Hestia Newsletter March 2013 Issue 4 In this is

Hestia Newsletter March 2013 Issue 4
Hestia
In this issue:
- The
Chimes
Shopping
Centre p.2
- The Better
Lives Forum
Winter
Party p.2
- InterConnect project
update p.3
- Take Back
the Night
p.3
- Personalisation—p.4
- New
services in
Hounslow
p.5
- Hestia
Staff Profile
p.5
If you no longer
wish to receive
this newsletter,
just let us know at
Emily.gillatt@hestia.or
g or contact us at
our new office
(address p.5)
Newsletter
Charity number 294555
Hestia Supporter Newsletter March 2013
Welcome to the latest edition of Hestia’s supporter newsletter.
We’ve got an update on our InterConnect project, information
on how Personalisation affects Hestia services, some new services, our Better Lives Forum and some key supporters
Appeal—Keep our Children’s Worker in Wandsworth
The funding for Hestia’s Children and Families Worker in our Wandsworth domestic
abuse refuges is running out.
We have managed to secure some charitable
funding for 2013-14, but we desperately need
your help to continue to provide our Children
and Families Worker in Wandsworth.
Children often witness domestic abuse as they
are in the same or next room in at least 75% of
cases; and 70% of children living in UK refuges
have been abused by their fathers. The experience can leave them with emotional and
behavioural issues that continue long after
their mother has fled the abuse.
The Children and Families Worker helps children to recover by organising group and individual sessions to help children to express their
emotions and make new friends.
We need your help to sponsor our Children and
Families Worker for an hour, a day, or a week, to
fund her until March 2014.
 Donating £10.09 will pay for our Children and
Families Worker for an hour
 Donating £80.69 will pay for our Children
and Families Worker for a day
 Donating £403.44 will pay for our Children
and Families Worker for a week
To donate:
Text WAND05 and the amount of your donation to 70070 e.g.
WAND05 £10
Case Study: Kate, Anna and Kerry
Kate arrived at one of our refuges in Wandsworth with her two daughters, Anna and Kerry. She had experienced abuse from her boyfriend, who had a substance misuse issue. Kerry was very clingy and Kate was concerned.
Our Children’s Worker ensured that both children went to drama therapy to help build their
confidence. She worked with Kate to register
the children with a local GP; and secured
school or playsession places for both children.
The family is almost ready to move into a new
home. The children are more confident and
enjoy the children’s activities at the refuge.
“We see the refuge as home,” says Kate.
Hestia
Page 2
Hestia Hillingdon Women’s Aid receives a giant cheque!
Hestia has received
support from The
Chimes in the
past—Rosie and
Donna, who hiked
Hadrian’s Wall in
August, are staff
members at The
Chimes, and they
are always ringing
up to offer donations of toys and
other items!
Just before Christmas,
Hestia were delighted to
receive a (very large) cheque
from our long-standing supporters, The Chimes Shopping Centre, in Uxbridge.
nominated The Chimes for a
prize open to all Capital
Shopping Centres across the
country for their support of
local charities.
Burgess (fourth from left)
and their Director of Corporate Responsibility, Alexander Nicholl (second right).
“We feel that a shopping
The Chimes was selected
centre is the heart of a comThe cheque for £3000 was
because they have supported munity”, said Mr Nicholl.
donated to Hestia by The
Hestia in so many ways in
“That makes it very imChimes’ parent company,
the past, including money
portant for us to show our
Capital Shopping Centres, in and stock as well as events. support.”
recognition of the longWe were delightstanding support staff from
ed to receive the
The Chimes have given to
cheque from the
Hestia.
Chairman of CapRosie and Donna, who hiked ital Shopping
Hadrian’s Wall for Hestia
Centres, Patrick
Better Lives Forum Party
In January Hestia’s Better Lives
Forum (BLF) held its Annual
Winter Party with nearly 100
attendees. This year the
Healthy Lives team arranged a
Mini Health Fair around the
event. Ten health providers
exhibited wellbeing services
that ranged from dental hygiene to alternative therapies.
There were also presentations
from Westway Health Trainers
and The British Red Cross.
The theme for this
year was SPANISH
and the food was
Tapas which
reflected the theme.
currently has 7 officers, with
The Winter Party was a great
between 70 and 80 Hestia sersuccess, with service user comvice users attending each event. ments including: “I really enjoyed the workshops that alBLF members have a say in all
lowed me to get involved. I had
aspects of how Hestia is run.
acupuncture and a professional
They take part in inspections of massage for the first time in my
Hestia services to ensure high
life and thought it was not gostandards. All Hestia policies
ing to work but really surprised
and procedures are reviewed by how relaxed I was afterwards. I
members , who also sit on inwas amazed that we have our
terview panels.
own dance group and enjoyed
joining in with them,” Chris,
The BLF organises social events
Hestia service user.
for service users, including the
The Better Lives Forum is
