Isle of Whithorn Youth Club - Barbecue

On Wednesday, the Isle of Whithorn Youth Club joined both groups together to enjoy a BBQ supplied and cooked by Building Healthy Communities staff.

The weather was kind and some 40 children attended and enjoyed butcher style burgers, sausages as well as grilled vegetables. It was a really successful evening and a great end to the youth club before the summer holidays.

Youth club returns in August.

Wigtownshire Summer Activity Programme - Volunteer Induction

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, 24 young people aged 16+ attended a 2 day Volunteer Induction session at McMillan Hall in Newton Stewart. The prospective volunteers all came from Douglas Ewart High School and Stranraer Academy. The induction was led by both Building Healthy Communities (Machars) and Community Learning and Development.

The Volunteer Induction included :

What is a Volunteer and their Role in Organisations, Team Building Exercises, Personal Safety, Child Protection, Health and Safety, Risk Assessment, Behaviour and Attitude, Confidentiality and various workshop/scenario sessions around these topics.

All the young people were fully engaged throughout the 2 day programme and all signed up to volunteer at various events that are taking place during the Summer Activity Programme in both Stranraer and Newton Stewart.

As part of this induction, all volunteers were signed up to the SQA level 3  "Preparing to Volunteer". SQA assessors were on hand to give advice.

This was a great 2 days, with all volunteers involved fully in the programme. Looking forward to the 10 days of activities starting in July.

Isle of Whithorn Younger Youth Group - Fruit Pizza

Last week, the younger members of the Isle of Whithorn youth group had a Fruit Pizza making session.

25 young people eagerly decorated their watermelon base with a variety of fruit and then proudly took them home to their parents/guardians.

This was a fun packed and fulfilling session with all children enjoying their results.

Well done to all and see you at the BBQ on the 29th June!!

Kirkinner Primary School - Healthy Lifestyles Consultation

Building Healthy Communities Machars were asked to carry out a Healthy Lifestyles Consultation by
by Wigtownshire CLD to contribute towards the healthy activities of the new Youth Group (the Kirkinner Monkeys) set up in partnership with Kirkinner Primary School.

The consultation took place in late May/early June, with 17 pupils involved.

The analysis report is available to view by clicking here

The feedback report is also available - please click here for the P5/P7 report and here for the P1P4 report

Wigtownshire Summer Activity Programme

A 10 day programme has been been developed by local organisations including

Community Learning and Development, Police Scotland, NHS, Leisure and Sport,

Douglas Ewart High School and Stranraer Academy, YMCA, Port William Youth, Group,

Newton Stewart and Creetown Initiatives, Building Healthy Communities, Wigtown Book Festival,

DG Young Carers, Skills Development Scotland, DGC Customer Services Libraries and

the Employability and Skills Service.

The programme, which is funded through the National Lottery’s Young Start Fund and

is full of Free activities for the young people of Wigtownshire aged 11 to 25 years old,

is available to view by clicking Here 

Kirkinner Monkeys - Fruit Pizza

Last Tuesday, the youth group held at Kirkinner School were given the opportunity to make a Fruit Pizza to their own design.

Using a slice of watermelon as a base, the young people then added a thin layer of cream (to allow fruit to stick) and then a choice of up to 8 different fruits.

Great session and some great results. Well done monkeys!!!

Sport Relief Grant

The Machars Area Partnership for Building Healthy Communities is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant from Sport Relief of £1000. This money is split between the Isle of Whithorn Dancercise class and the Isle of Whithorn Art Group.  This is to help cover hall rents, etc, for both groups and will ensure the continuity and sustainability of both groups into the future.

David Hirst, Treasurer of the Partnership said: "We have also received grants from Newton Stewart Round Table, Machars Lions and Royal Bank of Scotland which are being used to support our initiatives. A further 16 grant applications have been submitted and more will be added to this in the coming weeks. The object is to obtain the funding to set up new initiatives and extend the existing ones.  Any suggestions for new activities would be seriously considered."

