Welcome to the Spring 2010 Newsletter
We would like to begin this Newsletter by offering a very warm welcome to all new members who have joined the Society during 2010. We hope that you enjoy receiving our Newsletter and gain a great deal through your membership. Support, advice, information and friendship are readily available whenever it is needed.
A Summer Outing
The Annual Society Summer Outing, which this year will be to Whitby, is now fully booked.
Society Summer Holiday
The summer holiday has been booked at the Charnwood Hotel, Skegness between 10th and the 17th July 2010. The price is £235 for members of the Society and their guides. There are still some places available for members and their guides. Please telephone Lynn on 0191 5673939 to book your place.
Turkey and Tinsel Holiday
A Turkey and Tinsel Holiday has been arranged between the 1st and the 5th November 2010 at the Raynscourt Hotel, Great Yarmouth. The cost will be £165 per person. A £25 non returnable deposit is required and bookings can be taken now. Please telephone Lynn on 0191 5673939 to reserve your place.
New faces at the Society
On 19th April 2010 we will be welcoming two Students from Sunderland University. They will be undertaking a thirty day work placement with the Society. The Students are studying for a BA (Hons) in Social Work and part of their course requires them to work within a service providing organisation.
This will be the second year that the Society has offered a work placement to Students.
We shall also have a young man working with us in the office in order to gain work experience over a six week period. Both Geoff Smart and his Guide Dog, Aster, will help in the main office with reception duties.
Changes at the Society
The Trustees decided at their meeting in February to appoint the first ever Executive Officer of Sunderland and North Durham Royal Society for the Blind. Richard Wood was offered the position and duly accepted. In addition to his fundraising and development work, Richard will now have responsibility for all of the day to day management of the Society.
Everybody needs friends
The Society is very keen to form a group of Volunteers to be known as the “Friends of the Society” in order to assist with fundraising and promotional activities. Membership of the group will be open to anyone interested in volunteering to help the Society in its work. No experience is necessary but enthusiasm and a sense of humour would be a great help.
Fundraising activities such as Coffee Mornings, Flag Day Collections, Jumble Sales and Raffles all require a reliable team of Volunteers to ensure their success. New ideas for events would also be welcome.
Anyone interested should contact Richard on 0191 5673939 for further information.
Coffee Mornings
Coffee Mornings will be held at 8, Foyle Street on the following dates during 2010. Everyone is welcome.
Wednesday 14th April
Wednesday 12th May
Wednesday 9th June
Wednesday 7th July (one week earlier than usual due to Society Holiday)
Wednesday 11th August
Wednesday 8th September
Wednesday 13th October
Wednesday 10th November
Wednesday 8th December
Sunderland Macular Support Group
Sunderland Macular Support Group is open to anyone with Macular Disease or who is interested in the condition. Meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month in the Education Room of Sunderland City Library, Fawcett Street, Sunderland commencing at 1:30pm.
The Support Group will celebrate its 2nd birthday at the meeting on April 28th 2010. Tea and coffee will be available together with a special birthday cake. If any member wishes to bring other contributions towards a celebration tea we would be most grateful.
Meetings will be held on;
Wednesday 28th April 2010 - The speaker will be Mr Graham Stokes, Sales Manager for Dolphin Computer Access.
Wednesday 26th May 2010 - Oakhouse Foods Home Meals Service will give a presentation which will include free food tasting.
Wednesday 23rd June 2010 – Adele Wood of Enhanced Vision will once again give a presentation and demonstration of specialist equipment for the visually impaired.
Sunderland Sensory Exhibition
The 2010 Sensory Exhibition – “Wear Vision – Wear Hear” will take place at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday 10th November 2010. Please note that this is a week later than announced in the Winter Newsletter. We changed the date in order to avoid a clash with a similar Exhibition held in London.
This year’s event promises to be even bigger than our first Exhibition held last year. More and more companies wish to be involved and we are looking to include many new demonstrations.
Sit and Be Fit
We commenced the ten week series of Sit and be Fit hour long sessions on Friday 12th March. These started off taking place at 44, Mowbray Road commencing at 2pm. However, we now hold them here at the office at 8, Foyle Street. There is still time for more people to join in. Sessions cost £2 per person and all of the exercises are fully supervised and led by trained Assistants. Everyone who has joined has already reported feeling great benefit from regular exercise. If anyone is interested in attending these sessions please telephone Lynn at Foyle Street on 0191 5673939 to book a place.
