11.00am 10/10/11

Getting ready, set-up for Camera - ACTION.

Okay it wasn’t exactly a ticker tape parade success …..But I think we all know once the broken bits are fixed this will be one fabulous teaching tool.

I should think this is similar to what Mr J.Baird said about the first TV set.

We entered what was a hive of activity at the Enable Office and were ushered into the futuristic sounding POD to see Chris' newtoys it sounds very cutting edge but in reality we entered a disused storage room and stared at a table with a flat screen TV with a black thingy on top which apparently costs thousands. Chris introduced us all to the new technology very much like a very proud father showing off his first born. The black thingy, I am reliably informed, is a remote control camera, these remote controls were kept within easy reach guarded by Chris, much like a lioness fiercely protects her cubs.

TAKE 1.

As we were online and the system activated the presentation went ahead with Nik filming proceeding as if it was a Spielberg blockbuster. I think doing the trial was enormously beneficial for all concerned as it extended peoples knowledge into the video conferencing world.

Anna did her talk on autism, I wasn’t there but understand from Chris and Nik she held the children’s attention with her story and answered all their questions.

As far as I could tell Nik and the team were particularly pleased with her talk.

IT’S A WRAP ! WELL DONE EVERYBODY.

At early o’clock we got up and got ready to go to the school and were taken straight to the place to set up camp for the day.

We were working with year 8, aged 12 to 13, it was thesecond time I’d visited this school. The majority of class pupils were very good with some that stood out. It was odd that the groups who engaged with me and asked the most challenging questions were led byt he same teachers whose pupils did the same in my last visit.

As far as I recall the team onthe day was led by Nik with Ann backing up giving the all important moral support. Chris, Theresa, myself, Ilona and, of course, the normal all round good-egg performance by Craig who filled the void left by sickness of Seb and the absence of Frank.

As normal the refreshments and lunch were good with an array of sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and flapjacks. Nik came dangerously close to losing the fingers of his right-hand when Craig noticed him absent-mindedly reach for the last flapjack.

Quite inexplicably, Chris and Craig engaged one of the female teachers in a conversation about women in the workplace along the lines of STATEMENT –‘A women’s work is never done.’ ANSWER – ‘Perhaps that why they get paid less?’ Their discussion soon escalated and could easily have become a feature for Sky TV ‘Women who kill’ !

It was a busy but enjoyable day had by all.

Since beginning with some very noble aspirations in 2004, with the help and inspiration of Helen Sage and her disabled son David, the Enable Me Project has continued to go from strength to strength and the last twelve months have been no exception in that regard.

I’m delighted to report that what has been achieved by ‘Enable Me’ during that time has been absolutely incredible - both in terms of the excellent project work that we have been doing with a wide range of partners, but also in terms of our own learning journey as an organisation.

Much of the detail of what has been delivered is set out on other pages in this Report, so I won’t duplicate that here, but to give an overview of the scope and extent what we’ve been doing as an organisation, here’s a useful list:

• Aiming High Disability Sports Project (county-wide)
• Aiming High Workforce Development Training (county-wide)
• Learning 2 Work project (Sussex-wide)
• Schools, Colleges & Youth Groups workshops & activities (county-wide)
• Enable Me Volunteer training (county-wide)
• Partnership events & conferences (county-wide)

As Project Manager of Enable Me, I am very proud of the achievements of our volunteers and staff and am always humbled by their ability to rise to the occasion and produce and deliver work to a consistently high standard that not only meets the requirements of our aims & objectives, but also the various requirements of our funders.  It is because of this commitment to raising disability awareness in the community, that Enable Me has been able to grow each year and keep ‘punching above its weight’ as an organisation.

