Time to Change

West Sussex Coastal Mind are launching a new campaign as part of their ‘Time to Change’ initiative. 

On 1 February, ‘Time to Talk' will be encouraging children, young people, families and professionals to simply 'talk' about Mental Health. The idea is that stones are decorated with words, phrases, tips, encouragement, hash-tags or phone numbers about Mental Health. The stones are placed in various locations around the county, to encourage people to notice them, pick up them and start conversations about Mental Health.

Free Your Mind, A WSCC Mental Health Awareness group want to support this campaign and took time in one of their sessions to decorate some stones (see photo).  

For more information, contact Claire Tooke.

Bella The Bee

Congratulations to Phil Clarkson, Social Worker who has had his first children’s book published! 

He wrote Bella the Bee to help children explore their individuality and encourage them to build their own self esteem. This is available in #WestSussex bookshops or can be bought online. 

Phil says, "It’s also being used in a primary school in London to help children explore their goals and identity. Hopefully it will gain further interest and be used as a tool to aid these discussions as more teachers and caregivers use it."

The Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award

On the 29 November, Deborah Myers attended The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) Gold Award Presentation at St James’s Palace in London with 22 young people across different schools and colleges.

The young people have spent between 12 and 18 months achieving their Gold DofE Award by volunteering, learning new skills, doing a sport and spending four days and three nights on expedition.

In 2016-2017, there were 911 Bronze, 230 Silver and 72 Gold Awards. 

The visit to St James’s Palace is the opportunity to celebrate with other Gold DofE achievers. The young people’s Gold Award certificates were presented to them by HRH The Earl of Wessex, Trustee of the DofE.

To be invited to attend a Gold Award Presentation as a special guest is a real honour. You can enrol to start your DofE Bronze Award from Year 9 and you have until you are 25 years to complete it. You can then start your silver award from Year 10 and Gold Award from the age of 16 years.

For more information, contact Kate Hall in the West Sussex DofE Team, or look on the DofE webpage.

PAUSE West Sussex

On 17 January 2018, Pause West Sussex was delighted to be joined by the Pause Founder and Chair of Trustees, Sophie Humphries.

Sophie had the opportunity to meet the team and hear directly from them about what the biggest successes currently are as well as the challenges the team is facing. Sophie was able to join the team in reflective case discussion which was really valuable.

Sophie and Kelly Wilkes, Pause Practice Lead for West Sussex then met with Annie MacIver (Director of Family Operations) and Hayley Connor (Head of IPEH), along with other senior leaders from IPEH, to talk about the progress of Pause in West Sussex so far. It was a great opportunity to share good practice as well as consider practice developments for the future.

“What a stimulating day I had with West Sussex Pause and strategic leaders of West Sussex council today - buzzing with exciting ideas to bring meaningful systemic change for vulnerable adults and children” - Sophie Humphries

For more information, contact Kelly Wilkes.

New Family Groups

Home-Start Chichester & District are running a new family group in Methodist Church, Midhurst. The group will run once a month on the last Wednesday of the month starting on the 31 January from 10am-2pm and lunch for the families will be provided.  

Families will need to be referred to attend and they must have a least one child who is under 5. There will be planned age appropriate activities and use of an outside area.

Please contact Home-Start Chichester & District for more information. To refer families, phone 01243 773477 or email alyson@home-startchichester.org.uk.