TEAM BRiEFJUNE 2012

In this issue:

CLYDESDALE BANK PARTY THE NIGHT AWAY!

INSPIRED SOAP MOVE INVERURIE PREMISES

INSPIRE ENJOY DONS NIGHT OUT WITH BP

CONGRATULATIONS THREADNEEDLE STREET!

MEDIA & MARKETING

GOOGLE APPS UPDATE

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

TEAM INSPIRE RUN THE BAKER HUGHES 10K!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...KELLY HO

MESSAGE FROM CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Firstly I am glad to report that I met with the Investor in People (IiP) Assessor in May and with the contributions which you made via the Roadshows to the Action Plan, the assessor has agreed that the successful completion of these actions will move our IiP journey significantly forward to meet the standards when we are re-assessed in March 2013.

The primary points which were highlighted at the roadshows, which are now agreed actions are around:

- Update of Induction process - Focus on Staff appraisals / staff support- Annual staff surveys - in order for staff to have input to organisational development- Definition of roles and responsibilities particularly Group Leaders and Team Leaders- Make better use of our “You said, we did” - in order for staff to get / give regular feedback- Staff recognition - Training in leadership- Better use of Training Action Plans- Acknowledgement of new trained skills and the opportunity to use them in projects- Affirm our core values and what that means to staffThese actions will be integrated into our current strategy and will be discussed with you via you Team meetings.

Also during May we had the Baker Hughes race, where we had a team of runners who did amazingly well for Inspire. A special thank you to Harry Watson from Duncan’s Crescent, who kept us all in high spirits with his jokes and his groovy 60’s outfit! Harry ran with Group Leader Wendy Buchan. To Bobby Gordon from Great Northern Road who ran with his befriender Keiran, and to Alix Thom a member of our board who ran with her son, Callum and together they raised an amazing £1300 for Inspire! So well done and thank you to everyone who took part.

Finally, how very proud we are at Inspire of Bobby Gordon from Great Northern Road who will be carrying the Olympic torch through Dinnet on the 11th of June at around 4pm. We have arranged a bus leaving from the Boulevard to take supporter’s out to cheer Bobby on. The bus leaves the Boulevard at 1.30pm and the cost is £2 per person, if anyone would like to join the supporter’s on the bus please contact Ellena on 01224 289015 to book a place.

Thank you to all who contributed to this month’s Team Brief, there are great stories from right across the organisation.

Inspire (Partnership through Life)Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen, AB24 5HPTel: 01224 280005www.inspireonline.org.ukwww.cafecoast.comwww.inspireconferences.comScottish Charity No. SC000038

Karen Pratt,CEO

CLYDESDALE BANK PARTY THE NIGHT AWAY!Clydesdale Bank recently held a brilliant disco for the people we support in the Spindrift room, attended by nearly 50 people we support and staff.

HAPPY 70TH ALLISTON!

As it was a special birthday party for his 70th, Alliston decided to have a big party and at the local Buchanhaven Hearts club where Alliston chose to have a stovies night, with Stacey helping him make his own invites by cutting the card and glueing his photo onto them along with a tartan ribbon to decorate them! All his family and lots of friends from his drama group and Willowbank attended. The party itself was fantastic and it was great to see all Alliston’s family together in the same place. Everyone danced the night away untill late and a great party and had a good laugh at everyone trying to dance to the macarena! Alliston also got one last surprise a couple of weeks after the party - Shona made a special memory photo album with a picture of everyone who was at the party with written special birthday messages for him to read.

Alliston from our Threadneedle Street service in Peterhead recently enjoyed a big party in April to celebrate his 70th birthday.

Running from 7 till 9pm, the disco was a huge success with a light buffet, karaoke, disco lights and request list all proving to be a huge success on the night with people asking when the next disco was planned for!

A big thank you to Clydesdale Bank for arranging the event which proved to be a smash hit with all who attended, the night was the biggest ever with over 5o attending.

www.cbonline.co.uk

INSPIRED SOAP MOVE INVERURIE PREMISES!The Inspired Soap service in Inverurie recentlyopened their new premises in Inverurie town centre.

