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First Aid for Mental Health Course – ECAF

“A key component of a company’s wealth, is in its employees having good mental health.” ECAF

Course: Supervising First Aid for Mental Health (Ofqual accredited qualification) 

Date: 19th-20th December 2019 (last one for the year)

Where: Milton Keynes

Who should attend: Managers and above, HR officials , union reps and health and safety reps from workplaces, schools, groups, faith groups and the armed forces. Anyone with an interest can also attend

Cost: £300 pp included (Ofqual accredited  level 3 qualification). There is 10% discount for charities, small businesses, any group working with children and families and social enterprises.
Bookings for any of our First Aid for Mental Health courses made between 1st November 2019 – 31st January 2020 get a 40% discount. 

To book email:training@ecafnp.com

ECAF supports the Heads Together programme, which is to bring well-being to workplaces, schools and the armed forces.

About First Aid for Mental Health 
First Aid for Mental Health courses help raise awareness of various mental health conditions and how to spot the signs and give initial help and support, until clinical help can be given. They also help reduce sickness/absence among staff and promote well-being in the workplace.
First Aid for Mental Health is evidenced based and is Ofqual regulated and accredited with certificates at level 1, level 2 and level 3. It complies with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Mental Health Policy of your organization.

While there are no specific duties placed on employers to reduce the risk of exposure to work related stress, the general duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 apply equally to mental well-being, as they do to physical injury and health, making First Aid for Mental Health courses as equally important as First Aid at Work.

What is First Aid for Mental Health?This allows a person to give immediate help, support and signposting information to someone at the onset, in or at the end of a mental health crisis, until clinical help and intervention can be given to the person. It acts in the same way as First Aid at Work and CPR. The courses help to improve the understanding, knowledge and attitude of individuals towards mental health conditions. This in turn helps to improve performance, reduce sick days and create a healthy work environment. Participants learn the signs of some mental health conditions and how to start a conversation and apply the four step C.A.R.E plan around it. It supports early intervention, prevention and treatment, with the correct signposting for clinical help. When early help is given, recovery is often quicker, making sickness absence shorter or not at all in some instances.

The Benefits
Staff get a good understanding of various mental health conditions and how to spot the signs of each. They learn how to support themselves and each other, leading to an open and transparent work culture that destigmatizes mental health conditions, making it easier for those with these conditions to attend work and thrive.

Managers, well-being champions, union reps  and health and safety reps learn how to  take care of their own mental health, as they support colleagues in a range of issues, which can at times can be stressful.
Mangers and HR officials get a good understanding  of various mental health conditions  and how to spot the signs of each. They learn how to support staff who have mental health conditions or who have family members with mental health conditions, when having to manage sickness/absence, work capability, performance and reasonable adjustments of employers.

We offer qualification and non qualification training courses:

Level 1 half day First Aid for Mental Health Awareness

Level 2 one day First Aid for Mental Health First Aid

Level 3 two day Supervising First Aid for Mental Health

Did you know?

  • 1 in 6 people experienced a mental health issues this week
  • Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain
  • 1 in five working days are lost each week due to mixed anxiety and depression
  • Mental health problems are sometimes hidden and not visible causing those who live with them to do so in silence, often without the correct help and support
  • 1 in 10 children aged 5-16 have a diagnosable condition
  • 1 in 2 of all mental health problems are established by age 14
  • 3 in 4 of all mental problems are established by age 24

Mental Health Foundation

About Us: We are a community interest company. We deliver training and programs that fund activities around children and families (after school homework help, holiday play and learn schemes, soft skills personal and social development and parenting courses for parents.) We support activities in local communities that empower and inspire children and families. 

See the website for more information about ECAF (please note prices on the website may differ to those offered above due to an outdated website)

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— Comments Off on Free Pantomime tickets for charity performance: Thursday 19th December

Free Pantomime tickets for charity performance: Thursday 19th December

Free tickets for charity performance on Thursday 19th December at 10am!

Are you still looking for that perfect Christmas outing?

Well we might just have the answer – keep reading!

