This year is whizzing by so fast we've barely had a chance to catch our breath, never mind write our latest blog, so this post is somewhat overdue. As that is the case we're going to get a little nostalgic and hark back to late 2013. Long before we lost our hour in bed and entered British Summer Time, we had...
CHRISTMAS
We had lots of fun during the festive season here at
Jigsaw4u – although now it seems like a distant memory. I’m sure the organised
among you will already have the Christmas cake baked and in the freezer ready
to go for Xmas 2014!
If you can cast your mind back I will set the
scene – a chill in the air, red and green aplenty, novelty jumpers adorned and
the bells are a-jingling – it can only have been the annual Christmas Carols at
Centre Court Wimbledon. Shoppers strolled (ran around in a frenzy) through the
shopping court awash with the dulcet tones of the Home School Links team and
friends. We were joined by some mini carollers who were taken in by our festive
moves, and we had some brass accompaniment when our vocal chords needed a rest.
The day was a great success and we raised a fantastic amount for Jigsaw4u. So thank
you very much to the kind shoppers at Wimbledon Centre Court for sharing in our
festive cheer, and please do come again this year to see the best of the Christmas
style for 2014. 
On top of our fantastic voices, we also invested in some
magical reindeer food to spread the Christmas cheer! Rudolph and his dancing
and prancing reindeer friends will have been very well fed when flying over the
Merton and Sutton area last Christmas. We hope to sell some more this year so
get in your orders in advance, particularly if you are helping to organise any
Christmas fairs. Projects
Social Skills
The Disabled Children’s Participation Project ran a very
successful programme of Social Skills workshops at the beginning of this year.
We had 9 young people attend the group that was run by our resident drama
therapist Rachael. The group used drama games and role plays to practice social
scenarios that they found difficult, using lots of skills such as public
speaking, directing and filming. The young people made great friendships and
seemed to really blossom throughout the programme. We are hoping to run a
couple of days of social skills groups over the summer for young people with
ADHD, and possibly another 8 week programme towards the end of the year. Watch
this space!! If you’re interested in the groups please contact michellemullarkey@jigsaw4u.org.uk
for more information.
Council for Disabled Children Report
Disabled young people from the Participation project took
part in a national consultation for the Department for Education on the new SEN
reforms. The draft 0-25 SEN Code of Practice is statutory guidance from the
Department for Education on duties, policies and procedures relating to Part 3
of the Children and Families Bill and associated regulations which will be
coming into force later this year. With this in mind the Department for Education, in
conjunction with the Council for Disabled Children, wanted to get the views of
young people on these changes and to enable the young people to feed back on
how they think these changes will affect them. The young people’s views were
published in a report by the Council for Disabled, along with those of 19 other
young people’s groups across the country, and this report was presented to the
Department for Education for consideration. The young people really enjoyed the
consultation and learning about lots of important changes that they hadn’t
previously known about. If you’d like to read the report –there are both a
‘young person friendly’ version and the regular adult version available –
please get in touch with Michelle (email above).
Mentoring project
Our Pilot mentoring project for primary school children has had some very successful outcomes.
We were able to recruit 13 very talented volunteers, most of whom have been able to make a real difference to the children they have mentored and have really enjoyed the experience. In fact 4 of the mentors are continuing to mentor Year 6 children until the end of the year, when they go on to secondary school.
One mentor has helped a child, who had missed a lot of school and was reluctant to put pen to paper, to write poetry on the computer. Another has worked with her mentee to help her find her creative side with very impressive art work, as well as doing yoga and exercise with her. Various mentors have completed scrap books about their lives and families with children, made models, made cakes and played board games and sport with the children they are working with.
We have been able to take some of them to a very exciting Detective Party run by one of the mentors who has professional children’s theatre company. 7 of the children went to Crystal Palace, at New Year to watch a football match in a directors box. Finally, over Easter, 2 of the mentors took 4 children to see Nanny McPhee, a professional children’s ballet at the Peacock Theatre.
We are now in the process of evaluating the outcomes of this pilot project and hope to attract more funding in the future, so we can do more work in this area.
Girls Group
The Young Runaways team have run another successful girls
group – over the last few groups they have had 14 girls participate. The group
looks at really important issues such as sexual health, drug and alcohol misuse
and sexual exploitation in an open and honest way. It also enables the girls to
have fun and make friends along the way. It’s a great way of getting teenage
girls to talk and learn about serious issues that they may not feel comfortable
asking parents or professionals about otherwise.
