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06 February 2012

Following the success of this event in 2011 company secretary Gillian Coupland and trustee Denise Edwards are busy organising the second 'Ladies Who Lunch' luncheon.

The event is being held on Wednesday 28th March 2012, 11.30am for 12noon, and will once again be held at Wychwood Park Golf Club. Tickets are priced at £30 per head and include a 3 course luncheon, guest speaker and raffle.

Tickets are available now and can be purchased through the workshop by contacting Colin Mills (manager).

Tel: 01270 255319 e-mail:colinmills-scb@btconnect,com

01 February 2012

In late December staff and service users received a visit from Franziska Rothe who presented the workshop with £220, sponsorship raised from her participation in the Great North Run. Franziska, an acquaintance of workshop supervisor Ian Hopkins, was given a tour of the workshop facility and introduced to the service users, who showed their gratitude for her efforts by giving her a warm welcome. Franziska also brought in a 'Stollen Cake', traditional yuletide fare in her native Germany, for all to enjoy. Thank you Fran for your tremendous efforts and support, it is much appreciated by all associated with the workshop.

Fran’s experience of the day is reproduced below.

A Great North Run adventure

For quite a few years I have been thinking about entering the Great North Run, the world's biggest participation half marathon. However, I never felt confident enough and was also living in Belgium at the time. When I came to work in the UK in 2010, and running became my main sporting activity, I finally decided I would try to register for the 2011 event, in order to keep me going but also as an opportunity for a family reunion as I also registered my brother, a keen runner, for his birthday.

Now a training plan had to be drawn up and I also needed to find the right charity to support! It was about this time that my neighbour and friend, Ian Hopkins, told me about the charity he worked for, Supported Community Business (Special Needs). I felt inspired by the concept and work of the organisation, which made it an obvious choice to support. The fact that it was a local smaller charity made it easier to convince colleagues and friends to make donations. I referred quite a few of my supporters to the charity website, with very positive feedback, particularly about the explanatory video.

Approaching summer time I realised that I would have to increase my training and gradually lengthened my runs. You may have seen me up and down the canal path around Nantwich, my favourite training area. A detour on one occasion resulted in me ending up in a field full of cows, who seemed a little bit too interested, so I decided to make a rapid retreat leading straight into a flock of sheep!

The day of the race came around very quickly. I was a little nervous at the start but the atmosphere with 40,000 runners and lots of local support was unforgettable. Also my parents came to Newcastle from Germany to witness son and daughter running the last mile along the seafront in good weather and with the Red Arrows on display, a fabulous experience for all of us! My finishing time was 2h25 and my brother came in with an amazing time of 1h35. We were both exhausted but there is no doubt that we would go for it again!

It was a nice reward to come and visit the workshop in December and to hand over personally the money raised. I was delighted to meet the team and to get an idea of the workplace firsthand.

Now I look forward to keeping in contact and hope to find another opportunity to support. I am already thinking about my next adventure!

05 January 2012

The much anticipated announcement of the ‘Trainee of the Year’ was duly made at the annual Christmas party in December, held at Haslington Cricket Club. Following dinner Colin Mills, workshop manager, congratulated all service users on their achievements throughout the previous twelve months and made the point that they were all winners, without exception, having each made some progress during the course of the year.

Obviously not everyone can receive the top award, which is based on the overall performance of each service user during the course of the year and covers various areas including: - timekeeping, attendance, conduct & attitude, interaction, motivation, productivity, adaptability, progression, and response to points made in individual reviews. A monthly grading system is kept and a short list of six potential candidates is drawn up from these records, from which the eventual winner is selected. Two other service users receive an ‘Achievement Award’ in recognition of their efforts or progress made during the year.

Following this procedure the winner of the ‘David Hough Trophy’ for 2011 was Emily Barnett, who was thrilled at receiving the top honour. Having come close in 2010 Emily set about 2011 to achieve her goal and worked hard at points raised in her previous review, with a successful outcome. Throughout the year Emily showed good application, dedication, and a willingness to listen to advice offered to her by staff, resulting in a much more rounded performance and greater maturity. Recipients of the ‘Achievement Award’ were Nadia Stoneley, for her efforts in Health & Safety and with progress in money skills, and Neil Jones, for his overall performance, adaptability, versatility, and maturity.

The quest to find the 2012 winner starts now!