Inspired Soaps have recently completed their move into their new premises in Inverurie. Based in the town centre behind the popular Spice of Life restaurant on the high street and open to the general public, Inspired Soap’s new offices will act as a workshop for the business’s creative produce and will allow the business to expand their existing offering and develop their existing range of quality hand made soaps and hand creams, wedding favours and personalised / corporate gifts for every occasion.

Steve McMinn, Team Leader for Inspired Soaps, says: “I am very excited that we are at last in our fantastic new premises in Inverurie. The new offices are spacious, contemporary and ideally located in the town centre to allow us to develop our already strong product range, artwork, labels and overall quality of our output as well as connecting more closely with the local community“

Steve continues:”We are currently in the process of expanding our selection of products with limited edition Emmerdale soap under development,

complete with painting and autograph of Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard) from the show on the label. These will be on sale in the week before Inspire’s Grampian Country Fair event on the 9th June and also at the event itself, with a limited number available for sale so get your orders in now!”

For further information on Inspired Soaps or to place an order, call direct on 01467 625255, check out Inspire’s Facebook page at inspireonline for a list of local events that Inspired Soap will be attending, or visit www.inspireonline.org.uk.

Pictured (from left):Linda Wiley of Rutherfold Folds and Karen Pratt, Inspire CEO

Pictured (from left):Steve McMinn, Inspired Soaps Team Leader, Karen Pratt, Inspire CEO and Linda Wiley of Rutherfold Folds

INSPIRE ENJOY DONS NIGHT OUT WITH BP!Inspire staff and some of the people we support enjoyed a trip to the recent Aberdeen vs Hibernian match recently as part of BP matchday hospitality.

This highly glamorous and black tie event was held in the BP matchday box at Pittodrie and consisted of a fantastic three course meal, half time refreshment s and the opportunity to meet some players past and present, including Don’s legends Willie Miller and Joe Harper (pictured).

The match itself was enjoyable mainly for those of a Hib’s persuasion, with Fiona Poustie (Head of Business Development & Communications) and Rob Hughes (Head of Operations) in particular enjoying the final score of Aberdeen 1-2 Hibs.

Thank you to BP and Aberdeen FC for their hospitality on the night and look forward to the next time, hopefully with the scoreline this time in the Don’s favour!

Pictured (from left):Irene McGungle and Gary Miller

Pictured (from left):Irene McGungle, joe Harper and Gary Miller

Pictured (from left):Irene McGungle, Willie Miller, Gary Miller and Rob Hughes

ROWING EVENT FOR INSPIRE!

Organised by Aberdeen College Sports Science student Ashley and his classmates, the event took place on Monday 28th May and saw a team of students competing against college staff.Whilst the rowing competition took place, a stand promoting Inspire was held next to the event promoting our various upcoming events including the Grampian Country Fair’s 5k Fun Run.

HUNTLY ART EXHIBITION

Our Huntly Art Exhibition will conclude at Bridge View Gallery on Aberdeen’s Riverside Drive with a glamorous wrap party on the evening of Thursday 28th June.

Running from Saturday 2nd June till the 28th, The Include, Involve, Inspire exhibition consists of a selection of colourful and creative paintings which have been produced at a day service run by local charity, Inspire. The team at Huntly Day Service use

group art therapy as a means of helping the people supported there to reach their full potential and to improve communication skills.

The exhibition will be available for viewing for one month at Bridge View, ending it’s full year moving around various venues throughout the North East. To find out more, about the exhibition, contact the Fundraising & Marketing team.

The Huntly Art Exhibition roadshow concludes this month at Bridge View gallery in Aberdeen.

A big thank you to Cafe Coast employee Ashley Forsyth who recently held a rowing competitionin aid of Inspire at Aberdeen College.

CONGRATULATIONS THREADNEEDLE STREET!Inspire’s Threadneedle Street recently won a high profile award for its regeneration with the National Trust for Scotland.