Safeguarding Children’s Award
London Councils has announced Merton Council's innovative Safeguarding Children Board's Promote and Protect Young People initiative as the winner of the London Safeguarding Children Award. This initiative helps to improve the co-ordination of a range of specialist services to support victims of sexual exploitation and young people at risk. In a partnership between Merton Council, Jigsaw4u Young Runaways Project and Barnardo's, reduced numbers of young people running away from home or care were seen, as well as increased school attendance. Jigsaw4u Young Runaways Service provides tailored support to victims of sexual exploitation as well as training to raise awareness among front line professionals.
Grief Support Teenage Drop In –
The Jigsaw4u drop in for teenagers who have previously
accessed the grief support service is proving very successful. To date there’s
been 3 groups with an average of 6-8 young people attending each group.
Feedback has been good and the group is hoping to continue session over the
summer.
Helping Hands Project –
The Helping Hands project is looking for some more referrals
to match with their brilliant volunteers. The project offers volunteer support
for adults, young people and children in the London Boroughs of Merton &
Sutton who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence. Service
users are able to self-refer or referrals can be made by other professionals
involved. Support will be offered according to individual need including;
emotional and practical support, befriending, attending
appointments/meetings/court with individuals and empowering families to access
local services and leisure facilities. They currently have volunteers ready and
waiting to be matched with service users so do get in contact if you think you
know someone who would benefit from this service, or you can refer yourself.
Just contact Emma Webb at emmawebb@jigsaw4u.org.uk
for more details and she will send you a referral form.
Volunteering
Jigsaw4u awarded an Expert in Volunteering Certificate
Jigsaw4u has been awarded the Expert in Volunteering Certificate for achieving recognised good practice in volunteer management. Jigsaw4u meets good practice standards in the volunteer management areas such personal development, reward & recognition and equality & diversity - to name a few!
We're all about R & R here...Rewards and Recognition
We are having a Volunteer Party on 3rd June 4.30-6.30pm to celebrate National Volunteer Week. Any volunteers who have achieved 50 hours (backdated to Aug 2013) will be presented with a Certificate of Recognition.
How do I get involved?
We've had lots of interest from perspective volunteers so we are holding another Introduction Evening on May 13th and we are hoping to run a second general training course in June/July. Please get in touch if you are interested in any sort of volunteering be it practical help with the gardening, or if you'd like to get involved with any number of our projects. We offer a wide range of volunteering opportunities so please contact Helen McGowan on helenmcgowan@jigsaw4u.org.uk
Fundraising
Top 1% - can you beat him?
Peter,
who ran Hadrian’s Wall between 22nd-24th June 2013 and raised an amazing £3,000
for us, has received news from JustGiving that he was in the top 1% of all
their fundraisers for 2013!
We
would like to congratulate him on this incredible achievement and thank all of
his friends, family and supporters for their help and contributions.
To contribute to Peter’s JustGiving page please go to
Think you can beat that? Get in touch with us if
you’re interested in fundraising for Jigsaw4u – be it from the great wall or
the school hall it all makes a huge difference to us. Email info@jigsaw4u.org.uk
or call 020 8687 1384.
In
other fundraising news...
Ann Waller and her team raised £51 in a cake sale
Carshalton High School Cake Sale raised £32
Quiz Night raised £378
Thank you very much to everyone who has raised money for
Jigsaw4u, it is ALL greatly appreciated.
Young people achievements
Young editor meets David Weir!
When Sutton Arena announced that they were renaming
themselves The David Weir Leisure Centre, one determined young person from the
Participation project saw the perfect opportunity for a magazine article. Being
famous, having a disability and coming from Sutton, David Weir (Paralympic Gold Medal winner!) is
a great inspiration to many of the young people we work with. Harry, our most recent
magazine editor, made it his mission to speak with David, and find out if he had
any advice for the young people. David was very accommodating and gave a great
interview to Harry – even posing for some pics!! The full interview will be
published in the latest edition of Our Choice – the magazine created by and for
disabled young people, so you’ll have to get your hands on a copy if you want
to see the full article (you will also be able to access the magazine electronically from our website).
Well that's just about it from us for this installment of Jigsaw4u News.
If you just can't get enough of us between now and our next blog, why don't you check out our website http://www.jigsaw4u.org.uk/ or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jigsaw4u and keep up to date with all our goings on.
And with that we bid you farewell, 'till next time.
Jigsaw4u team.
If you just can't get enough of us between now and our next blog, why don't you check out our website http://www.jigsaw4u.org.uk/ or our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jigsaw4u and keep up to date with all our goings on.
And with that we bid you farewell, 'till next time.
Jigsaw4u team.