Heartstart

Following a 3 year joint scheme by the Scottish Ambulance Service and British Heart Foundation, 34 schools across Dumfries and Galloway have each received between £1000 and £4000 of equipment and training for the teachers to deliver the course. The scheme has now ended and the responsibility of training within schools has been taken up by the British Heart Foundation’s Heartstart (Newton Stewart and The Machars) who have, of course, been affiliated to Building Healthy Communities for over 10 years and would not have achieved their success without BHC’s help.

Heartstart (NS) are now responsible for the training of over 4300 people per year in Emergency Life Support. This means that many more lives will be saved in Dumfries and Galloway. The average rate of survival in this country is less than 10%, and in some areas less than 2%. In Denmark, where this is on the curriculum of every school and in towns and cities, you are never more than 50 metres from someone who has been trained, and their survival rate is over 40% and rising.

A simple, free, 2 hour “hands on” course available to groups of 6 to 30 is now available through BHC. Participants have varied from Brownie groups up to GP’s (we currently train at 9 local practices).

The course covers what to do with someone who:

Is unconscious

Has stopped breathing

Is choking

Is bleeding

The course also includes how to recognise when someone is having a heart attack or failure and how to use a Defibrillator

For more details, contact the BHC office on 01988 501111 or David Hirst 01988 700637,       e-mail davidhirsthome@gmail.com

Finding Your Way Around Your I-Pad/Tablets

Yesterday saw the second week of our Finding Your Way Around Your I-Pad/Tablets. Topics included copying and pasting on Facebook, taking pictures, being able to turn the camera to outward facing and clearing internet history. All were solved successfully.

Thank you to Esme for her hospitality and Rosemary for being chauffeur.

Everyone Active - Let's Motivate

Take a look at the "Everyone Active" leaflet where there is an opportunity to get some training!

To view the leaflet, click here.

Healthy Eating for Older People - Kirkcowan Autumn Club

Yesterday, Dave from Building Healthy Communities visited the Autumn Club in Kirkcowan to present a short talk on Healthy Eating - What is good and what is not as good for you!

This was followed by a short talk about "Love Food Hate Waste" giving hints on how to save money by using all food that is purchased.

The afternoon continued with a quick cooking demonstration, following the guidelines for a healthy meal.  People were surprised how quickly a tasty meal could be cooked!

Cups of tea and chats rounded off an excellent afternoon.

To view the powerpoint of the Healthy Eating talk, please click here.

Monday Club

On Monday Veronica Love, Solicitor from McCormick & Nicholson in Newton Stewart, came along to give us an informative talk on how we could go about setting up our wills and power of attorneys later in life. The talk was very insightful and helpful.  This led to some very interesting discussions!!

Veronica gave handouts for us to have a read at home. Thank you to Veronica for coming along.

On Monday 20th June, We have PC Nicola McFadzean giving us a talk on personal and internet safety and gentle exercise with Pam.

Newton Stewart Youth Clubs - Junior and Senior - Healthy Cooking

Over the past 5 weeks, 40 young people have had an experience of preparing and cooking a healthy snack for themselves.

The senior group cooked an Asian Stir-fry, whilst the juniors made their own Chicken fajita Wraps.


All the young people thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and were really pleased with the outcome.

For some, this was their first experience of cooking and they should be applauded for their efforts.

Find Your Way Around Your I-Pads/Tablets

This week has seen the start of our four week block on how to become more confident in using our I-pads/tablets for service users and befrienders in partnership with Food Train, We had a range of problems from connecting to the internet, attaching photos to an email and downloading games etc. All which was solved successfully.

Thank you to Esme for her hospitality!  

Creetown Youth Club - Healthy Cooking

The youth club Healthy Eating and cooking experience was at Creetown this last week where the young people had a chance to make their own Chicken Fajita Wraps.

There were some in the group that had never cooked before, therefore a very positive experience was had. Well done to all!!