Pray for Livability

September – December 2014

Livability is building on the heritage of John Grooms and the Shaftesbury Society

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At Livability, we are passionate about creating opportunities for disabled people and supporting those who want to make a difference in their communities.

We offer a wide range of services to support and empower disabled people throughout their lives, from our colleges and school to residential care and supported living. We also provide many other specialist services including brain injury rehabilitation and accessible holidays.

Livability also works with churches and community organisations. We provide them with advice, training and resources to transform their neighbourhoods.

Our organisations were started by passionate Christians whose faith compelled them to act when they saw poverty and social challenges on the streets of Victorian Britain. Inspired by their legacy, we continue to keep a clear Christian ethos at the heart of all we do.

By sharing our joys and challenges, and bringing them to God on our behalf, you are truly a part of what God is doing through Livability – transforming communities and individuals.

Livability was created from the merger of two well-respected organisations, John Grooms and the Shaftesbury Society.

Our founders John Groom (left) and Lord Shaftesbury

Who we are

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Dear friends,

Growth is a tricky topic. The world tells us that organisations should be constantly expanding – offering more services, hiring more staff, operating in more countries. But why?

Many organisations equate size with value or importance – a bigger charity is a more important one, they say. But here at Livability, we’ve always been less interested in size than in quality: The quality of our services, and ultimately the quality of our relationships with those we serve.

Yet this summer, we had a great opportunity to grow our organisation, by taking on some small care homes in Hampshire (see page 10 for details). One of the things that impressed us most about these homes was the relationships, both between staff and residents, and the genuine friendships between fellow residents.

As you can probably tell, we are very excited about this development, but I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable of the talents; it’s not how much we’ve been entrusted with that is important, but rather whether we have been faithful with what we have been given. In all this, we are trying to listen to the voice of God leading us. Please pray for Livability, and the leaders in particular, as we try to make wise, God-filled decisions which balance our commitment to quality relationships while being open to new opportunities.

Your faithful prayers and support mean so much to us – thank you for being our co-travellers on this exciting journey!

God bless,

Adam Bonner Director, Community Engagement

Growth

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September

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

1 Corinthians 3:7

Week starting 7 SeptemberPlease pray for Victoria Education Centre’s new headteacher, Simon Brown. Simon, formerly VEC’s vice-principal of education, says: “I’m extremely excited about my new role, working with such a like-minded and enthusiastic team to provide the very best for each and every student. Our students’ achievements never cease to amaze me, and above all, they are a joy to be around.”

Week starting 14 SeptemberSome of our more able students at Nash College, our further education centre in Bromley, are returning to smart, refurbished residential accommodation this term. Known as The Hangout, this building gives students a foundation in supported living, with their own kitchen and living space. Please pray that is a real springboard to greater independence for students.

Livability’s famous Christmas carol service takes place in St-Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday 9th December. The evening will be presented by Pam Rhodes, along with a host of special guests. Tickets cost £12.50 - to reserve yours, call 020 7452 1212 or email events@livability.org.uk

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Week starting 21 SeptemberLet’s give thanks that Livability’s Enterprise Agency has recently won a £1.2m government grant, enabling us to help some 1,700 disabled and disadvantaged people to start their own business. Please pray this enables participants to enjoy the fulfilment of work.

Week starting 28 SeptemberLet’s give thanks for Anvil House, our Essex service for people with moderate to severe learning disabilities. Manager Jacqui Hockley is delighted that service users are enjoying extra ‘one to one’ time with carers, and asks for prayer as she recruits new staff.

Livability will now be able to help even more people start their own business

Did you know?Half of Britain’s 10m disabled people are over state pension age.

Source: Family Resources Survey (FRS) Disability prevalence estimates 2007/8

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Dotted around London are 15 Livability ‘link churches’, many of which were founded in Lord Shaftesbury’s day. Often started as ragged schools for children too ill-clad and destitute to attend regular schools, or mission halls, they combined caring for people’s spiritual needs along with their very urgent everyday needs.

Most link churches still work in London’s poorer communities, and Lord Shaftesbury would be only too familiar with some of the problems faced there today. When a ragged school was opened in Battersea in 1893, its tireless team of Christian volunteers served more than 7,000 meals a year to hungry people. Today, that work continues at the Shaftesbury Christian Centre on a high-rise estate in Battersea. This church still feeds the hungry, running a food bank in partnership with other local fellowships, as well as many other services for and with local people.

