Events involving Special People North in Spring 2011

There are an increasing number of events that I will be attending and a few that I will be speaking at in the near future, if you are able to and interested do come along, you are most welcome!

Wednesday 26th January - CWAC Parent Partnership, held at 7.30 pm at St Michaels Church Coniston Road, off Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1PX. I am speaking about Special People North and how we can support families with our range of appropriate services and skilled support workers.

Tuesday 8th February - Information Day about transition from primary to secondary school to be held at Ellesmere Port Civic Hall CH65 OAZ from 10 am to 4 pm, organised by CWAC Parent Partnership Service.

There will be a Market Place of stands from lots of services and charities including Special People North where you can ask questions and collect information to help you.

There will be five optional sessions in the afternoon where you can find out more information about ways you can help support your child to get ready for High School if they have the following special educational needs:-
1. Dyslexia
2. Speech and Language difficulties
3. Autistic Spectrum conditions
4. Behaviour difficulties
5. Educational Psychologist talking about the anxieties you or your child may have about moving up to high school and strategies to help.


For a booking form and more information e-mail: carol.longoni@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
or visit the link to the website:
www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/parentpartnership

Wednesday 23rd February - Information Day about transition into adulthood - the young person in your family becoming an adult. To be held at Ellesmere Port Civic Hall CH65 OAZ from 10 am to 4 pm and organised by CWAC Parent Partnership Service.
There will be a Market Place of stands from lots of services and charities including Special People North where you can ask questions and collect information to help you. Additionally there will be optional sessions.
For a booking form and more information e-mail: carol.longoni@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
or visit the link to the website:

www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/parentpartnership

Thursday 28th April - ChAPS meeting at the Blue Cap in Sandiway, 7-9 pm. This time it's Special People North in the front line speaking about our services. This is their flyer about the event.

Full address is : The Blue Cap,Chester Road, Sandiway, Northwich, Cheshire CW8 2DN












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Very belated happy new year to everyone! What’s happened since my last blog: a Radio Manchester interview, lots on personalisation and some PR updates!

Last Thursday, very early in the morning my phone rang, and on the other end was a researcher from BBC Radio Manchester asking if I had read a particular news article in the papers that morning. Tricky – I was hardly out of bed! But I was asked if I could comment – live on the radio – and when I asked when it would be the researcher replied “oh… in about 10 minutes?” The adrenalin was going instantly!

It was all about a lady who had posted a comment on the internet that she couldn’t cope with her disabled child any longer and would have to put her in to care because no further help was available from the council in Bristol where she lives. Had David Cameron not given her a personal assurance during his election campaign about the support she would get this news story probably would not have made the headlines. However it does bring to the attention of the public just how much support is needed for families.

If you are interested in hearing more about this and my listening to my interview the link is below, you will need to start 1hour 45 mins 50 secs into the programme for my 5 minutes of fame!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00d5738/Beswick


I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats wanting to know who won the balloon race that started last September in Sandbach at the Cheshire Voice Family Day. Well let’s just say that we weren’t deluged with returned tags… in fact just one found its way back!

But the balloon had gone as far as the village of Priddy near Cheddar in Somerset 158 miles away from where it was released; we were amazed! It was found in October in a field by a couple walking their dog! So my thanks to Becky and Mark who received an M&S voucher for returning it to me. Sadly the tag had not been filled in before it was released so I have no-one to award the prize to. The photo shows the table at the event with our “pink tree” displaying our flyers and the balloons ready to be released just behind it.

The Christmas Tree Festival in Alderley Edge at the end of November was a great success and raised over £4000 for the church’s spire appeal; we were delighted to be a part of such a great fund-raising opportunity.

Alderleyedge.com wrote a great piece about its success and had some super photos on line too. If you want to read more about it follow the link www.alderleyedge.com/news/article/3343/alan-garners-opens-christmas-tree-festival

This was our tree – the only one there that was white so it really stood out well along with Santa on the top with the Special People wave!

I have been to a number of events dedicated to informing people about the personalisation agenda. These have been run by Cheshire East Link, Cheshire West and Chester Link, Cheshire East Council and others. This is me on the right explaining personalisation at the CWAC “My Life My Choice” event on 23rd November. The events have been extremely informative and lots of information was provided for families and carers.