Tuesday 14 May 2013

Team Durham Activities Day

As part of ED RAW's positive Family Interaction Activity Programme, we are delighted to announce that we have now received a date from TEAM DURHAM at Maiden Castle to come along and sample a range of activities in their new and awesome state of the art sports facilities.


The aim of this session is to encourage parents and children alike to play, learn and interact together. You do not have to be mega fit at all, these are taster sessions to enrich your life experiences with the main aim of having fun and improving family relationships. Have a go at Fencing, Indoor Rowing, Virtual Spinning & Dodgeball! This session will be on Thursday the 6th of June from 4.30pm - 7.30pm. The sessions are free and open to any EDRAW members, their family and friends.

If you would like to participate but transport is a problem, we will look at this for you... We are expecting this to prove very popular so why not put your names down today? EDRAW proud to be supported by TEAM DURHAM - DURHAM UNIVERSITY SPORTS DEPARTMENT. 
Contact: Carole Williams Project Coordinator: 07914840143 easingtondistrict.raw@gmail.com
Exciting times ahead....HEAR THE RAW!!!



Monday 13 May 2013

The RAW grows...

EDRAW is excited to announce two new members to our ever growing team. We are pleased to welcome on board Marie Ridley and Claire Stenson who will be taking the lead on their own specialist projects. 

Marie will be our Network Link Worker which is part of our pilot job link and training programme. Marie is a local lass from Blackhall and brings extensive experience in facilitating courses, accessing work opportunities and has an in-depth knowledge of the benefits system.





Marie has the same vision and philosophy as EDRAW and is passionate about promoting well-being through our community learning programme and family activities. 


One of Marie's first tasks will be to facilitate our numeracy and literacy courses which have been requested by service users. We are delighted to champion this initiative due to the high levels of numeracy and literacy issues in our locality. 


Furthermore, with the increasing use of computers for a wide range of essential tasks such as; application forms, benefit claims and housing searches, to name but a few, EDRAW will be at the forefront of bringing the digital world to Easington. 

We will strive to ensure computer access for all and to increase computer literacy amongst all age groups throughout the district.



Claire will be taking on the role of Fundraising Lead and will definitely be putting the fun into fundraising. Claire not only brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience from a similar role with the Princess Trust,  but she also has a huge amount of drive, enthusiasm and the ability to come up with original, unique and sometimes quirky ideas, which is a much needed quality for a fledgling organisation such as RAW. 



Being a local lass Claire understands the needs of the community and is passionate about raising the well-being and quality of life for everyone but especially the most vulnerable.


Claire has a busy time ahead, especially promoting our London to Paris cyclist Matt Jones who will be embarking on this grueling journey to raise funds for our organisation in August. More to come on this and other planned events shortly.

If you would like to get waxed, sit in a bath of beans or jump off something very high to raise money for EDRAW, then let us know! 





Ideas, questions or queries to Project Coordinator Carole Williams on 07914840143 or by email at easingtondistrict.raw@gmail.com 


Fabulously Fun Fundraiser!

EDRAW is extremely proud of everyone that participated in the Family Film club and the sponsored kids "dance off" for raising over £500 on the day. 









EDRAW prides itself in providing locality based community support, activities and family learning for vulnerable people in the area. Your enthusiasm and hard work showed us how much you value what we are doing and the monies raised will help us to continue providing the services you have asked for.  




Here is a sprinkling of some of the lovely quotes people have left on our Facebook page...The quotes and pictures say it all really.


AK - Peterlee: What an over whelming day. Watching the big and the little bairns dance god they were so happy and having such fun. All that money raised fantastic.



CS - Peterlee: “Awh, today's been class! Thing is, sky's the limit! Sooooo much more planned.”






HK - Peterlee:  - "Another brill day, enjoyed by all the kids and adults as well.”

JM - Easington: “Jake had an excellent day dancing yesterday for ED Raw and won funky dancer! Thank you to everyone who sponsored him.”



MS - Easington: "Great to see so many happy smiley faces and families enjoying the day together"


MB - Peterlee: “Fantastic day as always fab amount raised well done to all who did the dance off bring on the next one.”

