inclusion

Gourdon Primary Senior Citizen Club

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Here at K & M Communities, we like to share with you the great things which are happening in our communities. Read on to learn more about the links being forged between the generations in Gourdon in the Gourdon Primary Senior Citizen Club.

Generations working togetherP6 & P7 pupils from Gourdon Primary and senior citizens of the village come together to carry out intergenerational learning. The senior citizens club has been running at the school for over 6 years, there was a gap between the generations in the village so by creating this club it brings everyone together for greater understanding.

Interested, watch this short clip to learn more.

Would this work in your community?

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HELPING YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TO BECOME MORE ACTIVE?

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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. pathys for all

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

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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! active walks

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.

www.pathsforall.org.uk/bigfitwalk

Volunteer this Summer

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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?

summer hols

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

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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. Saltire award

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 ?

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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.  community

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?

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Continuing our to focus on Volunteer week, we find out a bit about The Volunteer Friendly Award…Volunteer 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 »

The Benefits of Arts and Crafts

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art “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 »

Mindful Colouring

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Read on to discover how Pillar have used colouring in to enhance the lives of many…

mindful colouring

“Mindfulness” is a bit of a buzzword in mental health nowadays, but is in fact rooted in the ancient traditions of Buddhism. Tried and tested for centuries, the art of mindfulness encourages us to slow down and focus on the present moment. It urges us not to worry about a past that cannot be changed and a future that will not be improved by present anxiety. Experiencing all that the present moment has to offer is, from this point of view, truly living, and will have numerous benefits for both our physical and our mental health. ReachOut.com lists these benefits as including less anxiety, better problem solving and sleep and greater happiness overall. Read the rest of this entry »

Pillar Kincardine

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Yesterday we got to know Sara Kamrath, Service Manager Pillar Kincardine. Today, we look at what Pillar does.

P-logo

Pillar Kincardine was founded in 1989 as a result of the success of “Stepping Stones” and Pillar Aberdeen’s provision of social and leisure activities for people within Aberdeen City (Pillar Aberdeen has since closed on 29th August 2010).

Pillar Kincardine’s objectives then, as now, were to provide support services for people who have experienced or continue to experience challenges in relation to their mental health and to promote mental wellbeing.

We have been providing day services continuously for 25 years.  These services were developed in response to service user’s needs and have evolved over the years.  New projects and initiatives have grown out of earlier ones. Read the rest of this entry »

“Alone We Can Do So Little, Together We Can Do So Much.”

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Churchill1

Community Councils have been around for 42 years and they are statutory bodies representing the most local tier of representation in Scotland. There are 1,200 community councils in Scotland with an estimated 12,000 councillors.

Want to know more?

Read on to find out why Councillor Bill Howatson thinks we should all consider representing our communities. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking of becoming a foster carer?

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BNarnardo By choosing to become a foster carer you can make a huge difference to a child’s life – and yours.

The UK’s leading children’s charity, Barnardo’s believes that by providing the right help, committed support, and belief, even the most vulnerable children can turn their lives around.

If this makes you wonder if fostering is right for you, get in touch with Barnardo’s. They are urgently looking to recruit an extra 850 foster carers in Scotland to tackle the “critical” shortfall which leaves one in three children in care having to move homes more than twice a year. Read the rest of this entry »