2008 - SAP's 5th Birthday

2008 is our 5th birthday, we have been running all this time and sometimes we forget to celebrate. The Committee decided that this year we would let someone else do all the work and we would go to Pearl River, a Chinese restaurant in Kings Lynn. The date was set and we all met up outside, Maureen was the first there and the rest came not long after. The staff were very good, because we had not booked in advance they did not know we were coming, they asked us to wait on the settees next to the fish tank while they sorted out a table. The manager then asked us to follow him, the table they set up for us was wonderful. it was huge and round and had a lazy suzan in the middle so we could spin it around to get at any food we wanted. Everyone ordered drinks and the staff brought bowls of prawn crackers for us to eat while we looked at the menu. There were so many things to try and some of them we did not recognise at all so some of us decided to order small portions of lots of different things and share them. This was great fun and everyone dug in to try new food. We all talked about the past 5 years and how much hard work it had been but how we were all pleased that we had stuck with it and worked together. We all really enjoyed the restaurant and have said that we want to go back there for our Christmas Meal, we will ask the other members if they would like evening or daytime and we will then book because there will be even more of us. The staff are fantastic and are very helpful, the building is easy to get around and we had a wonderful time. Your should go there if you can.

Happy birthday to all of us!!

SAP Delivers Training To Cultural Services

Lily Norman (Secretary)

My name is Lily and I have been with SAP since we started. I can train people and I do the training and I train others to do it too. I am very good at it. We were asked by Norfolk Council to do some training. The people coming to the training were all from museums and libraries. We did the training in Yarmouth at the time and Tides Museum. This is an interesting place and they let us look around but we are going again to spend a whole day there because its interesting. The place made us feel hungry because we could smell smoked fish.

Peter Dade (Chair)

David and Chris came and picked up Peter and me from my house, Peter stayed by mine because we had an early start at 6.45am. we drove to Yarmouth and got there at 9am. This gave us enough time to set up, and for me to run through with Peter what we were going to do – this was Peters first time training people on how they should work with people with learning disabilities and difficulties. We did very well and had lots of people at the training. We finished the day at 4pm and got to my house in Lynn at 6.30 – I was very tired so was Peter but we did a good job and I enjoyed myself and look forward to doing this again.

Chris (volunteer)

My name is Chris and I am a member of SAP and support Lil who has asked me to say a bit about the training day. We had nineteen trainees from Cultural Services, this was a very lively crowd and they all asked lots of questions. Below are a few of the comments taken from the evaluation forms. In response to the question why have you come to this training some people said – “To be able to deliver a more focused library service to people with Learning Disabilities; “To give me more confidence and be able to help people” “Improve awareness of and effects of special needs and disabilities” After the training people said “Very interesting. All the course leaders were well informed and good advocates” “Very interesting, thought provoking, well run, good discussions” “The course was great! It was very informative and gave me much more confidence in the library” It was a very good day, Lily is a very good trainer and has great courage talking about her life. It was good to see and hear Peter taking an active part as this was his first time. All in all a very interesting and enjoyable day.

A Visitor to our Friday Class!

We had a visitor to our Friday Basic Skills Class, this was an interesting time and we asked them to write about what they thought of the class. Chris talked to the members who were taking part and this is what she wrote. SAP runs a basic skills class and has done so for the last 3 years This class is very different from all the other groups that SAP runs where people can come and go as they wish. This is a structured class that meets weekly with each person setting their own learning goals and outcomes. This activity is very intensive and consequently is only open to a limited number of participants who commit themselves to attending regularly – the participants have set these rules. All the people coming to the class have been through the education system including spending many years attending local colleges and other institutions. However they all feel that they have failed, that the system has failed them or both. For some, they could not read or they could not write. Some had a little reading and writing ability but had severely reduced vocabulary. Most felt that they could not use their skills however wide or limited to make sense of the world around them. The little skill that some people had was seen as something separate and not as a practical skill but something ‘special’. All were very frustrated, disenfranchised, lacking in self confidence and generally very sad. In 2007 we got a small grant from Norfolk Community Foundation to pay for meeting space, equipment and tutor fees. This enabled us to buy text books, reading books and writing aids such as an illuminated magnifier, shaped writing implements, personal record books and rough work books. Participants confidence is gradually increasing to the extent that at the end of 2007 nine members took part in the exam set by the Open College Network Level One Developing Personal Development Skills – all nine people passed and have also each gained 3 credits. Some members have identified very specific goals and outcomes for themselves. These range from knowing the alphabet and the different names and sounds that each letter makes, to being able to control the hand enough to make clear letters, to being able to read after the devastating effects of a stroke. This last person came to SAP wanting to re-learn reading and she made good progress. Earlier this year she was persuaded by her health professional that she should really be going to a specialist stroke support group. After an absence of two months she has returned saying that SAP treats her as a whole person not an illness and she has resumed her steady progress in reading. Two members had identified that they wanted to try to take ‘a real exam’. They have been studying hard for the last two years and at the beginning of October took their mock exam in Key Skills level 1 and 2 English and passed. The pass mark is 28 out of 40 and they passed with scores of 32 and 35 so will be entered shortly for their examinations.

