i-peopleI ssue 10Summer 2014

Independent People’s Quarterly Magazine

HOT IN THE CITY

Rife Magazine hits Bristol We meet the team...

NITROUS OXIDEWhat’s the deal?

CONTENTS3... A word from the Chief

4 - 5... Rife Magazine- What’s your angle?

6 - 7... Just reward - Toby and IPFC

8.. Hangry? How food affects mood

9... Cheap Summer eats

13... Cool tips for when it’s Hot

14 - 15... Peer Supporters - who are they?

16... Get out there

17... Wanna WWOOF?

18... Hippy Crack

20...Hitch or Ditch?

Get in touch anytime... Freephone for service users: 0800 731 72 13

Head Office Kingsley Hall 59 Old Market Street, Bristol, BS2 0ER 0117 317 8800 enquiries@1625ip.co.uk

South Gloucestershire 23 The Parade Coniston Road Patchway Bristol BS34 5LP 01454 865 732 sglos@1625ip.co.uk

St Georges House 101 St Georges Road Hotwells Bristol BS1 5UP 0117 927 6600 stgeorgeshouse@1625ip.co.uk Bristol Foyer 2a Victoria Street BS1 6DT 0117 927 6805 foyerteam@1625ip.co.uk

Find us on Facebook “Independent People”

Follow us on Twitter @1625ip www.1625ip.co.uk

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A word from the Chief...

Things keep on changing and they don’t stop...

It’s the school holidays, at last. For many of you this will mean dusting off the suitcase and being transported to a different country on a family holiday. Some will stay and enjoy the great British summer (and hasn’t it been a scorcher?).

But we know there are some of you who are still in school or just finishing that have found yourselves packing a bag for a different reason.

The fact that you’re reading this means we are supporting you and that means you are safe.

I’ve been doing this job for a long time and it never stops amazing me how resilient and smart young people can be - even when faced with homelessness.

Most homelessness comes at a time of change - we call it transition. For the age

group we work with there are so many transitions - school to college, child to adult, starting work, moving out from home, moving into your first home. It just doesn’t stop, but if you can keep your head together and ask for help, it can work out.

We’re sorting out some group work sessions which will help with every part of going through those changes. You’ll hear all about them soon - please use them.

I hope you enjoy this edition - it’s got interviews, interesting stuff to do and tips on how to get through the rest of this blazing Summer.

We’re always looking for new people to take part - so please contact Pilar, our Comms Manager on 0117 317 8800 pilar.garcia@1625ip.co.uk if you have ideas for a piece in the next issue.

Dom Wood, Chief Exec

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Toby has been a Volunteer at Independent People (VIP) for around six months. He helps Tom Dunn our Volunteer Coordinator run the Independent People Football Club (IPFC) which started last year.

IPFC is a joint project with University of Bristol to encourage young people to be more active, learn new skills while having a laugh. The University funded Toby to get his Level 1 and 2 Coaching badge and he’s now sharing his knowledge with our service users.

The club is part-funded by the 1625ip Cashpoint project which helps young people learn how to manage their money better. Team members pay a small sub every week and the money is spent on making sure every one has the right equipment they need like trainers etc. This gives young people skills in how to manage a fund, budget and keep the club going. All very transferable skills which look great on a CV.

“Our Toby” has recently been recognised by the University of Bristol Union for his outstanding contribution to the community and

was awarded “The Community Award” at a posh do at the Anson Rooms last month.

We caught up with him after...

J u s t R e wa R dToby Dove is a History student at University of Bristol most of the time, but on a Thursday between 3 -5pm he becomes a VIP...

Toby (rocking that bowtie!) getting his award from local Labour party candidate Thangham Debonnaire.

Image: jamiecorbin.co.uk6 i-people Summer

Congratulations Toby! What was it like?

Thanks. There were about 300 people, buffet, wine, a proper black tie event with a party afterwards. I went with my girlfriend we were all dressed up, she looked great.

How did you find out you’d been nominated?

Community Outreach Coach, Robbie Fox, who nominated me, told me I’d been shortlisted. There were four other shortlisters but I didn’t know what they were being nominated for. I couldn’t tell whether I deserved it or not...I had to go up on stage, I was glad when that bit was over and done with, but it was nice.

Why do you volunteer?

It’s great, loads of reasons. My own confidence has grown. I love seeing the progression of the team, not just in football terms, we’re all growing as characters too. I wondered if it would be a bit weird sometimes, because I’m about the youngest there and I’m the coach! But they are all really good guys and that’s never seemed to matter.

I’ve always played football, I love it, so when Robbie told me there was an opportunity to get the Coaching badge I took it.

It’s good for people to have something to look forward to and a sense of belonging to some-thing – that’s the football club. But there are loads of other skills you gain.