Livability is celebrating the faithfulness and impact of our link churches in a new booklet, out this autumn. As Mary White of Latymer Christian Fellowship, North Kensington, says: ‘We celebrated 150 years in 2013 and … the DNA of the old Latymer Road Mission remains the same - we want to get alongside the local people and make a difference. We couldn’t be here without Livability – they’ve enabled everything that’s good here.’

For more information on our new link church booklet, visit www.livability.org.uk/church

Focus on... Link churches

A long history of serving the community - the Food Bank team at Battersea Christian Centre

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Devotional

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing… This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15: 4-8

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October

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:16

Week starting 5 OctoberPlease pray for Tony Lyons, the new manager at Dolphin Court in Southend-on-Sea. Tony, who comes with 25 years’ experience in disability care, says: ‘I am really enjoying my role at Dolphin Court and all staff have been fantastic in making me feel welcome and supporting me in my new role. I am very excited about the future of Dolphin Court as there is a huge amount we can do with the service and residents. I have several projects starting or bouncing around in my head!’

Week starting 12 OctoberPraise God! Livability has recently been given a grant to extend our work on Dementia Friendly Churches. Working with the Alzheimer’s Society, we hope to resource more churches to meet the challenge that this disease brings to our families, churches and neighbourhoods.

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Week starting 19 OctoberRadio and media is a recent addition to the syllabus at Victoria Education Centre (VEC), after the school won a grant to create a radio and media suite on site. Enthusiastic students run their own radio station, VIBE – Victoria Inclusive Broadcasting Enterprise – and some will study up to GCSE standard. Vice-principal Sue Stratis says the radio station ‘helps to improve confidence and is another window of opportunity for our young people’. Please give thanks for this great addition to VEC life.

Week starting 26 OctoberNetteswell Rectory’s manager John McCredie asks for prayer for a resident who is facing treatment for a spine condition. Please pray the treatment is successful first time and gives ongoing relief from pain.

VEC’s new radio station boosts communication and confidence

This summer, Livability acquired four new residential care homes in Hampshire. This represents a significant development to our residential care work.

We have been looking for wise expansion opportunities for a little while, so when we learned about these homes, it felt like a good fit.

All four homes were previously owned by one private provider. They provide residential care for people between the ages of 18-65 with learning and/or physical disabilities. In total, we are welcoming 14 new residents into the Livability family.

Everyone from Livability who has visited remarks on the friendly, family-like feel to the homes, and that’s something we definitely don’t want to lose. We are keeping on 25 existing members of staff, which means that residents will have consistent relationships. Their daily lives will not be disrupted too much.

The homes are all in south east Hampshire – in Waterlooville, Hayling Island and Rowland Castle. None are very far from with Ashley House in Bognor Regis – one of Livability’s longest established care homes. Our aim is that the new homes will be able to work with the Ashley House team to develop a strong ‘hub’, delivering high quality services across the local area.

Please keep these four new homes in your prayers. Change can always bring worry and uncertainty, so please pray for the residents, that they will feel supported and safe. Pray too for the staff as they join Livability – that they would feel welcomed and supported in their important work. As we get to know them, we look forward to bring you news of the staff and residents of these four Hampshire homes over the coming months.

Focus on... new homes

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We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

2 Thessalonians 1:3

November

Week starting 2 NovemberDenise Andrews, deputy manager at Brookside, our residential home in north London, asks for prayer for ongoing refurbishments to their 22 flats. Two have been completed so far, and residents will move into their new accommodation shortly. Please give thanks for the work done to date, and the difference it will make to our residents’ quality of life.

Week starting 9 NovemberStudents who left our Further Education colleges this summer are now settling into their new routines. For some, this is a new place to live and for others, a move back home where they will try to access day provision. Donna Burgan, transitions manager at Nash College, says this can be a challenging process for students and their families. Please pray that each student will find the best possible provision.

Did you know?Disabled people have to spend an average £550 a month for additional services and support they need, such as extra heating and transport. However, disability charities estimate that recent government changes to benefits have left more than three million disabled people £1,000 worse off a year.

Source: Scope

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November

Week starting 16 NovemberPlease ask God for more staff to join the great team of carers at Keefield Lodge, our residential home for ten profoundly disabled people in Essex. Manager Sandra Wilson asks: ‘Please pray for the recruitment process and for new staff to integrate well.’

