol Miller's coffee morning raised £279.00

Vicky’s Easter Egg Sale raised £32.40

Sharon Clack’s daughter Vicki made a basket full of Crochet Easter Chicks that raised £32.00

Georgia Fawcett of Hillcross Primary School raised £118 doing a sponsored silence.  The money raised bought the Teddy Bears for the next Grief Support Group

Webb Hits the Wall

Peter Webb is still training hard for his Hadrian’s Wall feat. He has been held back in his training through injury but appears to be back, fighting fit. Here’s what he had to say...

“Unfortunately I have had an injured ankle and not been able to run for the last 4 weeks. I have managed my first run of 10 and 7 miles this week to test my ankle and get back into my running.

I found great motivation from the donation made by someone through Jigsaw 4U.

“Don't give up the training, hope you succeed. My girls are about to lose their dad to cancer.”

It is always good to have these reminders when on a training run to make the pain and effort go away when you can put it into context as to why I am doing this.

This weekend (actually a way to celebrate my birthday) Alex, my wife, has booked a hotel room for us at Windsor for a romantic break. The only catch being that I have to run there under my own steam on Saturday from my house in Sutton (approx. 40 miles!)

As you can imagine I am now only 2 months away from the race and in need to push hard on my training. This is definitely a challenge.

So the plan leading up to the race is:

27^th April – Personal Run – 45 miles Sutton to Windsor

18^th May – North Downs – 50 mile race ½ Centurion Race

22^nd June – The Wall Race 69 miles

It’s going to be a busy 2 months!!!!”

We wish Peter the best of luck with his training, and if you haven’t donated, please do try to give what what you can to spur Peter on with his amazing feat. He really could use some inspiration now! You can find his justgiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/WebbHitsTheWall

That's about it from us this month, with summer parties, fundraisers and art workshops in the planning we will have even more to tell you about in the coming months! And we will keep you updated with Peter's training too.

Jigsaw4u Team. x