We do sessions around team dynamics, resolving disputes, good communication, team structure, those are important life skills.

There are a hardcore group who attend

religiously. The sense of belonging is really strong, they give off a true sense of “team”. When new people come along they are really welcoming and let it be known that they have pride in their team and they care.

And what now for IPFC?

We want to encourage more people to come along. It’s indoors, all weather and everyone at 1625ip is invited – including girl footballers. If we had enough girls we might start a girl’s team but we’re happy with a mixed team too.

More info:

If you want more info about the club contact Tom 0117 317 8800 thomas.dunn@1625ip.co.uk or let your support worker know.

1625ip’s Cashpoint runs all sorts of courses and projects to help you get better at managing money. None of them are in a classroom, more like a gym or a kitchen learning to cook on a budget or garage turning old bits of furniture into new bits of bling. They also run a weekly drop-in see back page.

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SOMETIMES i FEEL ANNOYED AND i DON’T KNOW WHY. EVERYTHING’S A PAIN AND i SHOUT AT PEOPLE FOR DOING NOTHING. THEN i EAT.

Eat for your mind’s sake :o)

We’ve all been there. Suddenly feeling tired, a bit dizzy, everything people say is stupid, can’t be dealing with having to wait for anything, at all, even for a minute. Why is everyone acting so annoying? Can’t they just shut up and leave me alone? Grrrrr.Then you eat something. Everything changes, like you’d been floating and your feet hit floor again.

Grounded. Welcome to “hangry” ; hungry angry.

There are strong links between what we eat and how we feel - it’s not just about how much we eat but what we eat.

Our blood sugar levels are associated with changes in mood and energy. If you don’t eat for a while you can get low blood sugar and start acting all diva-like or start feeling weak.

Brain chemicals (such as serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine) affect our feelings of happiness and contentment. It’s not just about eating - it’s about eating good food. A healthy diet is essential for the creation of these brain chemicals.

Some people can have strange reactions to artificial chemicals in foods, such as artificial colourings and flavourings. You can find out from your doctor if you have allergies or try keeping a food diary. You’ll be amazed when you look back over a week’s intake. (Did you really eat that many Skittles?)

Your brain needs a mix of nutrients to stay healthy and function well, just like the other organs in your body. A diet that’s good for your physical health is also good for your mental health.

It’s not easy to keep it up but food can have a long-lasting effect on your mental health, it should be more important to all of us!

EAT

A healthy balanced diet

includes:

Lots of different types of fruit and vegetablesWholegrain cereals or

breadNuts and seedsDair y products

Oily f ishPlenty of water

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Put your sunnies

on.

Grab a blanket.

Have a picnic.

Cheap summer eats.

Three dead cheap, dead easy ideas for picnic fodder.

The nice thing about a picnic is having a spread.

Take bread, crisps or pittas for making sarnies and dipping. Don’t forget a drink. A piece of fruit. And an umbrella LOL.

Creamy Potato Salad. Cheap as chips. Peel and cut your potatoes so they’re roughly the same size (or use salad potatoes and leave the skin on). Boil them for about 10 mins, stick a fork in to see if they’re ready. Let them cool down, chuck in a couple of spoonfuls of mayo. Jobs a good’un. You can also add chives, parsley, spring onions, boiled egg, black pepper if you fancy.

Tuna and Sweeetcorn Mayo.Open tin of tuna. Drain liquid. Empty into bowl. Open tin of sweetcorn. Drain liquid. Empty into bowl. Add two dollops of mayo or salad cream.Add black pepper, ham or even peas if you like.Stir. Done.

Tomato Salsa.Open one tin of chopped tomatoes, tip in bowl. Finely chop a quarter of a red pepper, tip into bowl.Finely chop half a small onion. Tip into bowl.Add a teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt and black pepper - a bit of chilli too if you like it hot. Stir well for ages. Stop and taste - add more vinegar if it needs it or even a squeeze of lemon if you have it. Done.

Check out what’s available in Fareshare every Wednesday. £2 for seven items of shopping. Open to all 1625ip service users. Available at Old Market, Foyer and St George’s.

Book now for our next FREE cooking course“Fine Fodder”. Four weeks on Fridays 2-4pm at Old Market St.Or drop-in to “Come Cook” on a Thursday 5 - 7pm. Beginners welcome.

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cool hottips for when it’s

Courtesy of Mashable.com

Take the stink out of your smelly shoes by putting them in the freezer.

Remember to put your shoes in a bag first! Otherwise you’ll have shoe stink all up in your freeze box. This method won’t kill all the bacteria. Washing them will also help!

No-one likes the lobster look or seeing your skin peeling off. Slap on the factor 30 or cover up in the midday sun.

The worst time to be in the blazing sun is11- 3pm.