RARE Pantomimes are delighted to be appearing at Stantonbury Theatre this Christmas. They will bring talented cast of professional actors and dancers together to delight you with their production of…

Beauty and the Beast!

Join Belle and the Beast in the enchanted castle. With Dame Dotty taking full control of everyone’s lives hindered by the hapless Muddles and arrogant Count George, what could possibly go wrong?

A traditional pantomime for all the family built around audience participation. A real Christmas treat!

For this special charity showing, we will be offering up to 30 tickets free of charge as a gesture of good will to the local Milton Keynes community…all we need now is you!

This unique performance will take place on Thursday 19th December at 10am.

These tickets are booked on a first come, first served basis so book now to avoid disappointment!

All we ask for in return is the promise of an image of your party having a lot of fun and a short message that we can share on our website and social media pages.

Stantonbury Theatre offers free parking for cars and coaches and disabled access for those with mobility issues.

If you have any other requirements or enquiries, please contact Emma at emmad@rareproductions.co.uk or contact the theatre directly to book at 01908 324466.

For more about RARE Pantomimes please check out our social media accounts for past production images and backstage gossip…

Facebook – @RAREPantomimes

Twitter – @RARE_Panto

Instagram – @rare_panto

Please be aware that there are only 30 tickets FREE and it will be a first come first serve basis.

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— Comments Off on Volunteers needed: Shenley Wood ExtraCare Retirement Village

Volunteers needed: Shenley Wood ExtraCare Retirement Village

Shenley Wood are flexible with their volunteers – whatever time you can give, they will appreciate and value, for it’s the residents that will benefit from any time you have to help make sure that the activities, facilities and groups are running for them to access and participate in.

Volunteers are needed at Shenley Wood in the following areas:

Befriender

The purpose of a befriender is to share time with residents listening and chatting, encouraging them to participate in a friendly and professional manner.

Main tasks:

  • To meet with residents who may be isolated in communal areas
  • To spend time with new residents welcoming them and introducing them to village life
  • To encourage the resident to participate in village life
  • To spend time with the resident chatting, listening and responding
  • To follow standard procedures and rules of conduct
  • To work with and in consultation with the staff and specifically the Village Activity Facilitator, Wellbeing advisor and Locksmith
  • Find things of interest for the resident to talk about

Attributes/Competencies:

  • To be a good listener and have an empathy with people
  • Pleasant, friendly personality, patient with a mature understanding attitude
  • Trustworthy, honest, reliable, able to observe confidentiality
  • To work as part of a team

Gym

This role is to assist the fitness instructor in the smooth running of the gym and to ensure proper procedures are observed, and to enhance the services provided within the village.

Main tasks:

  • Assisting with the opening and closing the gym
  • Turning machinery on and off as required
  • Carrying out daily cleaning and health and safety checks on gym facilities
  • Providing excellent customer service to gym members
  • Providing information on the operation of gym equipment
  • Operating the gym music system
  • Observing the gym (being able to raise the alarm in an emergency)
  • Filing and finding gym members programme cards
  • Promote gym facilities and memberships
  • Assisting with housekeeping tasks within the gym facilities  To observe standard procedures and observe Health and Safety and rules of conduct

Attributes/Competencies:
A people person with a pleasant and friendly personality
Trustworthy, honest and reliable
Ability to carry out their role within a team and under own initiative

Memory Group Session

The purpose of the role is to support the EOP Locksmith in delivering a reminiscence session through a person-centered and holistic approach.

Main tasks:

  • Welcoming and chatting to group members
  • Supporting residents to their seats
  • Participating in group and one to one discussions
  • Engaging with individuals, listening to their life history and respecting their life experiences
  • Providing the Locksmith with a summary of sessions and assisting them with planning future
  • reminiscence discussions
  • Assisting with group activities such as quizzes with the possibility of leading sessions
  • Making refreshments for residents

Attributes/Competencies:

  • Excellent communication skills
  • Empathetic with a person centered approach
  • A good listener with a friendly and welcoming personality
  • Reliable and flexible
  • An understanding of Dementia would be beneficial to this role
  • A strong team member

Wellbeing Group – Escorter

The role of the Volunteer Escorter Coordinator is to escort, support and assist residents to and from wellbeing and the Enriched Opportunities Programme (EOP) activities and sessions within the village.