Stephen Copp from the National Trust contacted Fiona Buchan to invite Inspire to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) awards in Edinburgh. They were delighted to be informed that the National Trust were to receive an award for the Regeneration of Threadneedle Street - our Housing Support and Visiting homes services in Peterhead.

Jenny Donald, a person we support, and Wendy went on the 10th of May by train to Edinburgh together with a train picnic and a loan of Wendy’s iPod Nano for the journey. Jenny loved listening to the music on the way down and home again - especially Rhianna & Lady Gaga!

Once in Edinburgh the two took a taxi to the awards ceremony with coffee and introductions when they arrived followed by the award ceremony. National Trust then received their award for the Regeneration of Threadneedle Street, which was wonderful for the build & National Trust to receive the recognition.

Lots of photographs were taken, followed by a lovely buffet afterwards. All were given a Parker pen as a gift, which Jenny was delighted with.

Afterwards Jenny wanted to have a look around the shops and received a make-up session in one of the stores! It was a lovely day and Wendy was very privileged to share this day with Jenny and celebrate National Trust receiving recognition for the good work on Threadneedle Street.

Stephen Copp, National Trust for Scotland said: ‘ The Little Houses Improvement Scheme is honoured to be awarded the RICS Regeneration Award 2012 for its works at Threadneedle Street in Peterhead. Our goal was to work with the local community to bring new life to a group of neglected properties and to provide much needed housing for a vulnerable element of society. We are delighted that our efforts have been recognised by such a significant institution as the RICS.’

BOB’S BIG BIRTHDAYBASH AT THE BOULEVARD!Bob Milne from our Holland Street Housing Support service celebrated his 60th birthday in the Spindrift room at the Boulevard on the 6th of May. He had a great time boogying and chasing balloons round the room with all his friends.

Bob counted down the days till his party then got up very early in the morning to open his presents and cards and prepare for his party.

I’m sure you’ll admit he looksa real cool dude in his shades!

INSPIRED CRAFTS ATTEND MONTHLY MARKET IN ELGINInspired Crafts in Moray have been attending a monthly market in Elgins town centre. Karen very happily accepted an invite from the folks at Inspired Crafts to come up see the stall in action with all it’s excellent goods on sale, which include; candles, lovely flower pots, cushions and lots of other beautifully made hand-crafted gifts.

Even though it was a really cold day, spirits were high and sales were brisk. Karen commented “The market is really worth a visit and the welcome on the Inspire stall is truly inspiring!”

The market is on the first Saturday of each month throughout the summer months. Check with George Stephen, Group Leader, in Moray for specific dates.

By Alastair Minty

RESEARCH& DEVELOPMENT

Congratulations to Ruth Bell, who starts the post next month. This is a great opportunity to expand our expertise and add to the range of services we can offer.Inspire has been successful in getting funding from the Scottish Government to help set up a Project SEARCH site in the North East.

This is an employment programme for people with disabilities that has had high rates of people moving on to paid employment. The aim is to get the other elements in place to run this next year in conjunction with Banff and Buchan College and an Employment partner.

There have been delays in activating the bulk of the Info Hub’s website, while Aberdeen City Council’s legal department approves all the content and processes. Although this is disappointing in the short term, there have been many successes within the project.

We have received positive feedback from people using the service, families, other agencies and the Council, in particular our commitment to allow the Info Hub to evolve and be led to a large extent by the steering group. To be truly responsive we are listening to what

people tell us they want, and adapting what the Info Hub does accordingly.This is true power sharing and will result in valuable learning for Inspire as we move forward with Self Directed Support and our other Person Centred Planning work.

As part of the Self Directed Support money released by the Scottish Government to build capacity in provider organisations, In Control are setting up four “Network Area Hubs” across Scotland. Work in these areas over the coming three years will deliver fully funded opportunities for training, sharing resources and other learning. This is being delivered as part of a number of organisations through the Changing Support Changing Lives programme.

