Walton Parish
Nursing has continued to grow and develop and now has over 60 regular
clients and 16 trained volunteers.
We have continued
to run the chair based exercise class once a week and visit many
clients in their homes. Furthermore, WPN gave a talk during the
churches unity week and were blessed by more volunteers and a
donation to buy equipment, and other talks have been given to the
Catholic women’s league and at the University Campus Suffolk to
group of training district nurses.
After finishing
running the baby weighing session at The Oaks children’s centre,
WPN commenced a health drop in at the Laydens community café in
Langley Avenue. This is a huge success; we are able to offer health
advice, weight management and blood pressure checks to all ages.
Moreover, our
second healthy hearts course in March was well attended and also in
March we were able to meet the Methodist president of the conference,
Rev Howcroft, during his visit to Felixstowe.
In April, the
East of England Co-op adopted us as one of three charities for their
‘green token scheme’ and we have since received a cheque for £500
- half the possible amount.
In addition, we
have received training in dementia, mental health, diabetes,
bereavement and loss.
In August, WPN
was delighted to welcome Wendy Hubbard, who is an occupational
therapist to the team. This appointment means that Wendy and Lorna
now cover Monday to Thursday each week in serving the community of
Walton.
Also in August,
Lorna was interviewed by Jon Wright on Suffolk Radio during his
health slot.
What is more,
links have been built with St Elizabeth Hospice, the social work team
based at Queens Road and the dementia Felixstowe action alliance.
WPN is continuing
to build links with the community, as we reach out to all ages to
support people with their health - physical, emotional, social and
spiritual.
Lorna Bellamy, Parish Nurse
BOOST
Thank
you to all those who have championed our work over recent months.
We
have successfully completed our first year of Academy
Chaplaincy at
Felixstowe Academy, showing what can be achieved by creatively
linking schools and churches.
Ofsted,
after taking a good look at every aspect of our provision towards the
end of the summer term, rated our chaplaincy provision as providing
‘excellent
support’ (June
2015) for which we are extremely pleased. In education it is one of
the biggest endorsements we could have hoped for.
With
a new principal, and a year of experience under our belt, we are
looking forward to another year of opportunities and challenges at
Felixstowe Academy and beyond. The number of other schools enquiring
about wanting this type of provision is overwhelming!
Josh
has started a part-time PhD exploring the role of chaplains in
state-funded academies in the UK. This is a 5 year project which
Felixstowe Academy are supporting and this shows our commitment to
Academy Chaplaincy, this local partnership, and our future work too.
We
do need greater financial support to keep this work running
day-to-day and to develop it further. We have narrowed our costs down
to one salary (no building, no rent, no equipment), and our trustees
are very proud that this
is one of the best value ministries in the UK.
We
would ask individuals to consider supporting this project by giving
£10 per month to help support the 1,300 students, and the staff too,
at our local academy.
For further updates
do take a look at our new website, www.boostfelixstowe.org.uk,
where you can sign up to our regular newsletters.
The
Hope Trust
It’s been a
busy few months since we lasted reported to CTiF in May.
Our new cookery
classes are underway and it is wonderful to hear people share how
they have tried out the new recipes they have learnt here, in their
own kitchens – a welcome change to ready meals, or so we’re told!
Referrals from the local Physio team, Community team and Adult
Social Workers have also allowed us to reach out to people who
suddenly find themselves needing what hope trust
can offer – a chance to make new social connections, to get out of
the house for a few hours and meet new people, possibly even making
new friends along the way. It is so encouraging to hear a group of
older people sharing the story of their life both in the past and in
the present; as they share stories of how they spend their time, we
watch happily as they extend an invitation to people they have known
for a long time, or just met that morning, to join them – it’s
great to see new connections being made so naturally.
The work in the
residential homes also continues with the busy run-up to Christmas
being planned. In addition to all the services being taken into the
homes, each residential home will be asked if they still have the
hope trust Christmas DVD that they
can make use of at any point during the holiday season.
The charity has
successfully become a new Charitable Incorporated Organisation, and
whilst none of our clients would have noticed any changes, for the
charity itself there has been a lot of work taking place behind the
scenes including updating headed paper and all advertising to show
our new charity number.
The support of so
many local churches, and individuals, means that hope trust
can continue to offer most of what it does free of charge; our
sincere thanks to all who make this possible.
Please keep on
under-pinning our work with prayer – we know it makes such a
difference!
Paul and
Sheila Taylor 01394 272592 info@hopetrust.org.uk
www.hopetrust.org.uk
FELIXSTOWE
LISTENING SERVICE (FLS)
As
we approach the end of our fourth year, we are all too aware and very
grateful for the many ways in which God has blessed our work. In the
four years we have been able to provide a safe and caring place for
people who are experiencing life difficulties to share their story in
confidence and explore their way ahead. However, we are also aware
that there are a great many more people out there in the community
who would benefit from meeting, one-to-one, with one of our trained
listeners or counsellors and we continue to invite the local churches
to work in partnership with us by telling people the support which we
can offer.
We
are delighted that we now have ten local churches represented on our
volunteer team. Our Christian faith is what motivates us and
sustains us in what can sometimes be stressful, although always very
fulfilling work. We are always very pleased to talk to church
groups and congregations about FLS. As part of Inspire Counselling &
Training, we can also help to arrange training in pastoral care,
listening skills and a range of subjects related to mental health
wellbeing.
Our
main challenges for our fifth year are to ensure a more secure
financial foundation for our work, which currently is very reliant on
fundraising, and to work towards having our own premises. We would
be very interested to hear from any other Christian group which could
be interesting in sharing premises.
Margaret
Bale
FLS
Team Leader
Tel.
07896 326459
e-mail:
felixstowelisten@gmail.com