The exercises are all designed for participants to do whilst sitting and each session is great fun.
Telephone Support and Befriending Service
We have now installed a new telephone system at Foyle Street which allows for a dedicated number exclusively for the telephone support and befriending service. In order to move ahead with this service we have arranged for specialist training for volunteers who would be willing to train as Telephone Befrienders.
Training will be provided by Sunderland Counselling Services.
We are still looking for people who are willing to offer a few hours of their time to answer calls from blind and visually impaired people who need support and a friendly voice. The aim is to build up a team of volunteers so that we can create a rota and share the workload.
If you are interested in volunteering, or want to know more about what is required, please telephone the office on 0191 5673939.
Younger Person’s Group
The Society is looking into forming a younger person’s social group for people who are blind or partially sighted to meet and enjoy time together. This may include going to and taking part in sporting activities such a 5-a-side football, swimming, etc or going out for meals, theatre or cinema.
A questionnaire is in the process of being sent out to everyone under 35 years of age registered as blind or partially sighted, seeking their views on the types of activities they would be interested in.
If you are interested in joining this type of group or want to share your ideas with us, please contact the Society. Be sure to leave your contact details. No one will contact you from the Society unless you have asked them to.
Art and Craft
We have been successful in our search for funding to enable the Society to offer a series of Art and Craft sessions. A grant from Sunderland City Council’s Family, Adult and Community Learning scheme has enabled this series of activities to take place at Bunny Hill Community Centre, Sunderland. Several people expressed an interest in Art and Crafts when we undertook the Survey to all registered blind and visually impaired people in Sunderland over a year ago.
Further details, including dates and times of each session, are available by contacting the office on 0191 5673939.
Healthy Walks
The Society is currently exploring the possibility of organising a series of healthy walks for members. Further details will appear in future editions of the Newsletter. It would be extremely helpful if members wishing to join in would contact Lynn on 0191 5673939 to register their interest. We will then contact everyone who has expressed an interest as soon as we arrange the date and time of the first walk. Trained guides will accompany each group of walkers. It is intended to hold the first walk at Herrington Country Park where there are refreshment and toilet facilities. We are currently exploring the possibility of providing transport to and from Herrington Country Park.
Sunderland City Council
Our partnership with Sunderland City Council’s Sensory Support Team continues to flourish and we are always pleased to welcome members of the team to our Monthly Coffee Mornings and the Macular Support Group. This gives Society members an opportunity to raise matters with the team. In addition, should any member wish to attend a private meeting with a representative of the Sensory Support Team, this can be arranged and held at 8, Foyle Street.
News from the City Library
On April 30th the City Library’s Visually Impaired Readers Group will be visiting the China Exhibition at the Museum and Winter Gardens. The Group will be given a tour of the Exhibition and an opportunity to hold some of the objects on display.
Cultural Diversity Day takes place on Saturday 15th May at the City Library and Arts Centre. Chinese artist Lip Lee will be holding activities for children throughout the day and Sangini will be hosting henna hand painting and Saree dressing sessions on the morning and Asian food tasting sessions during the afternoon. Everyone is welcome to come along.
Make a noise in libraries fortnight takes place in June and both the City Library VIP Reader’s Group and Washington Town Centre Reader’s Group are having a visit from a member of the Soundings Talking Book Team, who will talk about their work, the authors who read the books and answer any questions the group may wish to ask. New members are always welcome to join either group.
For more information on any topics mentioned above please contact Vivienne Foster, Librarian, Access and Inclusion on 0191 5618463.
How would you prefer to receive your copy of the quarterly Newsletter in future?
Several members have asked if they could receive the Newsletter in large print instead of on tape. This would of course provide a ready reference to dates of meetings and events without having to return it.
If you would prefer to receive the Newsletter in large print in future please telephone Lynn in the office on 0191 5673939 to arrange this.
Easter Raffle Prize Winners
The Easter Raffle held in the office at Foyle Street raised £65. We would like to thank everyone who purchased tickets.
The prize winners were as follows;
1st Prize – Mrs M Carse ticket number 245
2nd Prize – Jenny Aitchinson ticket number 238
3rd Prize – Jean Freeman ticket number 215
4th Prize – Mr Richardson ticket number 333
Work Experience Opportunities for Blind and Partially Sighted People.
