Centre Report – January 2020

Introduction

We hope everybody had a very restful and well deserved break over the festive

period - hopefully you've slowly managed to get back into the swing of things!!

After a fantastic 2019 at Forth Valley Sensory Centre, 2020 is already shaping up to
be another promising year. We're working to bring even more activities and services
for Centre Users. At the moment we are exploring the possibility of starting up Family
Tennis sessions in partnership with the Judy Murray Foundation, we have also been
speaking to a BSL yoga teacher who is keen to come and run some BSL yoga at the
Centre and we are planning to start up a new Youth Group for young people with
Sensory Loss this Spring.

We are hoping to work with Art in Healthcare, a national arts based charity who have
asked us to provide Sensory Awareness Training for their frontline staff.

This month we were invited to host a visit to Falkirk Health and Social Care
Partnership (HSCP) by a group of 18 Senior Health Professionals and Government
Officials from the Netherlands. The group were extremely impressed with our Centre
and keen to find out more about our Partnership approach to delivering services.

Our See Hear Partnership is exploring the possibility of offering braille classes for
parents of blind children. We are looking forward to welcoming back a group of
primary school pupils from Windsor Park school to join in one of our Voices Off
Wednesday Cafes during March.

Talking of cafes, over 1100 customers visited Café Tiki during Nov/December last
year. The café continues to be a popular meeting place and is planning to kindle a
bit of romance during Valentines week this year. Watch out for Heart Shaped
cookies and other treats and perhaps even a surprise proposal – as well as being
our ideal vision, 2020 is a leap year! Throughout the month of February, our café will
be running a breakfast promotion of a “Hot Breakfast Roll and Tea or Coffee” for £3.

1. Fundraising

The festive period is always a time for giving and this year was no different. We
decided that for 2019 we would take a risk and move our annual Winter Fayre to a
Friday as opposed to being held on a weekend as usual.

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We were delighted with the response. Not only from our Centre Users and staff, who
generously gave raffle, tombola and bottle stall items but also from everyone who
came along on the day. The selection and quality of stalls was amazing with a
fantastic range of gifts and unique items just not available in shops. Of course, the
home baking was as delicious as ever and it seems that everyone agreed with just
crumbs left at the end.

In total, the event raised £1750, which was the best return for several years.
However, Windsor Park School also had a stand at the event, selling bags printed
with the legend, “I love BSL”. They decided after the event to donate the sales from
their stall to the Centre, close to £250 so an incredibly generous thing to do. With this
and further sales of raffle tickets and Kirsty’s homemade cards the final total was
well over £2000 and very well received.

There was more festive cheer from Falkirk’s Howgate Shopping Centre, who
donated £1 from each visit to Santa’s Grotto this year to the Sensory Centre. Santa
himself along with Howgate Marketing Manager Margaret Foy handed over £1000,
which, like all funds we raise, will go directly to supporting our groups, classes and
activities.

If fundraising is something you would like to help us with there are many ways to get
involved. Our Fundraising Group meets each month at the Centre, the next dates are
27th January and 24th February, 12:30-2pm. The group helps plan and organise
various events throughout the year and new ideas, connections and creativity are
always welcome.

The Kiltwalk takes place again this year with the first walk on 26 th April in Glasgow.
One of our walkers from last year, Gavin McGill has signed up again and if you
would like to get involved alongside Gavin we would love to hear from you. If you
need more time to prepare then the Edinburgh Kiltwalk is 13 th September so lots of
time for training. Contact Martin at the Centre to ask about your free Kiltwalk place.

The big challenge for this year will be to complete our transformation of the
Resource Area into a Technology Hub. We are currently in the middle of applying for
funding and getting quotes from contractors to secure the work. Watch out for more
on this in future updates.

Finally, we will soon unveil a 2020 community fundraising project. Our aim is to
provide £20 of funding to 20 youth groups and school classes with the challenge for
them to use that money to generate further funds for the Centre. Again, contact
Martin if you know a group that might be interested in taking up the 2020 challenge.

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 2. Publicity

Media coverage remains strong with our Winter Fayre and subsequent donation from
Windsor Park getting good coverage in the press. This has in turn helped us keep
our social media profile high and visitors from other charities and organisations often
remark on what good work we are doing in this area. To not only tell people about
our activities but also share news from our partners, other charities and stories we
think might be of interest.

You can see a montage of our media coverage from 2019 in Hall One alongside
stories and articles from previous years. The volume and breadth of coverage is
down to the amazing people who use our Centre and the inspirational stories that
everyone has to tell.

This has been recognised in the recently published Humans of Scotland book, which
features stories about life from everyday people in Scotland. Christine Moroney and
Lawson Eades have both been featured. You can read Christine’s story in our copy
of the book here at the Centre. We also have a braille version if preferred. The
Alliance, who published the book, used Lawson’s story as an example on Facebook
(see the link on our page if you would like to read it) and the response to that was
overwhelming with some real heart-felt messages of thanks to Lawson for all the
help she has provided to others over the years.

Our FVSC team is attending the EyeCare 2020 conference in Glasgow with an
information stand this month and we have reserved a spot at the next Deaf Scotland
Conference on 17th March to talk more about the Making Sense of Energy Project
with D/deaf people.

3. Volunteering

December is always incredibly busy for volunteer activity and helps our volunteers to
get into the spirit of Christmas nice and early! We started the month by welcoming
DWP volunteers to the Centre to decorate all our public areas and make sure we
were bright and sparkly and ready for Santa.

Our Winter Fair requires lots of volunteer input and we were lucky again to have over
22 volunteers to help out in this key fundraising event.

