Category: Support Services

Community News, Female Focus, Support Services

Special guests for Female Focus

The Net Community Hub

We’re delighted that we will be joined at the next Female Focus (January 12th from 1pm) by Medway Council’s Breast Cancer Awareness Team, alongisde a representative from MVA and Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘Year of Listening’ programme.

Come along and have your say on helping to shape the future of local cancer services for women, as well as advice on how to reduce your risk of developing breast cancer, or advice on how to cope with receiving a diagnosis yourself or supporting someone you know.

Feel free to drop by to this support group for females only, which usually takes place on the second Thursday in the month.

Activities, Female Focus, Support Services

Female Focus – our new Women’s Support Group

The Net Community Hub

We’ve set aside the second Thursday in the month for a women’s support group, Female Focus. It will run from 1.30-3.30pm.

Come and join us for tea and cake, more cake and more tea, and a chat about all those issues that affect women (colloquially known as ‘women’s problems’) including – but not limited to – reproductive health (the big one) on and offline safety, and any other subject you as a group decide you’d like to discuss.

Our special guest in June will be a representative from Medway’s public health team to talk about female health problems.

We know how a focus on male bodies has historically led to worse treament for women (the symptoms for hearts attacks, for example, can be very different in women and yet the usual symptoms to look for are those which mainy affect men). So come armed with all your questions to ensure you know what to ask your GP when it comes to your health.

Here’s an interesting article from the BBC, on a new 3D female anatomy model that can be used to better treat women. And they’ve only just put it together in 2022 *rolls eyes*.

Support Services

One-to-One Wellbeing Counselling available

The Net Community Hub

We’re delighted to once again be hosting a counselling service, which began today.

Our counsellor, Martin, is a trainee wellbeing counsellor, for people who sometimes feel a little overwhelmed with day-to-day life and would just like to take time out to talk through their feelings.

Martin joins us as part of his work experience and could be with us for a whole year, possibly expanding his hours. If all goes very well, his college may well offer us a second counsellor to extend the service.

If you’d like to book an appointment with Martin, please call us on 01634 319633 (leave a message if prompted). He will be available on Wednesdays from 10.30-11.30am, and 12-1pm.

Community News, Support Services, Volunteers

COVID19 Update

The Net Community Hub

stay at home web

We hope everyone is staying safe and well at this difficult time.

We wished we had been able to stay open and offer a limited drop in service for our most vulnerable residents, but we quickly realised this wasn’t possible. The ongoing advice at present is still to stay at home and only leave it if absolutely necessary.

The NHS in Kent and Medway produces regular updates on the response to Covid-19 and important news you should know about is here:  https://www.kentandmedwayccg.nhs.uk/…/covid-19-update-02-ap…

Further advice direct from the NHS can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

It’s important to filter out misinformation. If you are going to share anything regarding COVID19, please be responsible and check it via a reputable source. Many people are becoming more panicked by conspiracy theories and fake news circulating at a time when mental health is already becoming ever more fragile.

There’s a humongous effort on the part of Medway’s voluntary and charity organisations to ensure that vulnerable people are not forgotten, with volunteers out shopping and dropping essentials and prescriptions.

Medway Council has a dedicated site for residents who are vulnerable, or who want to offer help: https://www.medway.gov.uk/coronavirussupport

Stay safe everyone.

Community News, Resources, Support Services, Volunteers, walderslade together, walt

Our contingency plan for COVID19

The Net Community Hub

keep-calm-2816350_960_720

As you are aware, we are a lifeline for the elderly and isolated residents in Walderslade.

During the current situation, we have to find a balanced way forward, whereby we try and protect our members and volunteers from the virus yet also ensure they’re not abandoned into isolation.

Regretfully, this means that our usual activity sessions will all be suspended as of now. However, we will be opening the hub for a drop in session on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 11am-1pm for those who need us. We have hygiene measures in place, with hand wipes available and surfaces cleaned before and after each session, in addition to our normal cleaning routine.

We respectfully ask that anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to the virus NOT to come to the hub but to follow the public health advice of self-isolating at home.

WALT will ensure that the members they are physically unable to bring to the hub as usual are telephoned at least once a week. They are also in the process of setting up online communications between those members, in order for them to still talk to their friends.

Also, due to the idiotic panic buying, we have vulnerable people concerned about grocery supplies. People with physical issues who can’t cook fresh food. People who can’t get out to the shops. So any donations of ready meals that we can distribute would be most welcome – thank you.

We will continue to update here and on social media with regard to our own sessions and those by partners such as Pip’n’Jim’s and Medway Youth Service.

Thank you for your support.

Jaye Nolan, Manager.

Activities, charity, Community News, Funding, Support Services

We’re part of the Comic Relief Community!

The Net Community Hub

Brainstormz! Flyer (2)

Our lovely volunteer, Sue, has been rewarded for all her hard work with regard to the Brainstormz! group – our project has received a £3,977 grant from the Comic Relief Community Fund (England), which secures it for the whole year!

Piloted in December, Sue has worked tirelessly to build the group, both physically in the hub (every Saturday from 1-4pm) and on Facebook. It’s open to anyone with a neurological condition (including but not limited to e.g. FND, fibromyalgia) who wants to drop in for a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen or just for tea and biscuits.

Sue hopes to expand the offer of the group, with guest speakers and activities. If you’d like to be involved, drop us an email: community@waldersladehub.org.

The Comic Relief Community Fund (England) provides grants to grassroots organisations to develop their capacity or deliver a project in at least one of Comic Relief’s themes: Children Survive & Thrive; Fighting for Gender Justice; A Safe Place to Be; and Mental Health Matters. Find out more about the fund here.

Activities, Support Services

*New Activity* BRAINSTORMZ!

The Net Community Hub

bRAINSTORMZ LOGO

Starting Saturday 7th December (1pm – 4pm) 2019; a new support group Brainstormz! is opening in The Net for persons just like you. There will be: 

  • Refreshments 
  • Crafting 
  • Facilities for younger persons 
  • Occasional Guest Speakers 
  • Arranged trips to seminars where relevant

BRAINSTORMZ! is led by WALT volunteer, Sue Bulpin, and welcomes people with all neurological conditions from Functional Neurological Disorder to Fibromyalgia and more.

We aim to provide an empathetic forum for the exchange of good practice ideas, details of access to facilities both locally and further afield. A general information exchange provision will be available, where attendees can receive and provide information as they find the information useful. 

Each session will cost £2 per person {£1 for under 16s}. This is to cover the session fees, tea or coffee and biscuits. Those who bake are always welcome, especially if they bring cakes! 

For information, contact Sue on 01634 319633 at the Net or via email volunteer@waltcic.org.uk 

SUPPORTED BY FND ACTION UK
Raising awareness for Functional Neurological Disorder {FND} & Non Epileptic Attack Disorder {NEAD}