Action for Blind People has developed a Social Enterprise and Employment Development Project known as SEED to provide work experience opportunities for blind and partially sighted people within safe and supportive environments.
The work experience placements will take place in social enterprises all across England and will be in the form of:
Work Taster Sessions – these sessions will last for one day and allow you to try out a job or vocation area that you are interested in. If you don’t like the job you can always try another one.
Work Experience Sessions – these sessions will last for up to two weeks and will give you a more in depth experience of a particular job and working environment. You can also try as many of these placements as you like.
Trainee placements – there are a limited number of 6 month, paid trainee placements available to provide fully supported experience of work and access to work based training whilst engaging in a “real” job.
Social enterprises are organisations that trade for social and environmental purposes. Just like any other business, a social enterprise aims to generate an income but instead of using this for personal gain, their profits are reinvested back into the business or local community in order to further their social aims.
By nature, social enterprises are very supportive environments and are therefore the ideal place for you to develop important skills, build confidence and move one step closer to gaining employment.
If anyone is interested in taking part in the work experience placements or if you would like some more information please contact the SEED team on 0113 386 2800.
Do you need help using computers?
The Society has been successful with two funding applications and will now set up two different schemes for those wishing to learn about the use of computers.
We are very pleased to report that to date 16 people have contacted the Society to register their interest in learning about computers since the Winter Newsletter was published. Geraldine is meeting with the computer tutor and everyone who has contacted the Society will find out soon when the sessions will be starting. Sessions are free and will include learning how to use specialist software for those who require it.
If you have not yet registered your interest in attending these sessions but would like to find out more information please telephone 0191 5673939. Absolute beginners and those with experience are all welcome.
Barley Mow Sensory Garden
Following our success last year in winning a merit award from the Royal Horticultural Society’s Northumbria in Bloom competition and first prize in the Sunderland in Bloom Competition, we are organising a schedule of meetings for the summer months in order to tend the garden. If anyone would like to join the Gardening Group they would be most welcome.
We are planning a visit to the Winter Gardens to meet the experts who organised Mowbray Park in order to pick up some handy hints as well as a visit to the newly planted sensory garden in Barnes Park.
If you are a keen gardener or even a fair weather one we would be pleased to hear from you. A timetable of meeting dates will be available soon at the office so please feel free to call in and leave your name and contact details.
Art and the Sensory Garden
During the winter months members of the gardening group have been involved in an exciting partnership project involving the creation of an artwork for Barley Mow sensory garden. The group has met with an artist to discuss ideas and the artist has than worked with young people from Sunderland Youth Offending Team to design six bird nesting boxes and a seat for the garden.
The seat is in its final stages of design and is to be made in metal in the shape of a scallop shell with raised images of Fulwell Mill, Sunderland Empire, Black Cats, Penshaw Monument and the Sunderland City Coat of Arms.
The images will be cut out and raised in metal so that people who are blind or partially sighted can trace and feel the images with their hands. It is also hoped to have the images of two guide dogs on the garden railings. We shall let everyone know when the seat is installed and set a date for a celebratory event in the Summer Newsletter.
Rags to Riches
Our appeal for clothing, bric a brac, household goods, toys, books, etc is going extremely well. The Sunderland Echo included an article about the appeal around Easter time and we have been inundated with donations of stock to sell. We hope to find an empty shop in the City Centre to use for a two to three week period in order to run our Nearly New Shop. Offers of stock to sell are still welcome and we can arrange collection if you wish by telephoning the office on 0191 5673939.
Membership Fee
Following the publication of the Winter Newsletter, which included an item about the possible introduction of a £5 annual membership subscription, the Trustees have decided to proceed with this. There were no comments received from members against the idea and quite a lot of members felt it would be a sensible idea.
A letter will be sent out to every member in the very near future requesting payment of the subscription.
National Blind Ten Pin Bowling Association
The Society has been approached by the Chairman of the National Blind Tenpin Bowling Association to ask if any of our members may be interested in forming a Sunderland Tenpin Bowling Club and entering the Doubles League.
Teams will consist of two players and Clubs can enter as many teams as they wish. League games would all be played at our local Tenpin Bowling Alley and all points are recorded and then forwarded to the National Association.
If anyone is interested and would like to learn more please telephone Richard Wood on 0191 5673939