The first of these sessions was a 2 day planning session on Progress For Providers in Aberdeen on the 22nd and 23rd of May which Inspire attended. More info can be found on the website - http://www.changingsupport.org.uk/ there will be regular Blog updates by all the Coordinators (I will be the Coordinator for the North of Scotland, so if you have any questions about this please ask!

We have successfully recruited for the Transition Lead seconded post, delivering courses to young people in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire in a joint bid with the National Autistic Society.

Email wherever you workGmail works on any computer or mobile device with a data connection and offline support lets you keep working even when you’re disconnected. Whether you’re at your desk, in a meeting, at home, your email is there. Access it securely via this address - http://access.inspiremail.org.uk. All you need is you email address and password.

Work fast, save timeGmail is designed to make you more productive. 25GB of storage means you never have to delete anything, powerful search lets you find everything, and labels and filters help you stay organised.

Connect with peopleYour inbox isn’t just about messages, it’s about people too. Text, voice, and video chat lets you see who’s online and connect instantly. See your contacts’ profile photos, recent updates and shared docs next to each email.

Email on your mobileGmail works natively on popular mobile phones such as Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone and can check and send email on any device with a web browser.

It’s now over a year since Inspire moved to The Cloud or more specifically Google Apps. But what are the real benefits to the Inspire team?

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

By Alastair Minty

TEAM INSPIRE RUN THE BAKER HUGHES 10K!Team Inspire laced up their running shoes and enjoyed a great day at the Baker Hughes 10k on Sunday 20th May.With brilliant sunshine, pre event warm up and post race pasta party, the day was a fantastic occasion with Inspire team members smashing their targeted times for the race itself. Harry Watson, from Inspire’s Duncan Crescent service said “It was absolutely fantastic and I was really touched with the amount of folk that turned up for it. I know its for different charities and I wish them all the best for next year, I will be there!” More photos from the day can be found at Inspire’s Facebook page or on request.

IN THE NEWS...The Communications & PR team are delighted to have made significant breakthroughs within the last couple of weeks with Inspire media exposure on several fronts.

Major developments on this front have included the featuring of Bobby Gordon as Olympic torchbearer on the national Olympic 2012 website listings, this continues the success which his story received last month in the Press and Journal article published. The page can be viewed here:http://www.london2012.com/torch-relay/torchbearers/torchbearers=robert-gordon-1059/index.html

Other news on the media front is the recent training sessions on effective use of social media involving Fiona Poustie, Head of Business Development & Communications at a social media seminar with Campbell Urquhart of the UP Partnership, and Paul Brannan, Communications Officer, attending a LinkedIn specific training course, run by Aberdeen Business Network and “Mr LinkedIn” himself, Mark Williams. These provided a meaningful insight into the use of these as an advertising stream, with plans to follow this training up with in house training on the topics learned in the near future.

In other news Karen ~Pratt, Inspire CEO how has her own Facebook page with articles about issues affecting our business, Inspire news and operational stories. Why not visit, “like” and share the page with your friends if you haven’t already done so - just search for “Karen Pratt CEO” in the top Facebook search bar.

For any further information about what’s happening in the news / media with Inspire please contact Paul or Zoe who will be willing to assist with any questions.

MEDIA & MARKETING

http://aberdeenbusinessnetwork.ning.com/

A WARM WELCOMETO OUR NEW STARTS!I would like to welcome all these new members of staff who have just started their Inspire journey. I hope you find your colleagues and the people we support as inspiring to work with as I do.

Beach BoulevardLaura Moir - Corporate Services

Administrator Jacqueline Stewart - Finance Assistant

Ryan MacFarlaneSupport Worker & Support Assistant

EXTERNAL VERIFIER VISIT FROM SCOTTISH QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY (SQA) Inspire had a successful visit from an SQA External Verifier on the 8th May.