Hestia’s independently consti- Winter Party and summer
“The best part for me was the
barbeques. There are specific
tuted body for service users to
Red Cross First Aid presentaevents for women living in our tion as I found it fun and edube active within Hestia. It has
domestic abuse services who
been running since 1996, and
cational at the same time,” Anmay not feel com- na, Hestia service user.
fortable socialising
with male service "I attended the BLF Winter
users. The BLF
Party and found the atmosalso works on
phere very enterprising indeed
Hestia’s three ser- with a very good Spanish dancvice user newslet- ing presentation. First Aid liketers.
wise good content and camaraderie throughout,” Terry, Hestia
service user.
The Red Cross gave a First Aid demonstration
Hestia
Page 3
InterConnect Project update
What is
the best
way to
help
Hestia?
One of the best
ways to support Hestia is
through a
regular gift.
Giving £5 or £10
per month enables Hestia to
provide
activities or
training for service users,
volunteering
expenses, and
to develop new
services.
To set up a regular gift, please
visit
www.localgivin
g.com/Hestia,
or contact
Emily Gillatt—
Emily.gillatt@hesti
a.org—for
more details.
dren and young women in
our refuges in Wandsworth,
Kingston, Camden, Harrow
and Westminster. They are
able to decide what kind of
activities they would like to
take part in, for example
Recent InterConnect cooking activities
whether they would like to
Back in our first ever Supvolunteer in play sessions
porter Newsletter, in May
with pre-school children,
2012, we talked about Hesti- homework clubs with older
a’s Comic Relief-funded In- children, to work with the
terConnect project, which
women, or if they are feeling
supports older volunteers to very confident, to run their
run activities in our domes- own activities.
tic abuse refuges across LonInterConnect is popular
don.
with volunteers, mums and
With Comic Relief celebrat- children alike. We are espeing its amazing 25th Annicially seeing the benefit of
versary this March, we felt it having male volunteers
was time for an update!
working in our refuges,
which are usually femaleAs InterConnect comes to
only areas. “I hope he sees
the end of its first full year,
me as a father figure,” says
we have recruited 7 volunone volunteer of working
teers, all over 60 years old,
with young boy.
who are working with chil-
Case Study: Grace is a 62
year old woman who has
been volunteering for 4
months. She runs cooking
and knitting sessions with
the mums in our Wandsworth refuges. She recently recovered from throat
cancer (lymphoma) and is
relishing the opportunity
to give something back. “I
had my own catering business and I have been knitting for a long time, so I
am happy to be passing on
my skills,” says Grace. She
feels that the InterConnect project has been a
real “eye-opener”, saying
“Sometimes we say ‘there
is always someone worse
off than you are’, but then
you see it for real. I was
really shocked by what I
heard. It’s like I was on a
different planet.”
Reclaim the Night—Hestia staff march to end violence against women
On a cold Saturday night in November,
Hestia staff and service users marched
through central London in support of Reclaim the Night, an event organised by the
London Feminist Network to protest against
rape and other forms of violence against
women.
The
aim of
the
march
is to
raise
awareness of
14 Hestia staff and service users turned out,
the fact
Hestia staff united against domestic abuse
braving freezing temperatures and rain to
that
march from Old Scotland Yard to Kings
while there are an estimated 47,000 rapes in
Cross. Although the
the UK every year, we have a conviction rate
march was women only,
of just 5.3%.
the route was lined with
male supporters cheer- Hestia’s domestic abuse services directly deal
ing on the march and
with the results of violence against women
demonstrating that
every day, supporting over 600 women and
they too believe that
children per year. Women may have experiviolence against women enced many forms of abuse including physishould end.
cal violence, sexual violence, verbal or emoOne of Hestia’s refuge
tional abuse or financial control.
managers, on the march
Hestia
Page 4
Personalisation
What is Personalisation?
Don’t forget you can
raise money for
Hestia without
spending any extra
cash by signing up
for
www.giveasyoulive.c
om
Every time you shop
online, retailers will
make a small donation to Hestia, and
even the smallest
donation can help!
“I really enjoyed
the workshops
that allowed me
to get involved. I
had acupuncture and a professional massage for the first
time in my life
and thought it
was not going to
work but really
surprised how
relaxed I was
afterwards. I was
amazed that we
have our own
dance group and
enjoyed joining
in with them,”
Chris, a Hestia service
user, on the Better
Lives Forum Winter
Party, p.2
Personalisation is about
putting the people that use
services in the driving seat!
It is a social care approach
which states that each person who needs support
should have choice and
control over the support
and care services they receive.
to create a support plan
based on their needs and
goals, and then setting up
this plan using the person’s personal budget
funds