Compass Group Report September 2008

September is one of the best times of year for going out and for cooking foraged food. The summer is over and it is easy to get depressed with the dark coming early and the cold winds start to blow but if we make the effort to go out there is a lot of fun to be had and some very nice food to be found. Everyone had enjoyed the summer and had been going out a lot. We had got better at walking and were fitter and happier than we had been for a long time. Some people were worried that over the winter things would go back to the way they were and next spring it would be hard work all over again. Everyone met up and talked about what to do. The cooking group wanted blackberries, apples, chestnuts and anything else that could be found in West Norfolk. The two groups decided to work together. We became Hunter Gatherers! The nearest woods with a bus stop is Sandringham, we all knew there are lots of trees. People remembered going there when they were children to get conkers. Shane told the group that we need to be careful because there may be poisonous things in the woods. Paul and Lily said that if we have an expert and a book we will be fine and a date was set. Chris wrote a workbook for everyone to use, this told them how to identify different trees and had exercises so people could work out the rough age of trees. We looked at different trees and identified the differences between conifers and broad leaves, we talked about deciduous and evergreen and we looked at the different ways trees set seeds. Lily wanted Sweet Chestnuts and she was on a mission! So, what is the differences between a Sweet Chestnut (eating) and a Horse Chestnut (conker)? We agreed that we would only ever pick up chestnuts if they were still in the seed case, the spiky green coating, this way we can be sure that we are getting the right ones. It was still too early in the year to collect any so we made notes of which trees we would come back to. A Horse Chestnut has a case with a few spikes on, most people know what a conker looks like and these must not be eaten. A Sweet Chestnut has a case of the same sort of colour but is covered in hundreds of spikes. The leaves of the the trees are different as well and here is Lily looking and feeling a Sweet Chestnut, she said the leaves feel shiny. Now we knew where to go in October we will collect some up later. A few of the members said that they liked mushrooms and had seen on TV people going out to pick them. David said that we would not be touching any mushrooms or fungi as unless you know exactly what you are doing things can go very badly and some people have died. Everyone agreed that if the Cooking Group wanted mushrooms they can get them from the shop. We did find some interesting fungi though so we took pictures of them and will look them up in books. By this time of year we are getting to the end of the blackberries, these are the last for this season so we left them for the birds. It is important to only take some berries, not all, from any one place. We are here to share with the birds and other animals. We spent time looking at lots of trees and worked out what they were and what they could be used for, we also found some interesting things. Here is one tree with a different tree growing out of it. And here is an Oak tree with its acorns. The woods can be strange sometimes, we saw a few people but not that many. We had been looking at some fir trees and we thought we were completely alone, when we turned around there was a fresh dog track.

No one had noticed or heard a thing and there was no dog in sight.

Friday 5th September 2008 Annual General Meeting of SAP

Some of the members Today. We met to look at our work over the past year and to talk about the annual report and the accounts. The meeting was well attended and the members were in high spirits. All the nominations were in and the ballot papers had been printed. Because we were voting for new officers we asked an independent person to Chair for us. This is Paul, the old Chair, and Christine Bond who was our independent Chair for today. Christine is a supporting member of our group and helps us in our crafts and sales group. Christine opened the meeting and we ran through the standard business. It was then onto the Annual Report. This year the members had decided this would have more pictures and would show how much fun the sessions are. If there is demand we will put a copy up on this page, just let us know by email if you would like to see it. There was a lot of discussion and laughter when members remembered the activities and sessions that were in the pictures. The pictures of the Compass Groups visit to Clay Marsh last February showed how cold it had been that day, lovely sunshine but a north wind right off the sea. This picture of our stall on the Tuesday Market Place in Kings Lynn last November made people shiver. Then we came to the voting for new officers, this was to be done on ballot papers that had everyone's picture on them, people put a cross to vote. after everyone had time to vote the ballots were counted and here are our new officers. In front is Lily the Secretary, then left to right behind her is Peter the Chair, Shane the Treasurer and Paul the Vice Chair. Everyone clapped the new officers and thanked Christine for Chairing so well. The meeting went very well and people left excited about the coming year, there will be training sessions for the new Officers and there is a lot of work for the group with many new things starting and sessions getting bigger. Our next report will be from the Compass Group who are going on a nature trail to identify trees in Sandringham Forest next week. Come back for more pictures and reports soon.

Annual General Meeting

This Friday we are holding our annual general meeting. This is where we will talk about the officers of the group and vote on new people so that new members have a go at running our group and learning new skills. Drop back soon for pictures and a report from whoever is going to be the new Chair.

First Post

This Blog will tell the world about our group. we are the West Norfolk Self Advocacy Project based in Kings Lynn, Norfolk. We are a group run by adults with learning disabilities and difficulties for other adults with the same problems. we will have notes and stories of what we do and pictures that show us learning to do things on our own as well and fun things to see, do and try for yourself. Look in on us from time to time and see what we are up to.