winter newsletter 2015

NEWSLETTER Winter 2015

The Lions donate to the Horticulture group

On Thursday 29th February The Radstock and Midsomer Norton Lions joined the Horticulture group to present them with a cheque of £200 to go to towards specially adapted gardening equipment and a water butt to help conserve water.

SWALLOW’s Annual General Meeting

The SWALLOW Annual General Meeting was held at our Community Cafe in Radstock on Monday 8th December. The event was a great success and saw many members and families attending. Full report and more photos on page 4.

Page 2: Courses Page 3: Courses Page 4: AGM Page 5: Community Cafe and Work Skills Enterprise Page 6: Supported Housing Page 7: Fundraising and Marketing Page 8: News

Courses

Football Report: “Swallow FC did brilliantly, they won

one game & drew two & only

narrowly lost a couple of others.

Dan Bates scored 3 & Chris Atkins

scored 1. Mark Pearce won Player

Of The Tournament for

outstanding goalkeeping”

Sam Newbold– Senior Outreach

SWALLOW FC

Thank You to Mandy and John Dando who came to support us,

but who also kindly donated the team hoodies.

“The youth group welcomed its newest staff

member Claire. On her first day they enjoyed

making pitta bread sarnies and creating

colourful wall hangings” Lily Holloway– Youth

Group Leader

“I love SWALLOW Youth Club it is the

best club in the world, I enjoy all the

activities, my favourite is Zumba with

Kerrie” Lucy Young - Youth Group

Member

Youth Group

Winter Newsletter 2015

Courses

“The group made jewelled boxes with

Pamela (SWALLOW staff member).

The end results were gorgeous and

each box was very different. We

finished the day with mulled wine and

mince pies”

Caroline Thatcher– Support Worker

Ladies’ and Men’s Night

Boogie Nights

We are pleased to welcome new teacher Kerrie Burt. The group have thoroughly enjoyed the new Zumba routines. Boogie nights continues to be one of our most popular activities helping to bring people together through dance.

Work Skills Horticulture Group

The group are looking forward to presenting a dance at the Evaluation

Day on the 24th February 2015.

The Horticulture grouped welcomed its new manager Alexia Mae Scott. The group have been growing broad beans, making Christmas wreaths and planting snowdrops. The group is busy preparing to showcase its display for Evaluation Day.


Annual General Meeting Our thanks go to all those who attended our AGM on December 8th in Radstock. Over 60 guests attended the event and we welcomed Paul Myers Mayor of Midsomer Norton and Geoff Fuller Councillor for Westfield. This year we also welcomed Peter Mills as our Treasurer. The Trustee Board reported on all that SWALLOW has achieved. Thanks to all who attended and bought raffle tickets, you made the night happen, in total we raised over £1,000. A huge thank you to all donations for the raffle, an amazing response and generosity. Here’s to next time.......


Community Cafe

News from the Cafe Since November last year the cafe has been open three days a week

Wednesday to Friday and has had great support from the community

with many regular customers. The cafe offers a hearty lunch and a

range of home baked treats some now being made in the cafe by the

members– with Patti being the first home baker.

We would like to give a big ‘Thank

You’ to Somer Valley Rotary, who

have provided the funding for our

new uniforms”

Cafe team

Work Skills Enterprise “We have been very busy in the run up to Christmas. We have produced some new craft lines which have included individual Christmas cards, festive birds, joss stick holders and have had a number of very successful stalls at local Christmas fairs” Georgi, Maggie and the Work Skills team.

“We enjoyed attending the big Christmas

fair in the Radstock museum and would

like to thank all the Radco customers that

donated so generously into our collection

boxes” Maggie Blake

“I really like decorating the tissue pots

and helping out with the card making”

Jenny


Supported Housing

In December some of the tenants of Redfield Road and Hawthorns visited the Chinese Lantern Show at Longleat, which was the first of it’s kind in Europe. There were over 30 illuminations to discover, all set against the backdrop of Longleat House.

Members in Longleat Garden’s

“I really enjoyed myself on the trip, the

Blue Peter Lantern was my favourite”

Sarah Stanton Hobbs

Base House

“The Base House members really enjoyed their Christmas party at the Radstock Hotel, buffet and skittles evening” Claire Cashman- Senior

Base House Support Worker

“We have had to say good bye to David Harwood as he won’t be returning, he will be missed by the Friday group” “Fosse Way School have started staying on Sundays, so far the students are really enjoying themselves, cooking carbonara, playing pool and taking photos of the Base house to show their fellow students in school” Claire Cashman Senior Support Worker


Fundraising and Marketing

On Friday 24th January at Prattens Social Club SWALLOW participated in the “Big Local Dragons Den Event” there were 17 other individual charities and groups each pitching their ideas for the £500 award. SWALLOW was one of the ten winners and the money will help fund a fun club outing to a seaside resort in the summer.

Zoe Holding our certificate of £500 Bath Half Marathon

We have a full team for the Bath Half Marathon. The race takes place on Sunday the 1st March at 11am. We’d love to see as many faces as possible, if you’d like to join us in cheering please meet us at Queens Square. Also if you would like to donate to any of our runners including our member Mark Filer please visit our JustGiving site: www.justgiving.com/swallow A huge thank you to all our runners for your dedication to our cause and all your fundraising efforts so far. GO TEAM SWALLOW!

A photo from last years Bath Half Marathon


News – Join us!

Courses

New arrivals and farewells

Farewell and Thankyou

Many thanks to Caroline Thatcher who has contributed greatly to our work at SWALLOW. We say a big welcome to Alexia Mae Scott who is taking on the role as Courses

Development Manager.

We also say goodbye to Mike Jedege a social Work Student who has been with us for three months. We wish him all the best for the future.

Welcome to our new staff Claire Coleman– Youth Club Support Worker

SWALLOW

The Old Engine House

Old Pit Road

Midsomer Norton

BA34BD

01761 414034

[email protected]

www.swallowcharity.org

Dates for the Diary:

Evaluation Day: 24th February

Bath Half Marathon: 1st March

SWALLOW Tales: 18th April


There are places available in the Work Skills Horticulture Group. The group meets every Thursday 10am until 4pm New Art Group at St John’s Church Hall, Keynsham every Tuesday 10am until 2pm. To find out more about either courses call Judy on 01761 414034.

winter newsletter 2015

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