Dig In newsletter – November
The Dig in Newsletter has just been published by the CVS Community Food Growing project. You can read it here.
West Lancashire Volunteer Centre receives national recognition
West Lancashire Volunteer Centre has received formal recognition for its work as a Volunteer Centre by being awarded Wave 4 Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation (VCQA) measures a Volunteer Centre’s ability to deliver its services to a high standard and create a local environment in which volunteering can flourish. The standard recognises West Lancashire volunteer centre’s achievements in matching people who want to volunteer with organisations who can use their help and advice, promoting volunteering, and helping local charities and other organisations to involve volunteers in their work,
Janice Howard from West Lancashire Volunteer Centre said: “We are delighted to have achieved Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation and are proud that NCVO believes we’re providing a high-quality service. Now we can build on our good work in West Lancashire, helping people and organisations.
“Anyone interested in volunteering in West Lancashire is very welcome to contact us for advice. We have a fantastic range of volunteering opportunities, and we can offer one to one support with training, education and employment, as well as volunteering.”
VCQA-accredited Volunteer Centres can be found here.
Anyone interested in volunteering or in recruiting volunteers for an organisation, should contact: Janice or Nicci at West Lancashire Volunteer Centre. Tel: 01695 733737 or email: vc@wlcvs.org
Feel better, get fitter and earn Skelmersdale Rewards
Skelmersdale residents are being encouraged to feel better, get fitter, and earn rewards with the release of a smartphone app. Residents of Skelmersdale can now use the BetterPoints app to track their walking, running or cycling and by doing so, earn points to cash in for high street shopping vouchers – or donate their rewards to charity. Rewards can also be earned for volunteering time with local groups.
The BetterPoints app has been introduced by Well Skelmersdale as part of its drive to improve health in the town, and is supported by NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Active West Lancs and West Lancs CVS.
The BetterPoints app rewards participants for being active up to 150 minutes a week because this is the basic level of exercise that the NHS says adults should do to be healthy. It aims to get people to the point where they want to do more and take control of their personal health.
Mike Maguire, Chief Officer at NHS West Lancashire CCG, said: ‘The role of exercise shouldn’t be underestimated in its contribution towards maintaining a healthy body and mind. Exercising doesn’t have to involve expensive gym visits and equipment, it can simply mean walking the school run rather than using the car.
‘We hope that this innovative new app will support Skelmersdale residents who wish to make changes to their lifestyle by becoming more active and hopefully in turn will lead to people feeling less need to visit their GP.’
Dan Gipple, CEO of BetterPoints Ltd, said: ‘Obesity contributes to a wide range of health problems such as heart disease, cancer, asthma and depression. The health system is struggling and much of this struggle could be alleviated if people just adapted their behaviour a little for the better: a little more walking and exercise; a little less alcohol; a little healthier eating. This would make a big difference for everyone’
To start feeling better, getting fitter and earning Skelmersdale Rewards, download the app today! Available via the App Store or on Google Play.
For further details please contact West Lancs CVS on email: enquiries@wlcvs.org or ring 01695-733737 or visit skelmersdalerewards.betterpoints.uk
Carers Support Bulletin – Oct-Nov
The latest Carers Support Bulletin has just been published. It has lots of useful information for carers including local support groups, information on local organisations and dates for your diary. You can read it here.
New Autumn training programme
The new Autumn training programme has just been published. Find out more here and book your place today!
Carers Support Bulletin: Aug-Sept 17
The CVS Carers Support project has published its Summer Newsletter. It has lots of useful information for carers including local support groups, information on local organisations and dates for your diary. Read it here.
‘Level Crossing’ project
The ‘Level Crossing’ project has run for the past 18 months as an intervention project to support local people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes who struggle to make behaviour changes to prevent further health problems. West Lancs CVS has been working in partnership with Skelmersdale Community Food Initiative and the University of Central Lancashire.