Main tasks:

  • Collect residents in a timed manner following a timetable
  • Escorting residents to activities and sessions (assisting wheelchair users if required)
  • Chatting to residents
  • Liaising with the volunteer escorter coordinator, the residents and the care team when necessary
  • To follow standard procedures and rules of conduct
  • To work with and in consultation with the staff and specifically the Village Activity Facilitator/Activity Coordinator, Wellbeing advisor and Locksmith

Attributes/Competencies:

  • Reliable and punctual with excellent time management skills
  • To be a good listener and have an empathy with people
  • Pleasant, friendly personality, patient with a mature understanding attitude
  • Trustworthy, honest, able to observe confidentiality
  • To work as part of a team

Shop Assistant

The role of the shop assistant is to ensure that you are providing good customer service to the residents in a friendly and professional manner, as well as undertaking generic shop housekeeping duties.

Main tasks:

  • Providing excellent customer service
  • Assisting customers with their purchases
  • Replenishing and Rotating stock
  • Processing sales, cash handling and operating a till
  • Processing deliveries
  • Labeling and pricing stock
  • General housekeeping duties

Attributes/Competencies

  • A pleasant, friendly personality, patient with a mature attitude
  • Trustworthy, honest, reliable
  • Able to work in a team and under own initiative
  • Experience of retail work or customer focussed activity would be advantageous but full training and support will be given

Training and development for all roles will be provided.

If you are interested in any of these roles, please contact the Shenley Wood ExtraCare Volunteer manager at natalie.sabin@extracare.org.uk or call on 01908 413035

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— Comments Off on Our Autumn Networking/Netwalking Event

Our Autumn Networking/Netwalking Event

The weather was kind to us on Tuesday, for our networking/netwalking event that took place at the Meeting Place outside The Point amidst the Festival of Creative Urban Living.

With the venue so open plan, we used some of our refreshments as paperweights to hold down our information at our stall before it was lost to the wind – otherwise people wouldn’t know who we are, what we do, what we are working on or how we can help and support the voluntary and community sector.

The Festival of Creative Urban Living were kind enough to host us and even entertain us and our guests on a tour of the Festival, exhibiting some of their unique architecture and concepts, with one of our own team getting her idea of a beach in Milton Keynes on one of their models!

We were also joined by AccessAble. AccessAble have been working with Milton Keynes Council for a number of years to create over 350 Access Guides for the area. These Guides contain over 1,000 pieces of access information with a pan-disability approach so that residents and visitors with a disability can make independent and informed decisions about where they would like to go out. For more information, visit their website or contact them to find out how you can utilise their services and Guides!

Then some of our networkers ventured on our netWALK into Conniburrow to see how Big Local Conniburrow have helped to shape and enhance the local community assets. There was a walk around Friendship Park, a visit to the Big Local Conniburrow Hub, as well as a visit to the Pond, the Little Library and the Community Orchard. Our guests were impressed with all of Conniburrow’s hidden gems and how utilised these are by residents and the local community. Our team and guests even had a little laugh and a dance under the Sonar Arch in Friendship Park to show another way the space could be used!

We thank all our attendees and visitors to our Networking Event for coming along and for your ongoing support at our events.

If you would like to see what events we are hosting and that are coming up, sign up to our mailing list here.

Our next event is our ‘Let’s Talk Good Finance’ Event, organised in collaboration with the teams at NAVCA and Good Finance. There will be speakers, the hot topic of the REACH Fund and the promise of refreshments. Please see here for more details.

If you would like to know more about what we do, how we can help or if you have simply got news to share with us, then contact us at info@communityactionmk.org or call on 01908 661623.

We already have our ‘SAVE THE DATE’ for our next networking event! See below for more details.