We are and always have been a ‘learning organisation’ and the journey that we have been on these last 12 months has finally brought our own knowledge and experience full circle. Through the work we have undertaken with disabled children & young people and their families (as part of Aiming High), our understanding of the world in which disabled people live in here in Twenty-First Century Britain - seeing first-hand the challenges and day-to-day ups and downs they face - has been broadened and enhanced enormously. And because of that, I am confident that we will continue to make a significant contribution to the work of the voluntary sector in West Sussex that is still struggling to come to terms with huge changes in the political landscape, such as the ‘Big Society’, reforms in education, health & social care and in the economy.

As we go forward, I would like to thank the many organisations and individuals who have worked with us to raise disability awareness and given us the benefit of their support, their time, their expertise and in some cases, funding. So with apologies to anyone we have left out:

Swasie Turner MBE, Helen & David Sage, Hugh Parrot, West Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Services, West Sussex Parents Forum, West Sussex County Council, Sussex PHAB, You Can Do It!, Freedom Through Fun, The Aldingbourne trust, Powerful Trainers, Parent & Family Care Foundation, PACSO, The Springboard Project, Albion in the Community, West Sussex Grid for Learning, JANET, Littlehampton Town Council, Arun District Council, The Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, Beverly Smith Associates, DreamVision Media, Great Ballard School, The Body Shop, WSCC Aiming High, Impact Workability, and the many schools and colleges we have worked with this year all of whom have been a joy to work with. Last but not least, our Trustees, Staff and Volunteers..

thank you!

Here’s to the next 12 months and what we can all achieve working together.

Nik Demetriades

Project Manager

Calling for feedback from any parents of children who have been attending any of the Sports Clubs clubs we have run this year ...

Please can you let us know (in your own words):

• have you enjoyed the short break
• have your children had a good time at the club, and
• would you like the clubs to continue next year (subject to us being able to get more funding).

Please email us at:  office@enablemeproject.org.uk

Thanks!

Dear Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to our first official Annual General Meeting.

For those of you in the know, this may come as a bit of a surprise because the Enable Me Project is in fact, six years old this year.  I won't turn this report into a 'history lesson', but to explain briefly, although Enable Me started in 2005, it did not become a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee in its own right until January 2010.

‘So, what's happened in the last six years?’ I hear you ask. Well, it has been a quite astonishing journey and I hope you will share my pleasure as I recount some of our successes. Let's start with some maths; in 2005, Enable Me began with a team of 2 disabled volunteers, a handful of able-bodied volunteers and what were in effect, a few workshops that focused on physical disabilities.  Since that inauspicious beginning, we have recruited and trained over 30 disabled volunteers and expanded our service delivery to include workshops on autism, sensory impairments, hidden disabilities, disability sports, emotional health & well-being amongst many others!  

As the feedback and testimonials we have received over the years has shown, our work has had a positive and meaningful impact on over 27,000 children and young people in West Sussex and the south east, and we have delivered our awareness raising activities in more than 75 schools, 6 colleges/universities, 10 youth clubs, as well as over 60 After School Clubs, Holiday Clubs and Inclusion Days.  In addition we have delivered awareness training sessions to over 1000 staff in West Sussex (who work with disabled children & young people and their families) at a variety of Conferences, INSET days and training sessions. And in terms of how these numbers have impacted our own development as an organisation, we have gone from having just one full-time member of staff in 2005 to employing an additional two part-time members of staff and as many as 7 sessional staff during the last 12 months.

But life is about much more than numbers, especially in the Voluntary Sector, where Enable Me works closely with many other disability organisations and other voluntary organisations to help support and improve frontline services and life-chances for disabled people and their families.

At the core of our service, is a commitment to recruiting and training disabled volunteers,providing them with opportunities to learn new skills, improve their confidence and self-esteem and work as part of team that raises disability awareness inthe community.

Last year alone, our volunteers gave over 3300 hours of their time freely to Enable Me; a contribution worth over £50,000 in real terms, which is both staggering and humbling in equal measure!   So I want to thank them on behalf of the Directors and Staff for their amazing dedication and commitment to the project.

