Isle of Whithorn Arts Group

The group continues to flourish with a large turnout on a weekly basis.

This is a very friendly and talented group of individuals who all have different skills and share these with the group. New members are always welcome.

For further info please contact:

Building Healthy Communities on

01988 501111

Jills of all Trades

In the next few weeks, one of the "Jills of all Trades" is planning on overhauling their garden to make the strawberry patches more accessible. This will involves making boxes and a new pathway across the ever expanding patch. The Jills will be making the boxes over the coming weeks.

This is what the garden looks like now!! Anyone for strawberries???

Monday Club Activities

During the past month, The Monday club have had many different activities taking place at Penninghame Church Hall.


Healthy Eating:

Tables ready for cooking

The presentation

Dave from Building Healthy Communities gave a presentation on eating healthily followed by an opportunity for all the group to cook a simple yet healthy lunch.

To see the presentation on Healthy Eating, click HERE

It was a great session with everyone taking home their food to eat for Lunch.

Quiz:

At the beginning of the Month, Building Healthy Communities wrote and presided over a fun quiz for everyone. Questions ranging from Which is the Largest Loch in Scotland? to trying to recognise famous people from their young photographs, kept everyone amused.

There was a winning team, but everyone went away with a small bag of fruit for their efforts.

Quote from a service user:

"Great fun and not too competitive"

Monday Club Trip:

At the end of the August, The members took a trip to Soleburn Garden Centre at Leswalt. They all had a good time and are looking forward to their next outing.

MoveMore:

Christine, lead volunteer for Building Healthy Communities and MoveMore gave a passionate talk to the group as to what is involved with this project and how it helps and enhances peoples lives following cancer.

It has been a busy time. The Monday club meets twice a month at Penninghame Church Hall, from 10 to 12. The next meeting is on Monday 10th October.

Isle of Whithorn Arts Group

The Isle of Whithorn Arts Group, which is supported by Building Healthy Communities in the Machars, is an inclusive, friendly and welcoming group with interests in various creative arts and with varying levels of skills which we are happy to share.  They meet every Wednesday at St Ninian's Hall, Isle of Whithorn, between 12.30pm and 3pm.

Below, please look at some of the work by members of the group.

 

 

 

You can follow the group which have their own facebook page on:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1820183831546620/

Kath Elwood - Retirement

At the beginning of September, there was a BHC get together to celebrate the retirement and thank Kath for all her hard work as the administrator for the BHC Regional Team.

Presentations of a variety of gifts were made and CAKE was eaten!!

Kath had been working since the inception of BHC and was the "Go To" person for any queries that we had. her methodical approach to tasks will be sadly missed and we all wish her all the best and a happy and healthy retirement.

Thanks Kath....We will all miss you!

Willie Stevenson - Upper Nithsdale

Back in the summer, there was a Memorial Lunch held at The Building Healthy Communities Office in Upper Nithsdale to celebrate and remember Willie Stevenson.

Willie had been the Chairperson of BHC Upper Nithsdale for a number of years and many people in the community as well as BHC staff from across the region, turned up to remember and celebrate all that Willie had contributed to the community.

A Plaque had been commissioned and this will be placed on the wall in the office.

Thanks Willie for all your input! You are sadly missed.

Jills in the Community - Port William School

Following the painting of the outdoor equipment at Port William School, BHC received a lovely email from the children of P6&7 which is included below:

We are the children from Primary 6/7 and we have been asked to write, on behalf of Port William Primary School staff and children, to thank you, and your team, for painting and sprucing up our outdoor classrooms.  They look brand new and, to be honest, most of us didn't even notice the paint on the floor and those of us who did thought it brightened up the floor! 

We  very much appreciate you and your team giving up your own time to make our playground look better. 

We would love for you to come back and paint the fencing and wonder if you know when this might be.  Also, do we need to order more paint for you?

Please will you pass on our grateful thanks to 'the Jills'.   We agree with you that their painting skills are awesome!

Thank you also to you, Mr Groves.  Your organising skills and painting skills are awesome too!

We think that the photos are great and have printed them out to put on a display in school.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Yours sincerely

Primary 6/7 pupils ... and Mrs Pomfret!

The Jills are now looking at a date to complete the fencing for the School. This will probably be in October. Well done "Jills" another great job!!

Summer Programme Barbeque

On a damp drizzly day, the BHC team prepared, cooked and served a BBQ for those young people moving from P7 to Douglas Ewart High School. The event was well supported by volunteers and there were plenty of activities on offer.

 

Such a shame about the weather, but the food went down a treat!!