We look forward to seeing you there! #lovemk #welovemk #networking #voluntaryandcommunitysector

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— Comments Off on It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards!

It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards!

Our very own residents from Netherfield were invited along to the ‘Its Your Neighbourhood’ awards, on behalf of the RHS Britain in Bloom, last week to recognise their work on the ever-improving Community Garden.

Residents from Netherfield attending It’s Your Neighbourhood event with our very own Community Mobiliser, Sue Nelson.

Netherfield residents received a Level 2 award from the Royal Horticultural Society for their efforts in transforming the Community Garden space in Netherfield.

It was a well-attended event, with other residents from Milton Keynes areas in attendance, such as locals from Fullers Slade, Greenleys, Bletchley and Stony Stratford.

Milton Keynes Residents at the event

The event is  major community participation programme and is run on behalf of the RHS Britain in Bloom Campaigns.  This programme focuses on community participation.

For more information on the event and the RHS campaign, click here.

To see how your community can get involved in this campaign for next year and for more information about South and South East in Bloom or Britain in Bloom, then click here.

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— Comments Off on Fareshare South Midlands Warehouse is now open!

Fareshare South Midlands Warehouse is now open!

In partnership with the alternative education charity SOFEA, a brand new Fareshare has come to Milton Keynes! Community Action:MK went along to the opening of the warehouse and the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Fareshare distribute and supply their surplus food to over 11,000 charities across the UK. They have brought themselves to Milton Keynes, working with ASDA, to try and tackle the poverty, homelessness and lack of food available to vulnerable people in order to provide a basic human need to those who might not otherwise receive it. Fareshare are also using their surplus food to connect people and create a social impact upon those they supply to, by bringing people together through food.

‘Surplus with a purpose’.

Community Action:MK were invited to attend the launch of the brand new Fareshare SOFEA Warehouse, where SOFEA and Fareshare’s partners, volunteers and organisations they supply to were out in force to celebrate the new Warehouse. SMART!, MK College and Milton Keynes Christian Foundation, to name a few of the organisations in attendance that Fareshare supply to.

The CEO of Fareshare and the CEO of SOFEA made speeches about how their organisations work and how they work together to achieve ‘surplus with a purpose’. There is a wealth of work behind the scenes and they owe a large thank you to their workers and volunteers, without whom they’re operation would not work or run smoothly or function at all in order to deliver to the frontline charities and community groups.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO of Fareshare, addressing the crowd at the opening launch.

The Mayor was in attendance of the event, invited to help cut the ribbon. He made an empowering speech about how Fareshare and their partnership with SOFEA and ASDA would benefit not only the homelessness numbers rising in Milton Keynes, but the poverty that both vulnerable people and children face. He is excited to see the benefit to the impoverished areas and vulnerable people within Milton Keynes that Fareshare and SOFEA will work with, as well as the individual and social impact it will have on local communities as a whole.

Fareshare are on the lookout for more volunteers for their new South Midlands Warehouse. If you are are interested in volunteering with Fareshare, click here for more information, or contact Community Action: MK at support@communityactionmk.org or call 01908 661623.

For more information about Fareshare and how they work, click here. Or follow the link here to learn more about SOFEA.

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— Comments Off on Community Action: MK joined in the Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning!

Community Action: MK joined in the Worlds Biggest Coffee Morning!

Inundated with cake, Community Action:MK sat down and enjoyed a chat over their bakes and buys, accompanied with a cuppa, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

On Friday the 27th September, Community Action:MK took an hour from their day to sit down, have a coffee and a slice of the many, many cakes provided by the staff and donated to Macmillan Cancer Support on the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

Chocolate cake, lemon cake, fruit cake and raspberry cake and homemade tiffin, the Community Action: MK team surpassed cake-expectations and baked, brought and provided the office with plenty of goodies to feast on alongside their cuppas.

Between our small team of workers and the generosity of our neighbours Duncan Lewis, we raised £58.11 towards Macmillan Cancer Support!

A big thank you to our team at Community Action for getting involved in such a worthwhile cause and for putting your hands in your pockets and giving what you can!

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