News

Anniversary Garden

This year's Annual General Meeting not only marked the end of the official business for the year but also the completion of a highly-successful 25th Anniversary year for the charity. To mark the occasion, staff and learners put in a huge amount of work during the summer months to overhaul the garden area around Sea Captain's House in Dundee and the new Anniversary Garden was officially opened by Jim Collins, Director of Education Dundee City Council, assisted by David Smart, Chair of Helm Training. The garden now boasts level seating areas, new beds of scented and colourful planting - many of which were grown by the learners at the allotments, pots, a bird table and a new herb garden, hand-built from stone to match the old walls of the buildings the garden is surrounded by. The kitchen opens directly onto the new garden and staff and learners are looking forward to the spring to sit out and enjoy the new surroundings.

That's braw!

To remember Caroline Davidson, Helm's former Employment Liaison Officer, staff and many of those who worked alongside Caroline have contributed towards a bench for the new Anniversary Garden at the Dundee centre. The bench which has its own special position at the bottom of the garden, carries her catchphrase and will shortly be surrounded by pots, and the flower bed previously unplanted round the small tree will be completed with some of her favourite plants. Staff wish to pass on their sincere thanks to all those who passed on their sympathies

Resourceful Learners bring New Year to life with their local calendar

The entrepreneurial learners from the Angus centre have come up with a clever idea to raise funds to put towards upgrading their recreation room, creating their own Arbroath Calendar for 2010. Attractively designed and featuring a range of key landmarks, the calendars are now on sale locally. The activity has been enjoyed by all the learners and has been used to evidence their SQA modules in subjects like IT, Communication and Working with Others. If you are interested in purchasing a unique Helm Arbroath Calendar 2010 they are available at the centre for £2.50. Please contact Maggie Strachan on 01241 872600

Helm supports NHS Tayside Growwell Launch

Helm is delighted to be playing a role in the launch of a new nutritional programme just launched by NHS Tayside suitably named, Growwell. The programme will aim to particularly help nutritionally-vulnerable pregnant women, new mothers and their young families overcome barriers to making healthier food and lifestyle choices, by providing practical information and support on food and health.

Growwell will be specifically aiming to increase the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers, which provide free milk, fruit and vegetables and vitamins; support the work to increase the uptake in breastfeeding in Dundee and invest in a range of nutritional services. The Dundee funding will also be supporting the launch of a new Growwell Café which will be based in The Shore on Shore Terrace.

Helm is already running three cooking sessions a week in Dundee - two for the young parents who attend our HYPE young parents' project, which is being combined with qualifications in Food Hygiene and SQAs, and one for young women attending our Get Ready for Work and Pathways programmes. All the participants will complete a pre- and post-questionnaire to assess nutritional knowledge and a range of quizzes on relevant nutritional areas relating to the health of young women; a checklist to ensure they are accessing and have knowledge of all the available vouchers and NHS initiatives including Healthy Start and Give it up for Baby, the smoking cessation scheme; and to cover the Cookwell course, a healthy cooking course that has been developed by the Food Standards' Agency.

Helm hopes that all the young women will complete the course while they are attending, and will feel better equipped and confident to cook for themselves and their families in the future. Any young parent or young women interested in taking part in any of the cooking sessions (two of which have a crèche available), can contact Anthea Coulter, Project Leader or Amy Nicolson, Growwell Coordinator on 01382 224464.

First Aid Success!

The first group of learners to complete the new Life, Live It! British Red Cross award with their certificates. The award coversthe basic first aid skills required by most employers.

25th Anniversary Garden Officially Opened

25th Anniversary is marked by Civic Reception

Baillie George Reagan made the opening address on behalf of the Lord Provost to mark the start of the 25th Anniversary celebrations

Directors and staff along with many Friends of Helm and partners joined the Lord Provost for a formal Civic Reception at City Chambers on Wednesday 29th October to mark the 25th Anniversary of the charity's work in Dundee and Tayside. Delegates received an Anniversary booklet produced with the support of Brakes Dundee which tells the eventful story of the charity from its inception in 1983 as the St Aidan's Project which aimed to support young people with physical disabilities to its current work with young people. The charity will be holding a series of events through the year to mark this significant milestone of its work in Dundee and Tayside.

David Smart, Chairman and Dee McIntosh, Project Manager joined by former trainee, Jade Garvey who sang for the guests at the Civic Reception

LIVE It! project wins Dundee Community Partnership Award for Health and Care

Dee McIntosh, Project Manager (far left) was joined by staff members Anthea Coulter, Development Officer and Instructor on the allotment (centre) and Sandra Fisher, Employment Officer (far right) and trainees, Natalie Cullen and Kirstie Murphy at the event to receive the award from Councillor Keenan.

Helm Training was delighted to be among winners to receive awards at a dinner held at CityChambers recently for the Dundee Community Partnership Awards sponsored by the Evening Telegraph. Helm's winning entry, the new LIVE It! project is an integrated health and training project that encompasses an allotment, healthy eating canteen, daily breakfast club, personal health and safety workshops as well as gym - and fought off stiff competition from around twelve entries to win the coveted Health and Care award. Dinner guests were shown a video of each project outlining its successful attributes.

Young Parents produce Unique Book

Kathryn Miller from the St Andrew's Project enjoying reading the Little Book of Little Stories which was written by a group of young parents

For many getting a book published is a dream come true and so it is particularly special for a group of young parents from Dundee who have been attending the Helm Young Parents' Employment (HYPE) project that their own individual stories written for their children have been turned into the unique Little Book of Little Stories (see above), which is now being distributed throughout Scotland. When HYPE began over a year ago, it become obvious that many of the young parents attending had problems with literacy and these had to be addressed to improve their employability prospects.

