Wirral Donate/News Sept 07

Wirral Resource Centre and Toy Library



We are a specialised Centre offering OFSTED regulated childcare sessions to premature babies and children with special needs (aged 0-5 years). We have a team of qualified staff and an abundance of volunteers, alongside visiting professionals including Neo-natal Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists and Physiotherapists. We currently have 120 children attending our specialised play sessions. The sessions are designed to develop their own individual learning and development skills, mainly through play activities both indoors in the nursery and light room and outside in the adventure playground and sensory garden. We have visiting speakers on a monthly basis, offering advice, support and training on a huge variety of topics from baby massage to direct payments. Our much loved Centre Co-ordinator, Norah Knowles, has recently retired but happily Lynn Chamberlain has taken over the role, with much enthusiasm and dedication. Plans are now in hand for us to have our own website and to increase our administrative capacity by employing a dedicated secretary. We continue to thrive thanks to generous donations, dedicated staff and willing volunteers.

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Multiple Sclerosis Society: Wirral Branch

Some 50% of people in Wirral affected by MS are now members of the Wirral Branch.

Our Support Officer and her team are extremely active in providing a wide spectrum of support through mobility advice to “moral support”, especially for those newly diagnosed. Social activities are very popular with regular lunches and evening meals providing an opportunity for members and supporters to meet in a relaxed, informal atmosphere .

Our partnership activities with Total Fitness (hydrotherapy) and the MS Support Centre, Saltney (specialised physiotherapy etc) are also increasingly popular and well used by our members. Our newly elected volunteer Fundraising Officer, pictured, got off to an excellent start with a highly successful Charity Shop week in Liscard and is now planning a Celebrity Charity Auction.

Our, recently replaced, wheelchair accessible minibus is well used by the membership and is now fully operated by volunteer drivers and escorts.

One of our members was sponsored recently to attend an adult course in Conductive Education, which aims to help people come to terms with “motor disorders”. The branch was commended for its support of this research initiative and was presented with a certificate by the MS Society National Centre.

The support we receive from Wirral Donate helps us to continue our work in helping people in Wirral affected by MS. Our sincere thanks to all Wirral Donate donors.

For more information about Multiple Sclerosis and the Wirral Branch please visit our website at: www.mssociety.org.uk/wirral

Copyright © Wirral Donate 2008. Registered Charity - 1066247. All Rights Reserved.
42/44 Market Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 5BT
Tel No. 0151 666 2220

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Wirral Donate
NEWS

Wirral Donate NEWS is a newsletter that is produced every six months and will keep you up-to-date on the goings-on of our six charities. Wirral Donate NEWS is also available in pamphlet form. Please contact us for more information. We have an archive of Newsletters and the links for each of these are listed below.

March 2010 Sept 2009 March 2009 Sept 2008 Sept 2007 Feb 2007

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September 2007 Newsletter

It is now more than 12 years since several Wirral charities got together to form Wirral Donate The objective being that Wirral Donate would raise funds for the member charities through ‘give-as-you-earn’ by asking caring people in employment to make regular donations from their pay packet. The great advantage of helping charities in this way is that the Government refunds to the charity the tax you paid on your donation. So, if you are a standard taxpayer and pledge £5 per month, your take home pay would be reduced by only £3.90 but we would receive £5.
The idea to form Wirral Donate came from Helen Benson, who with her late husband, Keith, had already been very much involved in establishing and developing Wirral Autistic Society. Helen has been our Honorary Secretary since the beginning but this year she retired from the post. We thank her for her dedication and hard work and are very pleased that she will continue as a member of our Management Committee. We are currently looking for a volunteer to help in the work of contacting employers and employees to seek donations. If you know someone who you think may be willing to help, please contact our new Honorary Secretary, Ray Collings, at Age Concern Wirral on 0151 666 2220. George Eakin - Chairman, Wirral Donate

Wirral Talking Newspaper

	Despite the recent postal difficulties, the Wirral Talking Newspaper has managed to maintain its service to the blind and partially sighted community on the Wirral. We depend on a regular postal service. We send out mail every Friday and rely on getting it back the following Wednesday for the next week’s edition.
When the post is disrupted, for whatever reason, it is a real problem. The recent postal strikes have caused us to double our existing stock of wallets and tapes so that we can still send out tapes even if we don’t get any back. As a matter of interest, since we started in 1984, we have sent out approximately 551,470 tapes.

	Now that tape cassette recorders are coming to the end of their commercial life, we are exploring new ways to supply the Talking Newspaper to our listeners. We have been advised that CDs are not a practical option, so we are considering MP3 players together with memory sticks. Whatever our problems, it is always good to know we have the support and interest of the donors to Wirral Donate to help us.

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Crosroads in Wirral: Caring for Carers

It seems that so much is going on at the moment with the start of our new CAMEO Club now firmly established in Upton, with seven families currently benefiting from this special support for people in the early stages of memory loss and their carers. We have raised the money to fund the first year of this service but we need to raise more for next year.
In Carers Week in June, we held a very successful lunch for carers, as you can see from the photograph above. Some of carers attending have formed a Carers Group, which will be meeting again in the autumn to plan activities and explore further support for their caring role.
We are hoping to expand our services for parent carers and our palliative care, as well as meeting the ever-increasing demand for our respite care for carers. We cannot meet the need because of a lack of suitable staff who have to work at all times of the day, evenings and weekends to fit in with carers’ needs. Crossroads is always grateful for your donations, which help us to support the 200 families we currently help.

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Wirral Autistic Society

	March this year saw the departure of our longserving Chief Executive, Mike Hatton, who is taking a well-deserved retirement after 23 years service. While very sad to see Mike go, we welcome Dianne Asher who has taken over from Mike. Dianne is a very experienced and highly qualified manager, who is looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. Challenges are probably the right word as we prepare up for our 40th Anniversary in 2008, and with demand for our services increasing.
In June we were fortunate to be given a grant from the Liverpool Echo Sunrise Appeal for the development of our Art Therapy Project, which was sadly short on materials. So it’s ‘Bon Voyage’ to Mike, ‘Bienvenue’ to Dianne and, as always, many thanks to you all for your continued support.

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Age Concern Wirral

	Age Concern Wirral is, as ever, continuing to meet the needs of older people over the age of 50 throughout the Borough. The provision of care and services is carried out in venues right across Wirral and the demands are ever increasing. We provide Day Care for those who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia at the Devonshire Resource Centre in Birkenhead and those who are frail and socially isolated at Bramwell Court, New Ferry. In addition to this, there is the Home Support, Carers Support and 10 Lunch Clubs that are co-ordinated form the DRC. If you want to know more about these services please telephone 0151 653 4404.

	Keeping older people active is a real emphasis within our work and from the Active Age Centre we provide all manner of activities both here and at other locations throughout Wirral, keeping peoples minds and bodies active. Activities ranges from computer classes to card making, dancing to dominoes, exercise to entertainment. To enquire about the Active Ageing programme please call 647 3537. Age Concern Wirral is about ‘adding years to life and life to years’.

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