Out & About - "A Learning Resource"

A learning resource (report) about how one project has used social prescribing.

click here to view report

Summer Programme - Young master chef

As part of the CLD summer programme that ran at the end of July, BHC were involved in the young Masterchef class that ran in Stranraer.

This was a very busy session with 13 participants where they all had the opportunity to prepare and cook one of 4 recipes from scratch.

On offer were Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken fajitas, Chicken Risotto and Chicken Curry. All the young people, aged from 11 - 18, completed the task and were happy with their results.

Well done to all involved.

Jills of all Trades in the Community - Port William School

The Jills Team have been exceedingly busy during July, spending 4 days at Port William School repairing and re-painting the outside covered play areas for the children.












The weather was relatively kind for the week and the preparing and painting took the full 4 days.

Everyone gave of their best and the results were really good with a slight colour change and therefore, much brighter and more attractive areas for the children to sit during their breaks.

All the Jills thoroughly enjoyed the week, hard work, but relaxing and rewarding.

Massive thanks to Tracey, Mary, Claire and Muthoni for all their hard work!!
We will be returning to Port William to paint the fencing around the Nursery in the near future.

Machars Activity Sheet - July 2016

Take a look at the regular activities that are available in the Machars!!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

The Living Well - Community Services in Dumfries and Galloway. A Search Tool.

Please take time to read this post and search the directory of activities as developed by the Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway

We are moving towards a health and social care landscape that will see greater emphasis on personal resilience and looking beyond the clinical environment for solutions to health problems that are often socially determined. There is a wealth of community resources on our doorstep that could help people better manage their health, but often they remain unknown to us.

As a result, Third Sector, Dumfries and Galloway has developed a new service, designed to promote better health and wellbeing throughout the region, but also pull together all useful activities and services into one place. Funded as part of its Adult Health and Social Care project, ‘The Living Well’ provides an online directory for health, social and community services that is bespoke to Dumfries & Galloway. Its aim is to help improve access to information for the general public and health and social care professionals, ensuring everyone can have access to the services which will improve their lives or the lives of those they support.

Users can freely search for activities and services from a topic of their choosing - either from their local area or regionwide.

To search the directory click HERE or go to the Third Sector logo on the right of the page.

The Living Well is open for submissions from any groups or services which benefit an individual’s health and wellbeing. Its overall aim is to be the central point where organisations big and small are able to promote their services to the widest possible audience.

For more information about the service or to get involved please contact:
Tel. 0300 303 8558 or email: thelivingwell@thirdsectordumgal.org.uk

Monday Club - Evaluation and Heartstart

This week the Monday Club met at Penninghame Church Hall for an evaluation of the club and its activities. This was necessary as numbers had been falling slightly over the last few months. Members, current, old and new were invited by Nathalie, Community Health Development Worker, to have their say as to how the club moves forward, what they like and dislike and how the members are in charge of the club and its activities. 

There was a very good turnout and following this meeting, Nathalie wrote to all members. An extract of this is below.

"I would like to thank everyone who attended the Monday Club on 4^th July 2016.

It was lovely to see so many of you taking part in the evaluation of the club and I hope you will continue to attend in the future as the feedback was so positive and the way forward even more encouraging. 

I take this opportunity to thank Esme Noad for the continued support she has provided to the Club and Building Healthy Communities over the past three years.

I would also like to welcome Christine Murray who has kindly agreed to facilitate the group along with Esme.  Both Christine and Esme will be able to liaise with ourselves from now on."

Building Healthy Communities will continue to support the club, providing posters, booking activities etc as before.

After the evaluation, David and Ann Hirst, Peter Parker and Caroline Schofield delivered a shortened training session on the up to date techniques for CPR, Recovery Position and Choking to all members.

PLEASE NOTE:

Unfortunately, we have had to change the venue for the next meeting, Monday 18^th July, as we have been informed the hall is unavailable.  The meeting will therefore take place at the McMillan Hall in the downstairs room on the left. 

For any further information about the Monday Club and it's activities, please contact the office on 01988 501111

HEARTSTART - Douglas Ewart High School Activity Day

Yesterday was an activity day at Douglas Ewart High School, with the pupils being able to sign up for a variety of activities.

27 pupils from S4 to S6 signed up for a shortened Heartstart course run by David and Ann Hirst, Peter Parker and Caroline Schofield supported by BHC Machars. Some Teachers also joined in.

The course content included CPR and recovery position, training the pupils in the up to date methods.

Some pupils also learned how to cope with someone who is choking.

This was a really successful day organised by the CLD team who are based at the School