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All Staff Webinar
The next All Staff Webinar will be taking place on Thursday 30 March at 11am. Led by Georgia Hawkes, Mid Kent Services Director, we will be hearing about the upcoming Arts Carnival, the Young Local Authority Competition, information about the Local Elections and meeting the Helping You Home Team. Please look out for the Microsoft Teams invitation.
We hope you will be able to join us.
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Best Wishes, Pat!
Pat Ganza, One You Advisor for Healthy Lifestyle, will be leaving MBC this Monday after being with us for four and a half years! Pat has been a fundamental part of Sarah Ward’s Housing & Inclusion team, delivering one-to-one and group sessions to Maidstone residents who have a BMI over 28, with the highest BMI client being 66!
Pat has been the listening ears to over 1,419 residents who have engaged successfully in the One You Kent initiative and has helped the Walk Leaders develop the four walks now on offer around Maidstone.
The team will sincerely miss Pat’s enthusiasm and skills, but wish her the best of luck as she goes on to lecture at the University of Wales, London Campus on Public Health.
Here’s the team, old and new, celebrating Pat's achievements!
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Great British Spring Clean
Back for its eighth year, the Great British Spring Clean is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign.
The project, along with the Great Big School Clean is now underway until Sunday 2 April, and you can pledge to pick up a bag of litter – or more.
Litter-picking is a simple action that anyone can do to make an immediate and visible difference to their area that will boost a sense of pride.
At Maidstone Borough Council, we want to do our bit to contribute to the Great British Spring Clean, so on Thursday 30 March, staff are invited to join a litter pick at the Parkwood Recreation Ground.
If you would like to get involved, please check with your line manager whether you can be spared for a few hours. Equipment will be provided and the team will meet at the Depot, to depart at 2pm.
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Have you had your Borough Insight yet?
Enjoying the new Spring 2023 Borough Insight?
Deliveries for this Environmental Special to over 82,000 residential properties in the borough is almost complete.
If you live in the borough of Maidstone and have not received your copy, please contact Communications with your postcode and we can enquire.
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Calligraphers
Do you have beautiful handwriting? Or know someone with calligraphy skills?
The Democratic Services team urgently needs help filling out the Roll of Honorary Freemen as all five branches of the Royal British Legion that fall within Maidstone are being granted Freedom of the Borough. The writing needs to be in red and black ink and will be one page of writing in total.
This is a great honour and we want to make sure that this is presented properly.
If you are able to help, please contact Debbie Snook.
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Crocheters and Knitters
The team at Trinity is always looking for ways to be more inclusive and serve our residents to make them feel comfortable and supported.
So, the team is looking at ways they can better support breastfeeding families: providing safety, privacy and compassion.
In a new partnership with Kent Community Health's Infant Feeding Team, we are calling for competent crocheters and knitters to help create demonstration breasts for use by the Trinity breastfeeding support group that will help as visual aids for use in ante-natal and post-natal discussions and classes.
These will be an important resource for the team to help Trinity become more baby and family-friendly, so if you think you can help, or you know someone who can, contact Natalia Merritt who will be able to provide more information and instruction guides.
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Volunteers at the Carriage Museum
Are you interested in carriages, transport, or meeting new people?
The team at Maidstone Museum is inviting friendly, welcoming volunteers to join and help visitors to the Maidstone Carriage Museum on Saturdays, 11am-3pm, from April to September.
Full training will be provided and no prior experience is necessary.
Please contact Victoria Barlow, Museums Director, for more information and an application form.
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Lift Refurbishment
Please be aware that the three passenger lifts within Maidstone House are due to be refurbished shortly by Amalgamated Lifts Ltd.
The works will last six months, commencing Monday 3 April, with a planned completion date of Friday 15 September. During this period, each lift will be worked on one at a time.
Whilst the works are being completed on the basement lift, the contractor has confirmed that staff may be able to go to the basement to collect deliveries once a day, dependant on what works are being carried out on the lift. This will need to be arranged with Property Services in advance and at the discretion of the contractor.
To discuss further and to raise any questions around the refurbishment, please contact Property Services.
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Jiffy Reader
Did you know there is a free extension in Google Chrome that makes text easier to read for ADHD users?
Jiffy Reader enables bionic reading on any webpage which makes the first few letters of every word bold.
All you have to do is open Chrome Store and install Jiffy Reader. Once that is done, you can enable Reading Mode.
For more help installing and using Jiffy Reader, please contact IT Support.
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Emergency Alerts
The UK Government is introducing an Emergency Alerts system which will enable people to be contacted via their mobile phone if their lives are at risk in an emergency.
It will be used to send a direct message only where there is a risk to life, either locally or nationally.
This could include public health emergencies, severe floods, fires and industrial incidents.
Emergency Alerts are sent to compatible mobile phones within an area of risk.
They don’t track your location, need your phone number, or collect personal data, and only the emergency services can send them.
On Sunday 23 April, there will be a test message sent to devices. If you a receive a message, simply dismiss it. If you do not wish to receive these messages, you can opt out of them in your settings, but as they are potentially life-saving, it is recommended you keep them on.
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Christian Copp, Housing Advice Officer, has been praised by colleagues at Dartford Borough Council and other partner agencies.
The stellar compliment from Dartford reads:
I just wanted to let you know that I recently chaired a multi-agency risk assessment conference in North Kent and during the meeting, I heard some really positive feedback from a partner agency about a Housing Officer called Christian at Maidstone. So often in these situations, partners will be frustrated with a perceived lack of action by Local Authority Housing teams when their client needs emergency accommodation, and the case was the opposite here.
Colleagues at Oasis commented specifically that Christian was responsive and understanding to the urgency of cases and his actions have been instrumental in keeping victims safe in their current accommodation; stopping them to consider returning to risk.
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The team at the Shepway Community Larder would like to thank the Maidstone Rotary Club after they pitched up a stall at the Sutton Road Morrison's last weekend to ask for donations on behalf of the Shepway Community Larder.
Over the course of the day, the Club collected 37 large green trays of donated non-perishable food, plus £165 in cash donations. This is a fantastic effort and support from the Club that will provide essential relief to the families that are already benefitting and prospering from the role of the Larder in their community.
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The Team at Trinity has been given a great compliment from partners, Golding Homes, after they used their facilities. The representative said:
I just wanted to drop you a message to say thank you so much for all your help today and making us feel so welcome.
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The Waste Crew have received a lovely compliment from a resident who is grateful for their service. The report from the Customer Services Team reads:
The customer is very impressed with bin crew and their work and wanted to pass on his sincere thanks to the team.
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 Remember to tell your friends and family!
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GOT A STORY? EMAIL: COMMUNICATIONS@MAIDSTONE.GOV.UK |
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