MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING – FRIDAY 12thMAY2017

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT– LINDSEY

Clients/Befrienders

Sadly, one of our clients passed away last month. He had been a client for almost 3 years and had just celebrated his 102nd birthday. I attended his funeral last week with his befriender and wife.The minister thanked Monifieth Befriending Scheme and his befriender; saying how much the client and family appreciated the visits. Unfortunately, his has befriender has decided not to have another client.A lady waiting for our service sadly passed away too.

Two clients were admitted to hospital since our last meeting. One is now back home. The other has been transferred to Forfar for assessment and I visited her earlier this week with her befriender. It looks unlikely that she will be returning home.

One client has moved permanently into a care home in Carnoustie and I visited her last week. Her befriender will continue to visit although the match will no longer be supported by us. Her befriender would like visit clientson a short-term basis.She has already visited one client whose befriender was on holiday and will visit another client whose befriender is taking a break due to ill-health. Although she is keen to return when her health improves.

It has been decided that a client who has spent a lot of time in hospital the last few years but is now in a home in Arbroath, will stay there rather than move to a care home in Monifieth as originally planned. Her befriender has been visiting every couple of weeks and will continue to do so for the moment but is aware that it will now be without our support. She is unsure if she would like another client.

This week I introduced one of our new befrienders and a lady on our waiting list. The meeting went well and they will meet again next week.The befriender was going to wait to be partnered until after she’d had an operation but the operation has been delayed. I hope to partner the other 2 newly trained befrienders this month. One has just returned from holiday and I am waiting on PVG membership for the other lady.

A gentleman was referred to us recently. When I visited, him he wasn’t overly keen to have a befriender, saying that he preferred his own company. However, the referrer was keen for him to meet a befriender in the hope that he would change his mind. I introduced a new befriender to the gentleman a couple of weeks ago but the gentlemanrefused our service.I hope it won’t be too long until I am able to partner the male befriender with another client.

I have interviewed 2 ladies who would like to be befrienders. They havehad one training session and will complete training next week.

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED SHEET FOR OUR CURRENT FIGURES

Volunteer Meeting

Thirteen volunteers attended our Aprilmeeting when we had aDoorstoppers talkgiven by a Community Safety Police Officer and Trading Standards Officer.

Co-op Community Fund

Pauline and I were invited to the Milton Mill store along with the other 2 charities who benefited from the Community Fund for a celebration and our photo was in the Evening Telegraph.

Integration Care Fund report

Our report was completed and sent by the closing date 20th April. Gary Malone, VAA has now submitted it along with the other Third Sector reports.

PVG support visit

I had a routine support meeting with a Compliance Assistant from Disclosure Services.I found the meeting very useful. She was satisfied that our organisation has a sound understanding of the Disclosure process. Our Secure Handling Policy needed to be updated; this has been done and all our documents are compliant. The Management Committee will receive a copy of the updated Secure Handling Policy and Support Visit Report.

Tea@343 talk

I was invited along to this group in Broughty Ferry last week to give a talk on our scheme. Tea@343 is held every fortnight for older people. They have a cup of tea, some home-baking and a talk or musical entertainment. They were a nice, friendly bunch of people who seemed really interested in what we do; saying it’s a pity there isn’t anything similar in Broughty Ferry. I received a lovely thank you card and a £20 donation for our scheme.

Donations

We are also grateful to receive the following donations:

£200 from Monifieth Parish Church –a retiring offering on Palm Sunday.

£100 donation from a friend of our scheme.

Medieval Fair – our stall is booked at the Medieval Fair on Sunday 18th June from 12.30pm – 4.30pm. We would love to hear from anyone willing to volunteer for an hour on the day to help us promote our scheme.

CURRENT FIGURES – 12th May2017

CLIENTS

Total number of clients partnered / Older clients partnered / Bereaved clients partnered / Care home clients (partnered with 6th pupils)
43 / 31 / 5 / 7

DEMAND FOR OUR SERVICE

Total number of people waiting for our service / Older people / Bereaved people
7 / 7 / 0

VOLUNTEERS

Total number of Adult Befrienders partnered / Adult Befrienders partnered with older clients / Adult Befrienders partnered with bereaved clients / 6th year pupils partnered within care homes
39 / 27 / 5 / 7
Adult Befrienders partnered with more than 1 client / Supply Befrienders / Trained unmatched Adult Befrienders
able to befriend / Adult Befrienders temporarily unable to befriend
6 / 2 / 3 / 2
Management
Committee
6

*Beforemaking a match we always take into consideration our clients and volunteers’ needs/availability/preferences and more importantly, compatibility, therefore it is not always possible to matchclients on our waiting list with available unmatched volunteer.

Development Coordinator’s Report

Monifieth High School

Brenda and I had lunch with some of our young volunteers, and Miss Smith to evaluate how the year has been for them.

The discussion was very positive and the experience gave the pupils insights to all sorts of things they had not expected. Brenda took copious notes and will summarise the discussion in due course. Thank you Brenda!!!!

I intend to send out a questionnaire to those who were not able to attend.

I gave my usual yearly presentation and received 52 applications to become befrienders next year.

After a great deal of discussion and deliberation Gail and I managed to whittle he number down to a much more manageable 17…..5 boys and 12 girls.

Miss Smith

After working for 37 years at the High School, Miss Smith has decided to retire. I will miss her hugely. She has been so supportive of our organisation and has helped in so many ways to get make the project the success it is today.

I want to take this opportunity to thank her for all she has done and wish her a long and interesting retirement.

Evaluation

Brenda, Lindsey and I met with Rob Ion, senior lecturer, head of division mental health, nursing and counselling, to discuss evaluating our project. Brenda showed him what we have already and explained our process to him.

After discussion, it was agreed that he would do an audit, so that he might write a paper and we would have another viewpoint for our service.

He also put me in touch with Anna Young, who deals with volunteering opportunities in the college and I await her reply to discuss how I might recruit more volunteers.

GWT

I attended a local meeting of “generations working together” and although it was poorly attended, I gleaned some useful information on how to measure the impact of loneliness in later life, information on a pilot for on line training running later this year and I was able to help a deputy head teacher from Monikie primary school in her quest to kick start some intergenerational work in her school.

Verdant Works

I met with Anna, educational heritage worker, from the Verdant works, and Claire, the support social worker from the high school to discuss the possibility of younger pupils recording and exhibiting stories and pictures of the older people in Monifieth.

The proposal is that we run a pilot after the summer holidays. There will be 4 or 5 sessions, the first of which will be an icebreaker at the Verdant works to discuss what the young people do now ad what the older people did in the past.

The second session will be devoted to looking and old photos and reminiscing……the street I grew up on, or the school I went to………. The third taking photos of how things are now and specific stories.

The 4th will be pulling it altogether and the last will be creating a display/book and creating a sharing event.

We discussed the venues at length and decided that the first one should be at the Verdant works because the facilities are there to start of rich discussions, and thereafter probably at the high school.