To support the local community with the current Cost of Living crisis, Midland Mencap have joined the network of Warm Welcome Spaces across Birmingham.
We will be hosting free access to Weoley Castle Community Centre, Bottetourt Rd, Birmingham B29 5TE every Monday to Friday between 11am – 1pm.
You will be welcome to come in to our Community Cafe to stay warm and access support and resources.
Here’s what we have on offer:
• Access to free computers and tablets
• Free Wi-Fi
• Free plug points to charge mobile phones or tablets
• Access to tabletop board games
• Access to newspapers, magazines an quiz books
• Access to Children and Young People games and toys
• A lunchtime café with a selection of warm food and drinks (items will require a small fee)
• Friendly volunteers and staff, offering support and specific guidance
For more information:
Call: 0121 427 6404
Email:communityhub@midlandmencap.org.uk
For full details of the Warm Welcome venues across Birmingham, visit:
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory/73/warm_welcome_spaces_in_birmingham
Looking for something fun to do on Wednesday evenings?
Do you want to participate in fun activities with young people for aged 11-18 years old?
Do you want to try something new?
Wednesday Evening Youth Club is the place for you!
Activities on offer
Gaming, sports, arts and crafts, film nights, Trips to the cinema, bowling, mini golf, and much more.
Where: Weoley Castle Community Centre, Bottetout Road, Birmingham B29 5TE
When: Every Wednesday Starting Tuesday 6th September
Cost: £7.50 per session
For more information please contact:
Email: Gemma.Farley@midlandmencap.org.uk
Call: 0121 427 6404
Have you ever thought about volunteering? But kids and childcare and errands and, and, and… don’t worry, we understand – life is busy!
There are many benefits to volunteering and here are 5 Reasons why you should make time to volunteer:
1. Improve Your Skills
Volunteering can improve your skills in a whole host of different ways. From communication to teamwork and time management, you’ll develop various skills that could be mentioned on your CV. Employers are always looking for excellent interpersonal skills and volunteering, even just a few hours a week, can really help with that.
2. Improve Your Mental Health
Helping and supporting others around you can improve your own Mental Health. Being able to focus on someone else can reduce the feeling of stress and improve well-being. This, in turn, can improve your confidence and self-esteem and bring a more positive outlook in new situations.
3. The Feel-Good Factor
Supporting a cause you are passionate about can give you that warm feeling inside, that you’re doing something good in your local community and for something you are passionate about.
Here at Midland Mencap, we love getting volunteers involved in our projects and want them to feel like they are giving back in the way they want to.
4. Meet New People
In a world that spends their life super-glued to their phone, volunteering offers that small window of opportunity to meet new people in your local community.
Whether you spend time with our citizens, wider Midland Mencap team or other volunteers, you’ll be able to form meaningful friendships with those around you.
Our Community and Group Befriender roles are the perfect examples of this and would be excellent if you want to spend quality time with citizens within the West Midlands area.
5. Gain New Experiences
Volunteering can allow you a few hours a week or month to experience something new. Whether it be through supporting an event or campaign we run or at some of our weekly sessions, you’ll find yourself making memories and learning more about your local community every time.
We offer a wide range of roles to get involved in. Whether you want to stick with one role or swap every few months, we can ensure you’ll have a fantastic experience volunteering with us, whatever you decide to be involved in. You can even attend taster sessions and find the role you.
If you’d like to get involved with us as a volunteer, check out our Volunteer Roles, click here.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Join Ashleigh and Curtis for the Episode 2 of Midland Mencap’s Citizen Chat podcast. It is run by people with Learning Disabilities, giving their experiences and support for those who also have similar disabilities or long-term health conditions.
This Month they talk to Sarah from the Birmingham family carers about her own experience of being a carer.
Listen Here:
Watch Here:
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Join Ashleigh and Curtis for the first Midland Mencap’s Citizen Chat podcast. It is run by people with Learning Disabilities, giving their experiences and support for those who also have similar disabilities or long-term health conditions.
In this episode Ashleigh and Curtis talk about entertainment, the Netflix show ‘A Typical’ and what listeners should expect for future episodes.
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Listen Here:
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Watch and Listen Here:
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Midland Mencap’s After School club at the Weoley Castle Community Centre offers child care for children from reception to year 6. The after school club is open in school term time every Monday to Friday 3pm-6pm.
We cover local schools in the Weoley Castle area including Paganel, Jervoise, Princethorpe, and St Rose. New local schools are also welcome. Every child will be picked up on the walking bus by our staff who are experienced level 3 qualified play workers.
