Wirral Mencap

Having a brilliant time at Bananas Bingo! Options for Supported Living your Suzanne Hutchinson is a star.

Tonight's the night! we hope to see many of you at the bananas bingo and ready to win some prizes!
#bingo

WOW 4000 hours have been contributed to Wirral Mencap over the last year! We cannot thank you enough!
#volunteersweek
p.s - Don't be fooled by these figures, we still want and need your help, so if you're thinking about volunteering, get in touch!

Volunteers Week, Day 7: Gateway Award Volunteer
The Gateway Award is a national Mencap scheme that encourages people to try new things, learn skills and engage more in the community. People on the scheme have to complete a certain number of hours on the following things:
Hobbies and Recreation... Health and Fitness Lifestyle and Independence skills Volunteering Challenge... ...And there are Bronze, Silver and Gold levels!
At Wirral Mencap we support people to do the Gateway Award in two different ways.
1. If people are quite independent, they can meet with Julie once a month and she will help them to find activities, courses, and voluntary placements in the community. She will also match them them with a Wirral Mencap Buddy if needed! (see Sundays post)
2. We also run a day service version of the award. Groups of people meet one day a week to do the activities all together. These days are organised and run by our fabulous Gateway Award staff so people that need extra support can come. Sometimes though we need an extra pair of hands which is where our fabulous Gateway Award volunteers come in! They get stuck right in, supporting the participants to meaningfully engage in all the activities so they are getting the most they can from it. We are also so grateful as they commit nearly 5 hours a week. Thank you to all Gateway volunteers past and present, including Graham, Sam, Julie and Dave!
See More

Only 2 days until the big bananas bingo event!
#Bingo #event #charity #wirralmencap #wirral

Sarah and Tina are having a great time at the Hive's celebration evening. Lovely to see Jo who used to work on Gateway looking all posh!!

Volunteers Week, Day 6: Courses volunteer
Throughout the year we put on courses that we think could help empower people to do more for themselves; these include Cookery, Numbers and Money, Reading and Writing, Politics and Voting, Relationships and Dating, and coming soon...Skills for Independent Living.
We really appreciate the support of our volunteers to help the learners get the most out of the course.
... We believe in giving proportionate support, not so much that the learner isn't challenging themselves and not so little that they are not able to engage. Our volunteers do this really well. Good support is essential to supporting positive outcomes and boosting peoples confidence.
Thanks especially to Jane Asterley who has helped on all our cookery courses and Numbers and Money! (as well as being a fabulous fundraiser and all-round supporter!
See More

There are still some spaces left for the free transition event, please call the office on 0151 666 1829 for more information and to book a place.
#Charity #Wirralmencap #Merseyside #Event

Volunteers Week, Day 5: Crossbow Club Team
Nearly 53 years ago a group of teenagers set up a social club for adults with additional needs, that same group of people are running the club today! What an amazing tale of volunteer commitment! Two years ago they were recognized by Wirral Connect as Volunteer Team of the year (pictured below).
The club is still going strong with over 60 people attending weekly and many more on the books, and it is like family for some of the attend...ees that have been there since the beginning.
We would love for the club to go on forever, so we need some enthusiastic and committed volunteers to help as and when the current volunteers need to take a step back.
If you want to be part of something amazing, get in touch to sign up as a volunteer!
And thanks as always to Ken, Lynda, Ken, Carol, Karl and Linda!
See More

New Blue Badge rules in England to come into force on the 30th August.
Last year the government announced its intention to expand the blue badge rules in England to make it easier for people with hidden disabilities such as autism to qualify. After a lengthy delay the government has now published regulations confirming that these new rules will start to apply from the 30 August 2019.
https://e-activist.com/ea-action/enclickâ €¦

Volunteers Week, Day 4: Information and Advice Support
Our Information and Advice Manager Tina has a lot of people that need her support, so she needs a bit of help checking in with people, attending home visits and getting feedback. This is where her volunteers come in handy.
Here is a picture of Lesley who started with Wirral Mencap as an Information and Advice volunteer and is now a staff member one day a week. We would also like to thank Nicola Carr who has recently join...ed Tina!
She has enough work for an army but currently only has one volunteer so if you think you would be good at talking to carers and/or people with a learning disability, get in touch!
#volunteersweek
See More

The office will be closed today from 2:30pm due to a staff event. We will reopen tomorrow morning at 9am.The office will be closed today from 2:30pm due to a staff event. We will reopen tomorrow morning at 9am.

This Saturday!! we hope to see you there for exciting bingo games and prizes!
#Bingo #Charity #WirralMencap #Wirral #Merseyside

Volunteers Week, Day 3: Monday Lunch Club Volunteers
Every Monday we host a lunch club which is completely dependent on volunteers. It is attended by nearly 30 people each week and is a really significant point in many of our members week.
The aim of the lunch club is to provide a social opportunity for many people that might not otherwise get to meet new people. Lunch club also acts as a great starting point for new members, who want to branch out but aren't sure what other... Wirral Mencap services they might want.
The volunteers play a valuable role, talking to people, listening to them, running games and activities and signposting to other things.
Thank you to the whole Monday Lunch Club team; Jean, Barry, Gwen, Julie and Sarah! (unfortunately we don't have a piccie of the team, but here are some of the attendees!)
#volunteersweek
See More

Volunteers Week, Day 2: Buddy
Many people with a mild to moderate learning disability live independently or with very little support. Whilst it is great for people to be independent, it often means people can become isolated and lack confidence to try new things and get out into the community.
A Buddy is a Wirral Mencap volunteer that is matched with someone with a learning disability. They meet once a week to do something together that helps that person achieve something, l...ike do volunteering or work towards a personal goal.
Kathy wasn't able to go out on her own as she had never received any travel or personal safety training. It was a shame for her as she has so much energy and loves being sociable. We matched Kathy with Julie, a new Wirral Mencap volunteer. Over time, Julie got Kathy to meet her further and further away from her home, until eventually she was travelling all the way to Birkenhead on her own. Over the two years since then, Kathy has been able to show that she can be safe and independent and as a result is moving out of residential care and into a more independent setting. She is nervous about the big step but is excited for what her future holds! Here is a picture of her with the crossbow team including her buddy Julie (who is now a Wirral Mencap staff member)
Also pictured is Graham and Mikey, a brand new buddy match. Graham started as a Gateway volunteer and has since gained employment with another learning disability organisation, not wanting to stop his volunteering he is now seeing Mikey one afternoon a week!
#volunteersweek
See More

Volunteers Week, Day 1: Fundraiser
We are a local charity, completely independent of the national Mencap charity. This means we need to source all our own funds. We get some in through grant applications and bids, but a lot of our important work is do-able thanks to the kind donations of the public!
In order to get all these lovely donations we need willing volunteers to stand at supermarkets with buckets (in all weather), help people pack the shopping and host tombola stalls... at events.
In 2018 our fabulous team of volunteers even dressed up as elves for a week to host the Santa's Grotto at Gordale Garden Centre.
We'd like to pay special thanks to our Chairperson Gwen and fabulous Simon who have the contributed the most fundraising hours this year!
#volunteersweek
See More

Worth dropping by to get a feel for what it’s like.

It Volunteers Week 1st-7th June!
At Wirral Mencap we need volunteers to help us across all of the work we do, and we are so lucky to have such an amazing group of volunteers!
Stay tuned to our Facebook this week as we will be profiling a different volunteer post each day...