So with all this achieved in the last 6 years, what more do we hope to achieve in the coming year?  In terms of our future plans and as part of our aim to achieve the Investors In People Quality Mark in 2012, we have through consultation with our volunteers, staff and partners identified our priorities for the next two years. We have set out in this report what we believe are a set of achievable objectives for Enable Me to work towards, within what is a very difficult and challenging economic climate.

There have been many changes in the last 12 months; a new government, new priorities and a vision of a ‘Big Society’, all of which impacts on small, independent charities like Enable Me.  However regardless of the changes over which we have little or no control we are determined to continue to deliver high quality events to ensure that everyone is enabled both in terms of access and understanding. 

I would therefore like to once again thank EVERYONE for their continuing support, commitment and enthusiasm as we move forward into the next stage of Enable Me’s drive to build strong partnerships in order to increase disability awareness, promote social inclusion and challenge negative attitudes towards disability.

All schedules and information checked, double checked, agreed on then rechecked. The day was intended to be an ability day outside under the July sun. However like most events carefully planned for British summer it was held indoors. This did not seem to dampen the spirits of the children who seemed to be lively and full of beans.

Swasie Turner, MBE, the charity patron, held the Enable Me assembly, both captivating and motivating his audience.

And the rest of the team being as always lead by Nik, with Belinda, Craig, Seb, Chris and myself, Ilona and Helena as helpers.

I was a little apprehensive at the concept of trying to keep a class’ attention after being pumped full to bursting point with enthusiasm by wheelchair sports in the gym. THANKS FOR THAT NIK !

It was an extraordinarily busy day where it felt like most of the 1300 strong school attended, everybody in the team at the end seemed very weary.  Even Seb was losing his voice, on hearing this I'm sure from over where Nik and Chris were came a muffled giggle followed by muttered "This day gets better and better !"

Any worries I had soon vanished. Not a bunch of overexcited, misbehaving, thunderous youths

Faced instead by a quiet, civil and respectful group of young people who listened intently and asked some challenging questions .As it was a very hectic day I did not get time to see the wheelchair sports but gathered my information from enthusiastic children instead. Having unintentionally startled a quick thinking young lady who answered a quiz question, Iretorted with "You've played this game before". This was meant to be funny but youthful Sam looked horrified and was reassured by the teacher.

In one of the later sessions the children relaxed and I soon became a target for a full interrogation of questions! A few of which were a little deep to say the least. But to be honest it was all good fun.

I can only conclude from this that teenagers in today's generation get an extremely bad press, which I can't see how they can warrant this. At the end of my presentation I left the classroom and on the way back to the car, a couple of the children said to me "Thanks for explaining strokes, it really helped them". That was a particularly touching moment for me. One of the children guided me back to the car and on the way he explained how he know felt that he could understand the frustration of some of the disabilities faced by his relatives. This again was a very special moment for me, and only he knows who he is.

I usually write something about my previous past schooling and this blog will be no different. I seem to remember that the female PE teachers from my time looked like they were contestants for Communist Shot-put teams. Here, however, it was nothing like this........................Its easy to see why sport is popular…

Jonty Neve

Not wishing to get sentimental but Warden Park School stands out for me, not just because of past time spent at a school similar to this just down the road, but this was the venue of my first presentation. It seemed that there was quite a range of colourful wall finishes and carpets. My recollection of my school days seemed to be filled with dark coloured walls, corridors and vinyl floors.

I don’t know if it is my age, but all the teachers at the school seemed to be quite young and world wise. Whereas I remember them being quite old,suited and booted, and armed with bits of chalk or rulers.

It was explained to us that a large amount of the classes were away atthe moment doing a sight seeing and fact finding field trip in London. So hence the first day being Tuesday the 21st was relatively quiet. On this day, at the Enable Me meeting was Nik, Chris, Seb, Belinda, Neil, Sarah-Jane, Ilona and myself. Although it was a rather quiet and apprehensive day, there was still a large amount of questions from the various classes of the secondary school children.