The cost is £9.50 per session which includes fun and creative activities, a safe environment for children and a healthy snack. For an additional £1.50 your child can also have a hot dinner provided on a two-week rotating menu.
To book your child onto our after school club or to find out more contact the after school club Coordinator, on:
Email: afterschool@midlandmencap.org.uk
Call: 0121 442 2944 or 07912269014
Address:
Weoley Castle Community Centre
Bottetourt Road,
Weoley Castle, B29 5TE
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It’s that time again, folks. The weather has turned colder, it’s getting darker earlier and you can’t help but be bombarded with Christmas music everywhere you go. But the debate on everyone’s mind around the office is ‘what is the best Christmas film?’ Whilst there are so many to choose from, we have narrowed it down to just five!
1. Home Alone
It’s a classic, isn’t it? From protecting the house from the baddies, to putting on aftershave (and immediately regretting it), Kevin is left home alone over Christmas by mistake. Whilst his family whisks off to Paris, he finds himself able to do everything he had always wanted to – staying up late, being in his older brother’s room and eating whatever he wants!
But how Christmassy is it, really? We’re giving it a 5/5 rating. From the music, to the feel-good, family factor, Home Alone has everything for a traditional Christmas film!
2. The Grinch (Who Stole Christmas)
For all you humbugs out there who hear the Christmas music in the supermarket (but wish you wouldn’t), this film is for you. The Grinch lives high in the mountains, away from Whoville, a town who are undeniably the ultimate Christmas-fans. He plans to ‘steal’ Christmas – from their tree to their spirit – there is just one small matter…Cindy Lou. It’s a family-friendly adventure about family, friendship and the spirit of Christmas. Even you humbugs will crack a smile at this Christmas movie!
That’s why we’re giving it a 4/5 Christmas rating – it’s funny, heart-warming and we think Max, the Grinch’s dog, is pretty cute, too!
3. Elf
If you are need of a film that is slapstick funny, that is so ridiculous yet wonderful; then Elf is the one for you. It is as if someone has sprinkles ‘Christmas joy’ over the entirety of this film.
Buddy, a human who was transported to the North Pole as a young child, struggles to shake the fact he is different to his friends, Santa’s elves. So, he heads off to New York in search of his long-lost Father – a business man who does not share Buddy’s Christmas passion. The film provides endless jokes and gags, as Buddy explores the meaning of Christmas.
Overall, it’s a hilarious, extra-Christmassy, film. We give it a 4/5.
We know we said Home Alone is a classic but…THIS is the definition of the word ‘classic’. Right? It felt wrong to not include this in our list. It is Christmas- film heritage, after all.
As George looks back on his life, in a dark moment one evening, he is shown by angels how his wonderful actions have impacted his entire town for the better. It’s a beautiful, yet very sad, film about the beauty of Christmas.
Purely for the fact it makes everyone cry at Christmas, we’re giving this film a 3/5. But saying that, it’s also a great film to nap through, just after your huge portion of roast dinner. (Not that we’ve done that before…)
5. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
From chopping down a tree in the middle of nowhere, to a burnt-out turkey, to lights that won’t turn on (and then cause a power shortage…of the entire street), this film has the makings of a pretty bad film. However, you would be incorrect.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation provides laugh-out-loud entertainment for the whole family. It is so outlandish and ‘extra’, you can’t help but laugh. For everyone who is used to big family get-togethers over the holidays, this film explores all the things that could (and do) go wrong, in the most outrageously hilarious way.
This film deserves a 4/5 in the fact you can watch it year on year and still laugh at the jokes every year. Whilst the entire theme is Christmas, it isn’t so slapstick and in-your-face as Elf. It mixes the humour for children and adults as well, which gives a longevity to the movie.
Include Me West Midlands is a social movement that’s designed to bring citizens and organisations together across the region to collaborate and look at how things can be improved to create a more accessible and inclusive society.
The aim of Include Me is to enable people with a disability or long-term health condition to be more active in a way that is fully accessible and inclusive for them, regardless of age and ability levels.
But more than that, we also want to look at accessibility issues as a whole, so we can help encourage the changes that are needed in order to make the West Midlands the best it can be for accessibility and inclusion.