Drinking in the sun is really nice and some-times hard to avoid. To make sure you don’t peak too soon or pass out from dehydra-tion, drink water in between alcoholic drinks. Drink light beer and save the shots for later when it’s cooler or you’ve moved inside. Eat - as much and often as you can.

If you’re in the sun too long you can get heat exhaustion, feeling dizzy, sick and getting headaches. You need to get your temperature down fast. Go and sit somewhere cool in the shade or

indoors. Get someone to fan you with a magazine or something, drink plenty of water. Stay still until you feel completely better. Don’t go back in the sun too soon or it will bite you in the ...

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Who are they? Peer Supporters are young people who have experienced homelessness in some way. They’ve been through the system, they know what it’s like and they understand what’s needed to get through it.

We’re training a group of Peer Supporters now to help other young people.

As part of their training they went on a residential. Apart from getting to know each other better and swinging from trees, they learned about risk taking, team work and trust.

They will be offering one-to-one support to young people, they’ll take part in group sessions and will be organising social events and activities.

What sort of thing can they help with ?

They can help you... - get to appointments - sort out your finances - be listened to - get your message across - be heard - sort out your benefits - get a doctor - get out of the house - meet new people - deal with mental health problems - go to fun activities - get advice - talk about what’s important to you - explore where you live - explore Bristol - have a chat - live independently - deal with drug problems - have fun

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PEER SUPPORTERS

I want one!

It’s early days for the project so there are only a few Peer Supporters at the moment. Talk to your support worker and we’ll take it from there.

I want to BE one

Talk to your support worker or get in touch with Alex at Old Market, he’ll run through it with you to see if you’re up for it.

What’s it like?

You’re not a support worker, but you are part of the support network we offer to young people.

You need to be available at least two hours every two weeks.

You get half a day’s training right at the beginning and then monthly supervision meetings with your supervisor who will keep training you and helping you develop.

It’s a bit like the first stages of support work.

If you really like it and decide you’d like to get into Youth Work, it’s the perfect place to start. This scheme is part of Bristol Youth Links which supports young people all across Bristol.

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Go and get sand in-between your toes! Jump on a train or a bus and head to Weston for “ONCE UPON A TIME...”

Twenty of the world’s best sand sculptors have turned 4000 tonnes of Weston’s unique beach sand into a giant world of incredible (and incredibly huge) sand sculptures.This year includes The Hunger Games, Beatrix Potter, Narnia and Rapunzel.It’s on until October 5th and only costs £3.50

Furniture for freeWhat is ‘upcycling’? Take something old and turn it to gold! We’ve got a furniture restorer and artist called Laura coming in to help you guys do up old furniture that you can use in your own home. We will provide the materials and the furniture (some of you may have seen the mountain of it in our garage at Kingsley Hall!). You don’t need to be a carpenter or an artist, just willing to get stuck in and give new life (and a home) to some dreary old furniture by creating something completely unique!

The project runs for four weeks every Monday, 3 - 5pm Open to anyone who is supported by 1625 Independent People.Get in touch with your Support Worker or Hannah Panes, Participation Worker Hannah.Panes@1625ip.co.uk Freephone from landlines - 0800 731 72 13

Why pay full whack?There are plenty of special offers available if you know where to look. For money off tickets, meals, drinks and much more.Check out:

Vouchercodes.co.ukvoucherbadger.co.ukmyvouchercodes.co.ukeverydaysale.co.uk Moneysupermarket.com hotukdeals.com

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Get out there

If you’re looking for a slightly different volunteering experience and you’re not scared of a bit of hard work this could be for you.

WWOOF UK is a membership charity, teaching people about organic growing and low-impact lifestyles through hands-on experience in the UK.

Basically you volunteer to work on an organic farm, they give you somehwere to sleep and feed you. In return you work on the farm and learn about organic farming.

WWOOF UK holds a list of organic farms, gardens and smallholdings, all offering food and accommodation in exchange for practical help on their land. These hosts range from a low impact woodland settlement to a 600 hectare mixed holding with on-site farm shop, cafe and education centre. Hosts do not expect you to know a lot about farming when you ar-rive, but they do expect you to be willing to learn and able to fit in with their lifestyle.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

wanna WWOOF?

The list of hosts is available by joining WWOOF UK for a membership fee (£20 single membership). Once you have the list, it is up to you to contact hosts directly to arrange your stay. Your host should discuss what kinds of activities you will be asked to take part in, what accommodation is on offer and also the length of your stay.

Volunteers do not pay to stay with hosts and hosts do not pay volunteers for their help (gen-erally 25-30 hours a week). WWOOFers are volunteers and therefore are more free to come and go than an employee. For this reason, hosts should not depend on them as an alterna-tive to paid, skilled labour. WWOOF UK is a registered charity.