Week starting 23 NovemberBangladesh will celebrate its first international wheelchair games this week, thanks to Livability! We are helping to organise the event as part of a huge Asian conference on spinal cord injury. Maggie Muldoon reports that sport is increasingly seen as an important part of therapy by Livability’s Asian partners. Let’s ask for God’s blessing on the games’ 50 athletes and the conference’s 350 medics, and that spinal injury care in Asia will improve further through this event.

Sports is an important part of recovery for many spinal injury patients

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Week starting 30 NovemberEnergetic staff at Livability’s Lifestyle Choices East Midlands raised £5,000 through Strictly Brackley, a dance event the team organised that hit the local press. Money raised funded the creation of an independent living training flat, where service users can learn to look after their own home. Let’s thank God for the enthusiasm and dedication of so many of our staff, and pray His blessing on everyone who learns life skills at the new flat.

Did you know?Seven out of ten disabled people are concerned about pressure being placed on other disabled people to end their lives prematurely, if proposed changes

on assisted dying become law.

Source: Scope

7 out of 10

Manager Mandy wows the audience at Strictly Brackley!

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Focus on... The Home Design Appeal

Do you have a shelf in your kitchen that you can barely reach? Well, imagine if much of your kitchen was similarly hard to access. Would it change your cooking? Would you be able to invite your family for dinner?

Whether it’s in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or living areas, unsuitable housing can leave disabled people with everyday limitations and frustrations.

But home design is always changing and new equipment is being invented every year. It’s time for us to adapt and renovate some of our residential care homes. We want to take away frustration, and give residents choice and control over their lives. That’s why we are launching The Home Design Appeal.

By helping to improve our residents’ housing, they can enjoy more independence and freedom of choice than ever before. In the months ahead we want to renovate and adapt more bathrooms and kitchens in our residential homes. Many of these adaptations are simple yet they can have a big impact on our residents’ daily lives and well-being.

“Living here has really changed my life for the better but there are things that I am capable of doing, that some of the older facilities stop me from doing” – Resident, Livability John Grooms Court, Norwich

With your prayerful help, we can carry out vital renovations and upgrades and transform kitchens, bathrooms and living spaces to give better access and easier-to-use facilities.

We want all our residents to enjoy more independence and have a better quality of life. A life, lived to the full.

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December

Week starting 7 DecemberDozens of Livability supporters will be venturing out on cold autumn mornings to train to run the London Marathon next April. It’s Simone Leitch’s first marathon, and she’s running with her son Tommy. They decided to support Livability because a close friend lives at our Netteswell Rectory service for people with learning disabilities. Please pray for Simone, Tommy and all our runners as they start training.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

2 Peter 3:18

Mum and son Simone and Tommy – running for Livability

Week starting 14 DecemberOur Lifestyle Choices service in East Anglia now supports 19 service users, says manager Susan Elsworth, including support for elderly people with dementia, a new type of care for this service. ‘It’s been a new way of working for the staff team, and they’ve been absolutely brilliant and really embraced it,’ says Susan. Please pray this service goes from strength to strength in its support for vulnerable people.

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December

Week starting 21 DecemberMany of our service users and staff will be spending Christmas day together in our residential care homes. Please pray that this Christmas will see friendships formed and community life strengthened.

Week starting 28 DecemberChristmas is a great time to think about real happiness, which involves not just the pleasure from food and gifts, but relationship with those we love, and meaning, as we consider the Christmas story of God reaching out to mankind.

Please join us in thanking God for the success of The Happiness Course. This year we have trained 60 community leaders to take the course into their churches and neighbourhoods, as we are excited by the opportunities of the new year!

Singing carols at a Livability Christmas service

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Get in touch with Livability My details (PLEASE USE BLOCK CAPITALS)

Name:

Address:

Postcode:

Email:

Telephone:

Church name:

I’d like to find out about supporting Livability financially

I’d like to know more about how my church can welcome disabled people

Can Livability visit my church?

Please tell me about leaving a gift in my will

Please send me ___ more copies of this prayer diary

Please visit our website www.livability.org.uk to find out more about our work

Thank you for your support

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Contact us:Mat RayPray for Livability editor50 Scrutton Street London EC2A 4XQTel: 020 7452 2000

mray@livability.org.ukwww.livability.org.uk

Registered charity no. 1116530Registered in England no. 5967087Livability is a company limited by guarantee

Inspired by the legacy of john Grooms and the Shaftesbury Society

Did you know you can download this prayer diary from our website? Go to www.livability.org.uk/prayerdiary

If you need this publication in an alternative format, please call us on 020 7452 2000

Pause for thought

‘ Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.’

Billy Graham