Aberdeenshire
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HELPING YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TO BECOME MORE ACTIVE?
A Volunteer Walk Leaders Training Courses is being held in Portlethen on Thursday 2 July 2015. The course is designed to establish a group of local people (aged over 18 years) who are trained to promote and lead Health Walks on an ongoing basis. 
Only one day of training is necessary but information will be provided to support development of local walks in Kincardine and Mearns for walk leaders attending the training through Paths for All and through local contacts.
A Health Walk is a short, local, low level walk which seeks to encourage and support people to become more active. A typical health walk usually lasts between 10 minutes and 1 hour.
| Date: | Thursday 2 July 2015 |
| Time: | 9.30am to 3.45pmRegistration from 9.15am onwards |
| Venue: | Jubilee HallCookston RoadPortlethen
AB12 4PT |
| Cost: | FREE including resource materials(Lunch provided) |
For booking and more information please contact:
Shiona Watson, Administrator, NHS Grampian
Tel: 01569 792053
Email: shiona.watson@nhs.net
The Big Fit Walk
Be active, get healthy, have fun!
The big fit walk is free, easy and lots of fun – especially when you bring a friend. Young, old, fast, slow – it doesn’t matter.
It’s not a race, it’s about having fun and staying healthy. Fresh air, a walk, and a chat. Hey, it could become a regular thing.
And the best bit? Everyone – absolutely everyone – is welcome.
See you there! 
Our Big Fit Walk will be led by Laurie Fallon and it’s free for everyone.
We’ll start from Portlethen Medical Centre at 10am on Wednesday 17th June 2015, Stonehaven Town Hall at 10am on Thursday 18th June 2015 and Laurencekirk Medical Centre at 10am on Friday 19th June. The walk should last for 30 minutes.
Volunteer this Summer
Now the long summer holidays are approaching you may be looking for something to do or something for the kids to do. Have you ever considered volunteering?
Maybe you’re just looking for something to do for a few hours a week or possibly you have more time to spare and are looking for something to do with the family and kids over the school holidays. Then perhaps volunteering is something to consider.
Whether it’s helping out at the local youth club over the summer holidays, or at the local animal shelter or just helping the old lady next door with her shopping, the benefits of volunteering are many.
Volunteering is something a person does in their own time, without pay or compulsion, and which is for the benefit of the community, the environment or other people outside their immediate family. Read the rest of this entry »
Awards for Volunteering
Continuing to focus on Volunteers, find out more about an inspirational programme for young volunteers…
This award is available for young people from Primary School up to the age of 15 years. Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action’s role is to support schools in the local development of the award, and they will provide administrative support to facilitate the recording of pupil’s achievements and issuing certificates. 
The Saltire Award is a national programme for young people between 12 and 25 years old designed to recognise achievements in volunteering and has been administered by Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action since early 2012.
There are 4 sections to the awards, Challenge, Approach, Ascent and Summit
The Award is designed to give young people an experience of volunteering as part of a team and is the ideal introduction to volunteering for young volunteers and is about discovering more about themselves, others and the community. It is designed to encourage a regular commitment to volunteering but in realistic, bit sized chunks. Read the rest of this entry »
How Can I Volunteer ?
Do you want to help the world or your community? Do you want to build your own skills, make new friends, and learn? Do you love what you do? Do you want to share your gifts with others or give something back? Examining these sorts of questions can help you to choose the right direction for your volunteer work. 
Every day there are thousands of people making a difference in all sorts of ways, but they don’t get paid. They are benefiting their communities and also themselves. They are volunteers!
No-one will ask you to sign a contract or commit yourself to work or time that doesn’t suit you and you are free to stop volunteering if you wish to. On the other hand organisations will be very grateful for whatever help you are able to give. It is your community and we all contribute to it in whichever way we want. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you Volunteer Friendly?
Continuing our to focus on Volunteer week, we find out a bit about The Volunteer Friendly Award…
The Volunteer Friendly Award is a simple, user-friendly quality standard designed to support, recognise and reward groups who are good at involving volunteers.
There are several groups in the Kincardine and Mearns area working towards the award and the Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action is encouraging other groups to get involved in achieving Volunteer Friendly status
Many essential services in Scotland’s communities are enhanced by volunteers. Volunteering also has a significant social value as it is increasingly being used to give excluded individuals the chance to build their confidence and skills through helping others. It has never been more important for groups to be able to show how good they are at involving and managing their volunteers.
Volunteer Friendly helps you to take a systematic look at what your organisation does and how you do it. It offers a flexible approach which allows your group to work at its own pace, with full support from the Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action. Read the rest of this entry »
Volunteers Week 2015
Volunteers Week is an annual event that takes place between 1st and 7th June.. Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action are planning events all over the area and are encouraging volunteers and voluntary groups to get involved. Make this year special and show your volunteers how valuable they are to your service and do something special for them.
Here are some ideas to think about. Read the rest of this entry »
The Benefits of Arts and Crafts
“Some of us feel bad about [taking] time for creative expression. One would think that we’d view creativity as ‘more productive’ and hence less guilt- producing than leisure, yet we still seem to believe that self-expression is less of a priority than satisfying the needs of others.” Alice Domar, Ph.D.
Unfortunately, many of us push crafting and creativity to the bottom of our To Do List. Maybe we feel guilty for doing something for ourselves—women, of course, are taught that everyone else’s needs should come first—or maybe we feel that even when we’re relaxing, we should be doing something productive. All we need is permission from ourselves to spend time creating and the courage to push beyond our comfort zone so our projects truly express what’s inside and help us to unblock, purge, and transform our feelings. Read the rest of this entry »
Mindfulness Meditation
Continuing our focus on mental health, find out how Pillar are using mindfulness with great results.. 
Another way in which we have been practising mindfulness at Pillar is via meditation. We have discussed how meditation need not be associated with specific religious beliefs or entail difficult body postures. It need not take longer than five minutes and does not involve an ‘emptying’ of the mind, but rather an effort to take some control of our thoughts. Meditation has been shown to increase the grey matter associated with wellbeing and compassion, and decrease areas associated with stress. On a physical level, it has been shown to lower high blood pressure and lessen chronic pain. Read the rest of this entry »
Transport in Kincardine and Mearns – What’s the latest?
An overview of transport in Kincardine and Mearns by Nestrans’ Marketing and Communications Co-ordinator Lucy Johnston.
Access to Laurencekirk
What is it?
In December 2013, Nestrans commissioned an ‘Access to Laurencekirk’ study in partnership with Transport Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council and Tactran. The study is being undertaken in the form of the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance (STAG) assessment, which will consistently explore potential options to address the Laurencekirk transport problems through a detailed consultation process.
Local Transport Initiatives in Kincardine & Mearns
Mearns Community Transport (MCT) runs a variety of different transport schemes, available to the residents of the Kincardine and Mearns area.
MCT believe community transport is more than getting folk from A to B. It is about social inclusion, tackling isolation, providing independence and opening opportunities.
The primary service run by MCT is the Community Minibus, which is a fully accessible minibus available for hire to all community groups and organisations in the Mearns. The vehicle is a Mercedes Sprinter minibus which can carry 15 passengers and is available for hire to all community groups and organisations in the Mearns and can be used by these groups for outings or events etc.
K&M Communities 