For that reason, as part of the Include Me, we have recently set up a Citizens Network, which is designed to be a user-led voice for people with a disability or long-term health condition, as well as parents, carers and other family members or support to provide them with a safe space to communicate their issues and concerns surrounding accessibility in their local area in a way that will be heard.[/vc_column_text][vc_text_separator][vc_empty_space][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/jdakK0gGPYY”][vc_text_separator][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Include Me West Midlands puts disabled people and people with long term health conditions at the heart of the conversation and covers the following themes.
• Transport
• Housing
• Community
• Wellbeing
• Employment and Education
• Digital
• Children & Young People
Becoming involved with the Citizens Network is the very first step in allowing us to unite and develop a louder voice to encourage the changes we need across the region with a solution oriented approach.
For more information about the project, and to find out how you can get involved, you can contact me at Ashleigh.Jones@midlandmencap.org.uk or call 07912 269035.
Join the Citizens Network Private Facebook Group
Midland Mencap is one of the region’s leading learning disability charities with a strong, respected, and established reputation for excellence and innovation. Employees span across the West Midlands, with a vast variety of roles and daily routines. No two days are the same and neither are the positions we offer here.
The vision of our Job Insights monthly blog is to give employees and roles a chance to educate, explore and celebrate all the hard work we know they do. It aims to allow roles that, if you didn’t know were there, wouldn’t necessarily be known about. We hope you’ll come away with a better understanding of who exactly makes up the amazing Midland Mencap team.
This Christmas, we interviewed Sarah Lynch who one of our amazing Family Project Workers. We chatted about family, managing work-life balance and being a family-carer herself. Sarah has three boys and one girl, two of which have learning disabilities, so she understands the struggles and the joys of life, all too well. Throughout the interview, Sarah’s zest for life, passion for Birmingham and families who are parent-carers themselves, significantly shined through.
Sarah began by explaining what a Family Project Worker does, stating that their team is there to support, encourage and guide carers. The team is split across the five areas of Birmingham – North, South, East, West and Central. Sarah is responsible for the South. Sessions are split between either one-on-one and individual focus or group work.
One on one support can include their initial assessment; identifying what might be missing, seeing where they need additional support, making an action plan and then ensuring it is put into place for them. Support can include respite care, additional funding, helping them find the correct school placements and encouraging them to partake in meaningful things to do as a family, that are inclusive.
Group work is more social, in that Midland Mencap offers coffee mornings, Musical Meet Ups, small group sessions and parent-carer training. Sarah runs ‘drop-ins, so if they can’t commit to weekly support groups or coffee mornings, they can just pop and see me, ask for general advice.’ She explained that whilst some issues may be able to be resolved there and then, some are then be referred through the wider Family Carers team as it’ll require further support.
Sarah, being a parent-carer as well, knows the realities of what carers go through. Her passion lies within supporting them at whatever point in the process they are at – whether newly diagnosed, needing resources or simply going through the motions of every day life. Reflecting on her own experiences, Sarah explained, “I wish I had somebody in my corner with me. Just to sit in meetings, if I didn’t understand something, or I was so emotional I couldn’t take it all in; somebody in a professional role sat next to me, taking it all in for me and can that on-going support afterwards”. Her experience and wisdom of being a parent-carer herself has allowed her empathy to shine through significantly, because she understands entirely the difficulties new, and seasoned, carers may often face.
The way Sarah ran through memories of her children growing up – appointments, assessments, learning to adapt daily life to a new narrative – was really striking in that her compassion for others and her patience for their situations was unending. From having to change simple words and phrases, to recognising how to communicate with her youngest especially, as he was non-verbal for the first four years of his life (he is now 6 years old); “playing catch up” to get him to a higher level of development was a learning-curve they had to quickly learn. Whereas her older son, who was diagnosed as a teenager, needed structure and routine. Their situation resulted in him moving schools, where he thrived under the new circumstances. Being able to support her children, experiencing the different elements that come with being a parent-carer, Sarah explained that she feels well-equipped to support others, too.
But was working in the Third/Charity sector always the goal? When Sarah left school at 16, with GCSEs but no A Levels to her name, she enrolled in a Hairdressing course at college. However, she found that once she begun to have children at aged 18, her career focus began to evolve. Originally working in the private sector, Sarah realised that there were many more people out there who didn’t have the money to such high-quality care, support and guidance, and so, found herself entering the charity sector. She “absolutely loved” the face-to-face opportunities to support citizens with mental health whilst working for a charity in Sandwell, “reaching individuals in their homes and offering that level of support”.