Luckily for us, on the Friday it was the school children from the trip in London, who were slightly tired from their time away. On this day Neil was replaced by Benita who seemed to mesmerise the class, when she told of the issues she faced in every day life. Again I enjoyed my time with the presentation and was lucky enough to talk about some of the things that I have seen around the world. And I talked to some of the pupils, who had obviously been touched in their life by the topic I talked about.

On the Tuesday and Friday ,the school lunches, which I never thought i'd say is that they were pretty good.

On an overcast, damp Wednesday 22nd June, we travelled over to Harting Primary School near Petersfield to work as part of the Enable me team.

I don’t recall my time at primary school, but can only hope it was like here... However I seem to have a picture of ‘Sir’ being a rather crusty, black-clad individual with mortar board hat, brandishing a thin cane - feared and revered by all, a character from Hogwarts if you like. Happily in this case, it could not be further from the truth; he was an approachable, forward-thinking gent willing to embrace new technology and involve it in everyday life.

The Enable Me team, led from the front by Nik, included Chris, Seb, Benyta, Belinda, Sarah-Jane, Ilona and myself. The school children, although a highly charged lot, were at the appropriate times, extremely courteous, well-mannered and quiet. In all, a particularly intelligent and bright group of children who seemed to ask all the right questions in a genuine bid to understand… I know after my presentation, I was faced by an unprecedented barrage of questions!

When Seb, Chris and the others took them for wheelchair sports the children’s enthusiasm finally took over, plunging the hall into new, unheard of noise levels.

It may be a cliché, but talking to the children and hopefully answering their questions based on my presentation (which incidentally is aimed at secondary school age!) inspired me to write a presentation aimed specifically at Primary school age! I’m aware that other members of the team enjoyed the day as much as me.

Looking forward to next time as I’ll hopefully have the new presentation.

Jonty Neve

Well it’s the time of year again where the hard winter in the gym will hopefully start too pay of and the annual trip to Monte Gordo in Portugal for the BWAA (British WheelchairAthletics Association) warm weather training camp.

We met up at Gatwick all ready and raring to go, but one of the party was late, this person is often late and not very organised and this was again proven when she walked into the airport in a huff because she had left her wheelchair at home in her car as she hadn’t thought about it because she came to the airport in a different car!  Oh, did we laugh!

The flight went without a hitch and arriving in Portugal I do love that feeling of warmth when you get of a plane in a hot country. We were staying in a different hotel to previous years but some had stayed in it before and we were assured it was nicer, and when we arrived it certainly was nicer. The rooms were nice but the doors were rather narrow to say the least! My wheelchair was the only one that would fit in the bedroom door so for the next 10 days me and my room-mate went through this routine of me going through the door jumping out my chair my friend getting in mine too get into the bedroom!

Now onto the training….the stadium is about 3km away so the people who enjoy 'pushing' push there as a warm up in the morning and the people who don’t like pushing (like myself), get the bus! The stadium is an excellent facility and has everything an athlete could want.

The first day was encouraging as I was already throwing over my Personal Best (or ‘PB’as we call it); this training malarkey does actually work!

As the days continued, both my shot and discus progressed nicely and I ended up throwing about 6 meters over my PB in my discus! This was all down to me working hard in the gym over the winter and working with new coaches who have given me a new-found confidence in my technique and ability.

The aim of Portugal Warm Weather Training is to do lots of throwing and get yourself ready for the outdoor throwing season, but we do also have some fun, sometimes brought on by the consumption of alcohol!  And the cobblestones and high curbs in the town also cause considerable amusement for us wheelchair users.

So, summing up; a great camp had by all and bring on the 2011 season and hopefully the ultimate aim of reaching London 2012!

Seb Trezise

Sports Lead, Enable Me Project

April 2011

Links:

British Wheelchair Athletics Association: www.bwaa.co.uk

London 2012 Paralympic Sports: www.london2012.com/games/paralympic