Hounslow

Richmond

Southwark

Newham
Hestia also ensures that
everyone who uses our services has the opportunity to
get involved and support
the on-going development
of our services. Some of the
most valuable ways that the
people who use Hestia’s
It is often assumed that Per
Managed
account
serviceservices get involved are by
sonalisation is only about
Hestia
will
manage
perparticipating in:
individuals receiving a personal budget funds on
sonal budget to spend on
 Interview panels for
behalf of someone if they
their care and support
new staff
are unable to manage the
needs. Although Personalimoney themselves
 Service inspections
sation does include personal budgets, it is more holis Payroll service- if some Reviewing policies and
tic than this. It is about enone choses to employ
procedures
suring that any service is
their own PA, Hestia will
 Hestia’s Better Lives
centred on the person using register them as an emForum (BLF)
it, that the service each perployer, and assist them to
son receives is tailored to
make wage payments to
 Working with Hestia
their individual needs and
their PA, and any paystaff to design projects such
goals and encourages indements due to the HMRC
as the Back on Track project
pendence. It is also about
for ex-offenders, and the
ensuring that services are co Hestia currently provides a
Healthy Lives Project which
mixture of the above ser-produced with those who
is currently running in
use it. This is a step further vices in the following borHestia’s mental health seroughs:
then collecting feedback
vices
from the people who use
your services, it is about
enabling people to become
involved in designing, improving and the day-to-day
running of the service.
 Employment support- assisting a person to recruit
and directly employ a Personal Assistant (PA) of
their choice who will provide them with the care
and support they require
How has Hestia responded to the Personalisation Agenda?
Hestia has a number of services that assist people with
personal budgets/direct
payments to plan and arrange their care and support through providing the
following services:
 Support planning & brokerage- helping someone
One of Hestia’s service users, who has sensory impairments and
learning difficulties, used part of her personal budget to pay for a
summer activities programme for young people with disabilities,
which included this wonderful trip to Legoland.
Hestia
Page 5
Hestia’s Head
Office is moving in midMarch. Our
new address
will be:
1st & 2nd floors
Maya House
134-138 Borough
High Street
London SE1 1LB
In the next
issue:
 Hestia’s new
Head Office in
central London
 How ‘Love
Kingston’s is
helping Hestia
 Update on the
Appeal for the
Wandsworth
Women’s Aid
Children’s Worker
 How the
Jewellery Recycling
project has helped
Hestia service
users lead Healthy
Lives
 More information
on the Tower
Hamlets Mental
Health Befriending
Service
 Another Hestia
staff profile
New Hestia Services in Hounslow
Mental
Health Resource Centre offers
training,
social activities and
one-to-one
support for
people in
the comCutting the ribbon at Thornbury Lodge
munity
Hestia was proud to
with mental health issues,
launch three new services including dance and art
in Hounslow recently: The classes, social groups and
Hounslow Mental Health IT training.
Resource Centre, the
Thornbury Lodge is newly
Thornbury Lodge service
revamped accommodation
for single homeless people,
for single homeless people
and the Hounslow Support
in the borough, catering to
Planning and Brokerage
people with physical disaService.
bilities, people fleeing doAll three projects are much mestic abuse and exneeded by the local comoffenders, amongst others,
munity, directly addressing offering them a safe place
the needs of Hounslow
to stay while Hestia staff
residents. The Support
help them rebuild their
Planning and Brokerage
lives.
Service offers personalised
support (see Page 4). The
The launch events were a
great success, with attendees from the local
community and local
councillors all attending.
Mark Blomfield, Joint
Commissioning Manager
for the London Borough of
Hounslow, said of the
opening of Thornbury
Lodge, “It seemed like …
something to be positive
about in these otherwise
quite depressing times!”
Part of the ‘green gym’ at
Thornbury Lodge
Staff Profile: Vivienne Graves— Tower Hamlets Mental Health Befriending Service Coordinator
What do I do in an average day: I go to the hospital Adult Acute ward to assess
inpatient referrals for befriending. If there is a community meeting I drop in to
promote the service to new inpatients. I match volunteers with inpatients being
referred. A befriender comes in for a supervision and needs information on local
Art Classes We research info online to give to their befriendee. New recruits
drop in with their ID’s for CRB checks and we follow up on reference requests.
Then calls/emails to Care Coordinators to update them and its off home.
What do I like about my job: Variety of tasks, learning something new, working
with some lovely volunteers and my workmate Anja and having the satisfaction
of seeing how beneficial a good befriending relationship can be to both parties
What don’t I like about my job: Amount of administrative work that is involved
around recruiting and training Befrienders
Why is my job important to Hestia: Our service is one of several Hestia is developing in befriending/mentoring. It’s important as it helps to reduce isolation,
provides emotional support and helps people to engage with their community