But my favourite quote of the day was by Naomi aged nine as she left the building and said "It's been one of the best day of my life." Cant really top that can you!!


Carole Williams EDRAW Project Coordinator

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Raising a toast to a successful Alcohol Awareness session

EDRAW would like to thank Bill and Debbie from the Community Alcohol Service CAS for providing a very informative and well received family learning awareness session. 


    Quote: RA - Shotton "Its courses like these that could save someones life one day or prevent someone developing health problems in the future MORE please EDRAW"



      EDRAW would also like to thank the 25 service users that attended, for actively participating and making this interactive training session both fun and another great success. 

      Family learning is one of EDRAW's unique concepts and seems to be a 'RAWing' hit. It is part of our 5 ways to Wellbeing which are the foundations for our organisation.



Quote: CS - Easington Colliery  "As a young, social drinker it really opened my eyes to my drinking habits, definitely a change for me! Thank you for saving me from being a plonkaholic!"



    It was great to see both families and individuals from a wide and diverse cross section of the community coming together to share in this experience, in a safe and supportive environment.  


 We look forward to our next family learning event in June which will focus on sexual health and sexually explicit images, the law and young people. It will be delivered by the TEWV NHS Sexual health trainer and again will be interactive and directed at what you, the service users have asked us to deliver. 

By popular demand and for those who missed out first time around we will be running both the Drug and Alcohol Awareness sessions again in the near future, so keep an eye out for dates and registration.

EDRAW prides itself in being a service user led project and responding to the needs and wishes of the community. Please contact Project Coordinator Carole Williams at easingtondistrict.raw@gmail.com or by phone on 07914840143

The Five ways to Wellbeing

CONNECT - BE ACTIVE - KEEP LEARNING - TAKE NOTICE  & GIVE








   

Monday 6 May 2013

EDRAW Quarterly update & coming events

EDRAW would like to thank all of the services and agencies who have embraced and nurtured our project over the past few months. Your enthusiasm and support have been much appreciated and we look forward to a continued development of our multi-agency working approach. It has been a pleasure working with such established services and agencies as the British Red Cross, Durham University, The Community Drug & Alcohol Services and not to forget the Easington Social Welfare Centre, who without their support, we would have struggled to get off the ground. 'The Welly' has become the home of EDRAW and together we will strive to raise Well-Being and promote Inclusion for all in our Community.


We also look forward to developing new and exciting links and are proud to announce the first of hopefully a range of free courses starting in June and delivered by the Training Teams from Tees, Esk & Wear Valley NHS Trust. We will be starting with some Sexual Health Training which will focus on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's), Blood Borne Viruses (BBVs) and Sexual images and the law.

As with all of our Family Training events, the topics have been requested by our service users who  wish to expand their knowledge on relevant issues effecting all within our Community. By popular demand we will also be running a second Drug Awareness course in the very near future. 

We would like to apologies for the lack of promotional material requested by you all however; due to the staggering response to the service without promotional material, we have prioritised service delivery and only now are getting round to publicity. Our new leaflets and promotional material will be available shortly but you can keep up to date via this blog, Twitter or our very busy Facebook page. 


Here is brief summary of the unique and diverse locality based services EDRAW delivers:
Community learning Programmes
Topical Discussion Group -  'Lets talk about....?'   
Positive Interaction Activity Group - 'Me & my Mam & me Dad'
Joblink
Monthly Family Film Club
Handyman/Gardening service
Well-being Support Group
Trips & Respite

In addition to the above EDRAW provides a comprehensive support package for families or individuals which includes: Advocacy & signposting service, Home visits & 1 to 1 support, Housing support, assistance with form completion and much needed emotional support. We are there to listen, and give a supporting hand when needed most. EDRAW prides itself  in responding to the needs of the people.


The success of EDRAW is down to the dedication and vision of all involved in our project. It is a service created for the people of Easington District by the people of Easington District and identifies what people value in the community. We promote the 5 ways to Wellbeing by CONNECTING  our service users to others, encouraging families to BE ACTIVE, supporting adults and children to KEEP LEARNING, and remind people to TAKE NOTICE and GIVE.

EDRAW aims to build a healthier and happier community for all.

Once again, many thanks from Project Coordinator Carole Williams and the EDRAW management team!