The Level Crossing project has been training people across West Lancashire as health champions and local connectors to sources of help, and has now trained 45 people as fully qualified health champions. A further 21 individuals have completed a short course on how to promote health.
The Level Crossing twitter account has been posting news and health tips (@levelcrossingwl), and the project now has a webpage with details of the health champion role and a story of change – it only needs to start with one person!
For more information, go to www.wlcvs.org/level-crossing
Dr Dawne Gurbutt, Clinical Lead for Interprofessional Education, Faculty of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, says “This was a complex project involving community engagement and liaison across a wide geographical area of West Lancashire. Whilst maintaining a focus on the key issues that the project sought to address, West Lancashire CVS was able to utilise its role as an umbrella organisation to maximise other links and enhance the project in various ways via establishing connections, mapping against other projects and creating an interface between this and other projects which was mutually beneficial.
The links made via West Lancashire CVS and the willingness to listen, engage and adapt led to some good insights into the area, as well as the development of training which was fit for purpose for the client group and a sustained engagement across the community for the duration of the project. This project has given good insights into the locality, the communities and the challenges of provision and has taken a solution-focused approach to developing initiatives.
There is scope to build not only on the project, but on the connections and links which were developed around this piece of work”.
Tawd Valley Park consultation
A new project is being launched to look at how the Tawd Valley, often described as the ‘jewel in the crown of Skelmersdale’ could be developed to improve its appeal and accessibility to local people. A wide ranging consultation will take place between now and October culminating in a Master Plan to guide future development and look at how the park can be sustainable.
The Tawd Valley, a lush wooded valley running for 2km through the heart of Skelmersdale is an underutilised local resource with huge potential to provide opportunities for both wildlife enthusiasts and those simply looking for recreational activities to enjoy.
As well as being a beautiful and restful country escape in the heart of the town, the valley is a haven for wildlife. Tests over recent years have indicated that the water quality of the river is generally very good, providing a healthy home and habitat for a variety of fauna. Last year, 1,500 fish, mainly Roach, Chub and Dace, were released into the Tawd in the Park. Kingfishers have also been spotted there in recent times. The hope is that the future development of the valley will further improve the natural environment including the creation of sustainable wetlands in specific areas beside the river to further improve the quality of the water running through the Tawd into the River Douglas.
As well as looking after the ecological interests of the valley, the Park needs to provide recreational opportunities for local people such as walking, jogging, and cycling, as well as fishing and bird watching. The overall aim of the project is look at how to provide opportunities for people to enjoy the valley to the full, whilst at the same time generating the financial resources needed for the area to be looked after and maintained.
The first phase of the project will involve a community consultation with local residents and people who already use or have an interest in the park including local primary schools, secondary schools and colleges, to see what direction future improvements should take. The results of these consultations will help to inform the content of a questionnaire that will be issued later in the summer to seek the wider views of other members of the public as to how the Tawd Valley might be developed.
Members of the public are invited to attend a consultation event being held by Groundwork Cheshire Lancashire and Merseyside, with support from West Lancashire Council for Voluntary Service on Wednesday 21st June, from 6.30pm in the main hall at the Ecumenical Centre, Northway, opposite the Concourse. As well as gathering people’s views as to how the Tawd Valley should be developed, one of the main aims of the consultation event is to identify people with an active interest in the Park who might wish to go on to form a ‘Friends of the Tawd Valley Park’ group to look after the park in years to come.
The project is being led by West Lancashire Borough Council supported by a Project Steering group with representatives from the Environment Agency, County Council, the River Douglas Catchment Partnership, Groundwork CLM, West Lancs CVS and SHARES.
For more information on the consultation event on the 21 June, contact the CVS on 01695 733737.
Carers Bulletin – June/July 2017
The CVS Carers Support project has published its Summer Newsletter. It has lots of useful information for carers including local support groups, information on local organisations and dates for your diary. Read it here.