Since the last update there have been two Kitchen Garden planting sessions with
our fledgling garden squad comprising Stephen Smith, Kyle Somerville and Frank
Swift. We enjoyed planting a selection of Spring veg and we were also delighted to
work with Windsor Park school pupils and their teachers to plant apple trees. There
are more Kitchen Garden sessions and some workshops planned over the next
couple of months. These sessions are fun, interactive and led by experienced
gardener and food grower Sarah Fraser:

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February Kitchen Garden Workshops –Volunteers Wanted:

4 Feb –COMPOSTING & planting yellow rattle seeds ( hawthorn, blackthorn,

magnolia and forsythia)

25 Feb –Chitting Tatties, pot cleaning & bulbs and seed sowing – hairy Bittercress
pesto making

March Workshops:

3rd –(Nettles and natter)  Marigolds/ calendula seed sowing

17th - Maintenance seeds and weeds and natter

31st – CELEBRATION – Look at what we’ve achieved

Everyone is welcome to come along and join in our Kitchen Garden sessions. No
previous gardening experience necessary. Activities are subject to change
depending on the weather but if you would like to join us for a session please contact
Caroline Storey.

Christmas must have inspired people to get involved and do some good because we
had six potential new volunteers through the doors to learn about how they could get
involved in the Centre. There will be a sensory awareness session on 22 January to
progress these potential volunteers to the next stage.

A sensory awareness session was delivered for two new volunteers during
December– Lorna Martin is now helping with the Friday IT group and Amanda
Sneddon will be helping out in the garden.

Volunteers Claudia and Gillian helped café staff deliver 3 delicious Christmas
lunches for the choir, the sensory team and the braille/IT group. Our
promotional/event volunteers with lived experience of sensory loss, Lawson, Joanne
and Ann were out and about promoting the Centre at a local Beavers group and the
Bellfield Centre in Stirling.

4. Climate Challenge Fund

Activity on our Making Sense of Energy project has continued at a pace. Project
Manager Kirsty has completed 10 home visits to assess individual requirements and
advise on energy saving improvements in addition to speaking to 2 different
community groups and delivering 3 interactive energy workshops.

We are delighted to support people to gain positive results from the project. For
example, two participants have now received new heating systems through Home
Energy Scotland Government Grant Scheme, two people now receiving the Warmer

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Winter Payment and we have helped support an elderly lady reduce her fuel bill from
£390 per month to £75 per month.

Forth Valley Sensory Centre Energy Roadshow will be hitting the streets for 4 days
from January 22nd to Saturday 25th. The Centre Minibus will be transformed into a
display bus and will be stationed at Springkerse Industrial Estate on Wednesday,
The Mayfield Centre, Bannockburn on Thursday, Falkirk Central Retail Park Friday
and Stirling Outlet Village in Tillicoultry on Saturday. Kirsty will also be running an
energy Workshop in The Mayfield Centre on the Thursday 23 rd of January.

Kirsty will be representing the Centre with an information stand at the Eyecare 2020
conference at the Glasgow Hilton on Sunday the 19 th January along with our
volunteer Mel. She will also be speaking to a number of community groups over the
next month.

5. Centre Groups and Classes

We look forward to welcoming back our Vision Impairment (VI) group on Monday 20 th
January. The group last met on 9th December, when they took part in a Climate
Challenge Workshop. This month the group are holding a Burns Supper lunch, and
we will also be having a celebration for group member Kathleen Cunningham, who
turned an incredible 100 Years Old on the 1 st January. There will be lots of candles
on that cake!

The Stirling VI group had their first outing of the year on the 14 th January in their new
meeting place at the Bellfield Centre, Stirling. The group appreciated the new
atmosphere and enjoyed their talk on how to make savings on energy bills from
Kirsty Banks. Some group members have already signed up for a home visit to learn
how they can save even more money whilst staying warm this winter.

Our History Group will be returning on 4th February, and will be welcoming the Argyll
and Sutherland Highland Regiment Museum for another interesting display and talk.
This time we will be looking at handling boxes and stories from WW2. If you are
interested in coming along please let us know. The group meet from 10am-12pm on
the first Wednesday of the month and each month we cover a different theme with
some historical interest.

We are broadening our horizons with our Knit and Natter Groups! As well as our
regular Knit and Natter Group returning to the centre on the 27 th January at its usual
time of 12.30pm-14.30pm, we will be hosting a new Knit and Natter Group in Stirling
at the Bellfield Centre starting from Friday 24 th January from 12pm-2pm, if you are
interested in either of these groups we are always happy to welcome new people –
don’t be shy, novice knitters and crochet makers welcome too!

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Talk and Sign Group had a fantastic Christmas Party in December. This month the
group are going to see The Lion King at Edinburgh Playhouse. This group meets
monthly on a Monday evening and is open to all D/deaf and Hard of Hearing BSL
users. They do a range of different activities throughout the year and are always
happy to welcome new members.

Both our Martial Arts Style Fitness Class and our Personal Safety Class with
accredited instructor David Black have returned for 8 week blocks. These classes do
not require any prior knowledge or martial arts, and is taught through disguised
repetition. If interested in learning more about either of these groups which take
place on a Thursday please get in touch.

Curling sessions will return on 3rd February. There will also be a Curlability Bonspiel
happening on the 22nd February which is a bit of fun competition, with prizes!

If you are interested in taking part or finding out more about any of our groups and
classes, please contact the Centre and ask to speak to Linsey Stocks.

Summary

Thanks for taking the time to read this month’s Centre report. I hope you found it
interesting. If you have any suggestions for information you would like to see in
future reports please let me know.

Report prepared by Jacquie Winning, 17 January 2020

www.forthvalleysensorycentre.org

@FVSensoryCentre