This is an annual visit to ensure we are operating within their systems and standards and in order to verify this they check a selection of portfolios. Feedback was very positive which

is a credit to all those who are involved in the SVQ process and demonstrates their hard work and commitment involved in supporting our candidates through their SVQ.

SPARKLES DISCOJust a quick reminder that the Sparkles disco for people we support will take place on Saturday October 27th from 6.30 to 10.30pm. Please contact Lorraine Lawrence or Zoe Barbour at Head Office to find out more.

Our fantastic 13 Peaks in 24 Hours hillwalking team took up their challenge on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th May, this trek proved demanding in the heat with some team members being forced to drop out before completing the trek, however several team members completed the challenge, raising over a fantastic figure of £8,000 in the process to be split between Inspire and Make A Wish Foundation. A huge thank you to Richard O’ Brien, Karen Husband and their team for undertaking this massive challenge.

On Sunday 20th May, the annual Baker Hughes 10k race took place, bringing in just over £7,200 from sponsorship alone. The day was a fantastic occasion with Inspire team members smashing their targeted times and fundraising targets for the race itself. Photos from the day can be found at Inspire’s Facebook page by searching for inspireonline.

in other fundraising news, a church group for teenagers, raised over £100 for Inspire’s Slains project.

For more information about our latest fundraising projects and news please contact Zoe Barbour or email fundraising@inspireonline.org.uk.

FUNDRAISING PROJECTS A number of exciting projects have been coming to fruition in the fundraising department since the last team brief.

FUNDRAISING

Can you sum up what you do in a short paragraph?I am in charge of Café Academy, Inspire’s unique training for employment scheme, which involves me delivering training both in the classroom and in Café Coast. I also recruit and support volunteers across the whole organisation. Every day is different in my job, and I meet and work with such a huge range of amazing people, which is why I really love it!

Tell us about the most exciting thing that has happened to you whilst working for Inspire?The most exciting thing that has every happened to me is moving the first person I supported through Café Academy into work. His name was David, and he got a job at The Bistro at John Lewis’. It was brilliant because it proved to me that the model which we had developed really did work and gave me such a brilliant feeling to see David grow from strength to strength!

More recently, I watched Bobby from Great Northern Road shave 12 minutes off of his time at the Baker Hughes 10k race thanks to help and encouragement from his befriender, Kieren. This gave me a brilliant sense of achievement after seeing the happiness on both of their faces thanks to our valuable befriending scheme.

What motivates you to work at Inspire?I was originally attracted to apply

A day in the life of...

KELLYHO

This month we meet Kelly Ho, our Employment and Volunteer Co-ordinator who joined Inspire in August 2010.

for a job with Inspire as I saw the company put the people it supports at the centre of its activities. This still holds true to this day. I see on a daily basis new and innovating things happening that pushes the boundaries and enables the people we support to do more with their lives and realise their potential and dreams. This is the vision that motivates me.

Tell us what you’ve been doing today?This morning I have been working with my Café Academy students in the classroom which has involved constructing a bridge out of newspaper and sellotape! In the afternoon I was supporting some students in the Café Coast kitchen, with preparing vegetables for breakfast tomorrow. In between times, I have been running up and down stairs dealing with phone calls, emails and contacting partner agencies.

How do you feel that you make a difference to Inspire?I am a positive person who always tries hard to look on the bright side of life, and try to give 110% at all times.

List 3 words that describe your character?Enthusiastic, energetic, innovative

Tell us one thing we won’t know about you?I used to be a band geek!! When I was at secondary school I used to play the French Horn, although

I would say I didn’t play it all that well, and mostly played the same note!

What’s your greatest achievement?My greatest achievement is teaching my 6 year old nephew to swim! It took me 6 months of letting him play and paddle in the pool to get him there but he can now swim to the deep end of Inverurie Swimming Pool! I am so proud!!control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you”

What do like to do when you aren’t working?I like to be busy all the time, and can’t sit still for two seconds! I am currently finishing off a degree at university, so this is occupying my life at the moment! Other than that, I am a bit of a social butterfly and enjoy being around my friends and family!