Herefordshire Mind Activities & Groups
Month: June 2024
Herefordshire Mind Peer Support Groups
Women What Farm save the dates
Mind sponsored event
Living Well Roadshows – dates for July
Snowdon Conquered for SIL!
After months of training an intrepid team of climbers from Services for Independent Living (SIL) has successfully climbed Mount Snowdon, along with friends from the Vixens Rugy team.
The idea of the challenge came from Millie Davies, SIL’s HR & Business Support Administrator and Lydia Lawrence, SIL’s Homecare Care Coordinator. The pair who run together agreed they would like to do something which would benefit the people who use SIL’s services.
They were joined by Jade Perks, SIL’s Homecare Deputy Manager who, as Captain of the Vixens, roped in fellow players to be part of the climbing squad.
The trio secured sponsorship from local businesses 7One7 Engineering, Frank H Dale Ltd and The Rotary Club, and set up a Just Giving page. Training not only included weekend treks up hills of varying heights, but also sponsored cycles on static bikes in Morrisons, Leominster. Preparation took place throughout the winter, hard work in the dark, but giving way to spectacular sunrises on the peaks.
Thanks to the teams’ commitment and hard work Walk with SIL raised £3, 467.19. All the money raised will be spent on activities for SIL’s service users.
The team would like to thank all the sponsors and everyone who supported the challenge, including Simon the mascot, who was with them every step of the way!
Springboard Success for SIL Staff
Services for Independent Living is delighted that three of its office staff have successfully completed the Springboard Early Career Success Programme, designed by NMITE, the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering.
The Programme aims to develop the talents and skills of employees through a structured course, teaching resilience, problem solving, communication, creativity, leadership and decision making.
The course, which started in February 2023, has taken over a year to complete but despite studying while working full time Karen Hunt, Millie Davies and Lydia Lawrence felt that the experience has been valuable and a real benefit to their career development.
When asked which part of the course has had the most impact both Millie and Lydia said that without a doubt it was the project management module. From this session the duo came up with the idea of Walk with SIL.
Lydia said: “After the day we wondered what we could do as our project to put our new skills into practice. We thought of an evening event and then decided we wanted to do something that would help our service users.”
Millie added: “From this we decided a challenge with all the planning that would involve was the right thing to do – and so came up with Walk with SIL, a sponsored walk of Snowdon. We completed it last month and raised over £3,467.19 for SIL”.
Both agreed that the course has helped with goal setting and reflection, important skills in the workplace.
Karen agreed that the course has been very useful. When asked what she had taken from the learning she said: “For me the best thing is that it has made me push my own boundaries. I am now much happier working outside my comfort zone. We all really liked the first session on self-management. That has taught us so many useful tools for looking after ourselves.”