Go to wwoof.org.uk17 i-people Summer

nitrous oxide aka nitrous aka nos aka n20 aka laughing gas aka whippitsaka chargers

hippy crackNitrous Oxide has been on the party scene for a few years now, but suddenly it’s everywhere, in the papers, all over the web and on the street.

Every Monday morning you can see the weekend’s backwash of empty, thrown away canisters in the gutter. Apparently doing balloons turns people into dirty mingers! But that’s a different story...Some people are really worried about its effects.

Yes it can kill you. If you inhale too much, too quickly it replaces the oxygen in your lungs and you suffocate. End of. Long term, it causes a lack of Vitamin B in the body which can lead to serious nerve damage. The symptoms being tingling and numbness in the fingers, toes and other extremities, and dif-ficulties with walking. But it’s hilarious right? Yep - it’s not called laughing gas for nothing. You might halucinate too or fall over as it makes you feel woozy and euphoric.

If you mix all that with alcohol, the effects can be much stronger and a lot of people end up throwing up, falling over or passing out.Passing out puts you in a really risky position, if you’re on your own and there are no nice people around to help, you could get robbed, but that’s the least of it, you could die if no-one gets an ambulance so they can pump your lungs with oxygen - pronto.

While it’s not illegal to have some nitrous oxide on you, if you’re caught with huge amounts it may be seen as intent to supply. It is illegal, in England and Wales, for anyone to sell nitrous oxide to people under-18, if they think they’re likely to be inhaling it. For more facts, advice or if you’re worried about nitrous oxide or any other drug try : talktofrank.com 0300 123 6600 or Bristol Drugs Project 0117 987 6000 bdp.org.uk

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Come in to 1625ip Head Office for a C-Card and get FREE condoms and advice.

Are

you

getting

it?

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hitchditch or

Meera 19,

I live with my dad in a one bed flat, I sleep on the sofa-bed in the living room. Lately my boyfriend (been seeing him for 8 months) has started staying over quite a lot, in fact most nights. He’s in tempo-rary shared housing and hates it where he is. He only goes back every few days to show his face, so he doesn’t lose his place.

He’s not offering to chip in for food or bills and I know it’s bugging my dad, but he’s too nice to say any-thing for fear of upsetting me. I’m a bit disappointed in my boyfriend but I do understand his position – I feel caught in the middle.

I think maybe if he said something to my dad it might help the situation but I don’t know how to broach the subject without making him feel bad or unwelcome.

Straight talking, no b*llshit advice.

If you need some - get in touch...

0117 317 8800

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Dear Meera, It’s hard when you feel stuck in the middle, especially when you want to do the right thing.

Have you mentioned to your boyfriend that you’ve noticed he’s been staying with you more and more, Is he is ok? I would imagine there is a good reason why he doesn’t want to return to his own home .There is loads of support he could access, support to help him feel more comfortable in his own home. It sounds like you really appreciate the support your Dad’s offering and don’t want to abuse it.

In my experience, it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it, and most people like to hear the truth so they know where they stand. The last thing you want to do is let it eat away at you and you’ll start to resent your boyfriend. Be brave but be kind.

Chrissy works at 1625ip as a trained Mediator. If you find yourself in a tricky situation where the talking has stopped and you might end upbeing homeless - get in touch 0117 317 8800 mediation@1625ip.co.uk

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Useful NumbersWhy pay?

If you’re a Service User

use the

FREEPHONE0800

731 7213fROM LANDLINES

to contact your support

worker

If you need help, advice or want to talk about something

that’s worrying you - your support worker will try to help you or will put you in

touch with the right people. There’s always someone to

talk to. Check the back of your

Service User Handbook for other useful organisations and

freephone numbers.

In an emergency for Fire, Police and Ambulance services dial 999

SHELTER24 hour freephone number: 0808 800 444

SMELL GAS OR SUSPECT A LEAK? Call National Grid using a phone outside your home and then call your landlord’s repair line 0800 111 999 POWER FAILURE- ELECTRICITY24 hours 0800 365 900

CouncilsBristol City Council (8.30am- 8pm) 0117 922 2200Emergency Control Centre (24 hrs) 0117 922 2050

South Glos Council (Switchboard and out of hours) 01454 868 686 Police (main switchboard) 0845 4567 000 Emergency 999Hospitals and Health Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) 0117 923 0000 Southmead Hospital 0117 950 5050 Frenchay Hospital 0117 970 1212 NHS Direct (24Hrs) 0845 4647 GP / Health Centres 0845 4647

RSPCA (pets) 0300 1234 999

Useful Mental Health contacts:www.mind.org.uk tel: 0117 980 0370www.rethink.org tel: 0300 5000 927www.awp.nhs.uk tel: 01249 468 000 Avon and Wiltshire NHS:www.bristol.gov.uk/balp Bristol active life project

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