Helm contacted The 16-24 Literacy Project to get specific advice and were delighted when the tutors of the project decided to provide a series of workshops for the young parents. The tutors, led by Richard McGilvray aimed to highlight the importance of reading with their children while also developing language andcommunications skills. The tutors encouraged the young parents to express themselves by writing a story for their children enabling them to assess and build on their existing literacy skills.

The workshops covered reading, writing, illustration, design, photography, IT skills and presentation skills. They were encouraged to read their stories aloud and record them on a CD which is included at the back of each book. This provided a story in a voice and dialect they recognised. Furthermore a number of the young parents have been able to include their stories in their portfolio for an SQA qualification in Communications.

Alan Scott, instructor at the Angus Centre presenting Ross with the 100th SQA qualification

100th SQA for Angus Centre

Maggie Strachan, Project Leader for the Angus Centre in Arbroath was full of praise for her instructors and trainees who within three years have completed one hundred SQA qualifications.

"We are delighted to have reached this milestone and the achievement is all the greater as many of the trainees, who are all on the Lifeskills strand of the Get Ready for Work pogramme, often have found working towards formal qualifications in a school environment difficult."

The Angus Centre is currently supporting 14 trainees, its highest number since opening. To assist in finding more placement and employment opportunities a new part-time Employment Liaison Officer Jan Robertson has just joined the Angus team.

LIVE It! Underway with new Breakfast Club and Healthy Lunch Diner

Only a month after the launch of the new LIVE It! integrated health and training scheme, trainees and staff in Dundee are already enjoying the benefits and access to a Breakfast Club in the mornings and delicious soup, wraps and baked potatoes in the recently re-vamped Diner at lunchtime.

Jenny Curren, pictured behind the counter, the new LIVE It! Instructor responsible for the catering aspect of the project who started at the beginning of June has been busy getting the service launched. She has been spending time with the trainees researching their current eating habits and allergies through questionnaires. Trainees are now working with her in the kitchen and covering a varied curriculum which focuses on healthy eating and food hygiene. Jenny has joined the instructing team from her former position as a Community Dietician with NHS Grampian where she ran diet clinics for all ages. She is looking forward to the challenge of working with our young people and seeing a marked difference in their health and attendance as a result.

'LIVE It!' : LAUNCH OF NEW INTEGRATED TRAINING AND HEALTH SCHEME

With the advent of Spring, Helm is delighted to be launching the new LIVE It! integrated training and health scheme with the young people in the Dundee centre.

The aim of the project is both to promote, develop and recognise the range of exercise, cooking, health awareness and training work that is carried out by the trainees in the centre and on the Helm's Harvest allotment which is now open again for a new year.

In addition from this year the focus is working through a range of vocational skills in a more structured, modular way on areas including plant production, basic site maintenance, food hygiene, nursery techniques and retail and customer services depending on the interests of the trainees. As the project rolls out, the aim is that the produce will be used directly in the recently re-furbished 'diner' at Sea Captain's House which will be run as an operational canteen later in the year.

Trainees will work through modules and on completing a recognised range of subjects will receive an in-house certificate that will outline the skills covered to potential employers.

HYPE COUNCIL: NEW COMMITTEE FOR YOUNG PARENTS

Participants on the afternoon training scheme, HYPE for young parents have taken some time out from their usual timetable of training and employability skills to form their own Council to discuss issues that relate to their specific training needs. The Council at its first meeting covered a wide range of subjects: benefit grants, computer training, new courses available to access, using the gym more for keep fit and ways to make their work area more inviting. There are now over thirty young parents registered on the training scheme but currently the future of this successful project is under threat and we are currently seeking alternative funding sources.

HILLCREST SPONSORS LITERACY PROJECT TO MARK 40th YEAR

John Mulloy, Chief Executive Hillcrest (centre) hands over a cheque for £4250 to Peter Friend (right) and Anthea Coulter

Helm was one of three local Tayside charities to benefit from an extraordinary fundraising event held by Hillcrest Housing Association to mark their 40th Anniversary. The event was supported by many of their contractors throughout Scotland and raised over £13,000 which was divided between three special projects which were Helm Training, Over the Wall and the Boomerang Project.

John Mulloy, Hillcrest Group Chief Executive was delighted that the event raised more than the target set and thanked the companies involved for their generosity, "It was important to mark this landmark event in the history of Hillcrest which is now one of Scotland's leading Housing Associations."

Helm's donation will focus specifically on the serious issue of literacy which often undermines the progress into work of many of our trainees. The new project, aptly named The Word Station, will provide a dedicated library and literacy area for trainees which will include a range of reading materials chosen by them and towards a specialist literacy worker who will be used intensively on a one-to-one basis with young people.

We are extremely grateful to Hillcrest Housing Association for this generous donation which we believe will make a marked difference to the careers of many of our young people.

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Christmas 2009 (1.5Mb)	Winter 2009 (252k)
Season's Greetings fromHelmTraining Resourceful Angus learners bring New Year to life with their local calendar	Tribute to an Extraordinary Colleague: Caroline Davidson 25th Anniversary Garden officially opened Helm supports NHS Tayside through Growwell launch First learners achieve First Aid qualification CASE STUDY: Hats off to Haddington Nursery