Ultimately, that passion for others led Sarah to Midland Mencap; “it just feels right to me that care and support is accessible to everybody”. Front line work is where she feels she’ll stay (and we’ll be exceptionally glad to have her continue to stay!). We asked Sarah if her 14-year-old self would have thought she’d be in this line of work in her now-thirties; she replied, “Yeah! I think so. I always knew I wanted to be a Mum, wanted to give and care for people. It’s just within me.” With having two children that have Learning Disabilities, it has given Sarah the opportunity to broaden that skill set and expertise of caring on not just a professional level, but a personal one, too.
Our Family Carers teams work with such a range of people, from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances, which results in every day looking a little different to the next. Sarah explained that every family that are involved in the work we do has a different story; “every family is equally important, regardless of their diagnosis or going through a diagnosis, the fact they are caring for their mum and they have dementia, or the fact they have MS – they are all carers, so we go in with eyes wide open to whatever their needs may be.” This can be touching base with carers, especially if they need additional support due to child protection plans in place or be in an emotionally vulnerable situation. As a result of how much time and energy Carers invest into their roles and lives of those they care for, it can become their identity, which is why Sarah always begins every session with a new carer getting to know who they are. She explained that so often they can get so wrapped up in appointments, assessments, new information constantly and they forget that they have an individual identity, too; “I find that’s a really important question for me – ‘can you tell me who you are? Not the carer, not the Mum; who are you?’”. It begins to humanise their experiences again, giving them ownership of their identity.
Christmas can be a difficult time for carers for many reasons. Children, for example, are not in school. This can become an issue for those carers that may be quite isolated, with no family or friends around to support. In addition, the festive period can bring a lot of change – something which can be challenging for those with Learning Disabilities. Something as simple as going to the supermarket to do the weekly shop can become a huge mountain due to things like the music in the background being different, Christmas items being on the shelves, shops are much busier.
That being said, Sarah pointed out, there have been significant improvements in the last few years for accessibility and accommodating alternatives. For instance, whilst visiting Santa’s Grotto is an activity many families partake in during the Christmas period, it can be quite a demanding experience for those with Learning Disabilities. That being said, there are some garden centres across the West Midlands that, during pre-booking, will offer a space for accessibility suggestions or comments, to support your visit. Visual aids can also be a beneficial tool for parent-carers, such as presenting a structure or order of their day, allowing them the time to process any change that might occur. Or, preparing the child(ren) by showing them pictures of Santa, what a Grotto might look like, what sounds might be around and explaining what the experience will entail. Such tools won’t erase their potentially difficulties, but it might offer a softer approach that could lead to a smoother day for them and the family.
Sarah explained that many parents – both those who care for others and even those that don’t – feel high amounts of pressure of the Christmas period. From present giving, to cooking the perfect dinner, to ensuring everyone is happy throughout the day. But regardless of if whether things go to ‘plan’ or not – they may not want to open their presents, or they want to eat something different – it’s important not to worry about it. If, for example, you are due to see family at a certain time, but you know that it simply won’t happen, Sarah recommends you communicate with your family. “I’m pretty sure family will understand. Communication with family and friends, not just with your cared for, will go a long way.”
Ultimately, being a parent-carer and being part of the Family Carers team is hard but rewarding work. It is possible to branch into this line of work without qualifications – Sarah explained that whilst she has built up an impressive portfolio of training over the years, she left school with only GCSEs at age 16. “I just think these types of roles, it’s not about what’s on paper; it’s about what’s in your heart and what you want to achieve, wanting to give.” It’s an emotionally demanding role, and it certainly isn’t for everyone; but within the wider Midland Mencap team, it’s one part of the cog that ensures our organisation runs smoothly and that we can reach out, support, and engage with the most vulnerable within the West Midlands. Midland Mencap offer support in a holistic way.
“Sometimes the only thing to say to carers is that it is hard, to give that validation, that ‘what you are going, Mum, is hard and you should be so proud that you are getting up everyday and still doing it’”.
We are looking for new Trustees to join our existing board and work alongside our skilled, experienced, and talented leadership team to help steer the charity through a time of change, growth, and organisational development.
We want trustees who will share their skills and experience appropriately, through communication with staff and other trustees.
This is an opportunity to bring your knowledge and expertise to our management committee, to contribute to the direction of Midland Mencap and help in the board’s decision making.
We are looking for trustees with expertise in areas such as third sector, PR, fundraising, marketing, finance, management and law, although this is not vital. This is a great opportunity to gain experience at board level, to network and for personal and professional development.