NEWSLETTER - Lambourne End

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NEWSLETTER
Winter 2014 – Spring 2015
Celebrate good times, come on!
We have recently celebrated a decade of delivering
programmes of outdoor learning and personal
development opportunities to young people across
Essex and East London.
On 4th Feb staff, trustees, volunteers and community
groups enjoyed hearing personal stories from young
people, all of whom have grown in confidence and
some so much that they’re off to university or have
found employment!
One parent of a young lady who spoke about her
memorable moments said “As always I was touched
by what you have achieved with all the young people
who come to Lambourne End. A big thank you to all of
you for making such a difference to my daughter’s life.”
It is with thanks to funders, the hard work of staff and
our volunteers and corporate social responsibility, our
54 acre classroom has grown and developed so much.
Thank you to everyone involved. Here’s to the next 10!
Contents:
Farm Shop open
P2 Upcoming events
P3 Breakthrough and Business Award
P4 Jack Petchey, Hector’s House,
We Need You, Give As You Live
P5 Food for Thought and cabin
replacement
Climbing back in action, OFSTED, farm
P6 babies and staff & volunteer news
VACANCY ALERT
We are looking for a part-time cleaner to
clean our residential accommodation, day
rooms and offices. Candidates should have
relevant cleaning experience and own
transport is required. More details on web:
www.lambourne-end.org.uk/html/jobs.htm
weekdays 9am – 5pm
Free-range pork, lamb, beef & eggs
plus award winning sausages!
Gardens open
every Wednesday 2 – 4pm
Choose and buy your fruit and
vegetables fresh from the earth
Keep up-to-date with stock and special
offers, by emailing Claire Gilmore at
[email protected]
to join the Meat Club
Don’t forget to search for us on
/lambourneend
@lambourneend
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063
OPEN DAY
ADVENTURE ACADEMY
Sunday 19th April
Easter & Summer hols
The Centre is hosting its next public open day
on Sunday 19th April, 11am – 4pm for you to
come and meet the farm babies, try your
hand at some of the activities and enjoy a funfilled family day out in the countryside!
Boundless fun for 8-13’s! Get in quick to
guarantee your place, multiple bookings
discount applies. Call Gemma Grayburn on
0208 5003047 x 232 or email Gemma via
[email protected].
New for 2015 camping weekend!
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DISABILITY ROCKS
Watch this
space!
Saturday 20th June
...funding permitting!
After the roaring success of Disability
Rocks last year, we are hoping to host it
again this year! It is a festival of live music, arts,
comedy, art, drumming workshops, storytelling,
along with an eclectic mix of food and drink!
More info at disabilityrocks.org or visit our
website lambourne-end.org.uk /html/rocks.htm
to read last years review! Here’s a snip
“Me and my son had a fantastic time, looking
forward to next year. Thank you for helping to
make some great memories for us all!!”
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063
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BREAKTHROUGH AWARD
The Prince’s Trust, Samsung and HSBC
celebrate success. Their breakthrough award
recognises the progress of young people
who have developed new skills to enable
them to make positive steps in facing their
challenges and stabilising their lives.
Family tragedy at a young age meant that
Nathan grew up in care. Struggling to cope,
by his teens he turned to drink and drugs.
Nathan’s relationship with his foster family
reached breaking point when he started
getting into fights and missing classes.
Eventually, Nathan was asked to leave
college. Luckily, a concerned lecturer
contacted The Trust and Nathan joined the
Team programme.
Although he found it hard at first, Nathan
enjoyed the course and impressed everyone
with his efficiency. He excelled in ropeswinging obstacle courses and fundraised for
charity dressed in a monkey suit!
BUSINESS AWARD
Also in November 2014, the Youth
Employment Strategy partnership (YES) have
introduced a new "Investors in Young People"
Business Award… and we were the winner of
the Epping Forest Contributor Towards
Raising Employment Opportunities of the
Year!!
We were recognised for taking on more than
80 people a year in various roles giving them
great future job prospects and for providing
excellent skills learning for people of all ages
and abilities.
Rob Gayler, CEO, accepting our award from
Ian Duncan-Smith. November 2014
Photo by David Jackman, Everything
www.everythingeppingforest.co.uk
Epping
Forest
Jane Burder, Branch Manager of HSBC
Stevenage, with Nathan. November 2014
A work experience placement at Lambourne
End Centre was life changing – he stopped
using drugs and received an outstanding
reference. He returned as a volunteer and
after a year was given an apprenticeship. It’s
a tough decision whether to join the Army
next or train as a mechanic. However, he’s in
no rush to leave Lambourne, where staff say
he’d be “truly missed”.
Right now, he is “very surprised and excited”
to have won this award. Well done Nathan!
The Rt Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP, Secretary
of State for Work and Pensions was the Guest
of Honour at a dinner hosted by Mrs. Eleanor
Laing MP Deputy Speaker of the House of
Commons at the Waltham Abbey Marriott
Hotel. "The Investors in Young People" awards
ceremony congratulated and celebrated
the contribution that businesses make
towards improving youth employment
opportunities.
In her opening remarks, Mrs Laing welcomed
the guests and congratulated the students
currently at school, young entrepreneurs,
apprentices, businesses that have raised
employment opportunity and those who
have mentored students: all of whom had
contributed towards the improvement in the
district’s
youth
employment
figures.
Presenting the first ever Epping Forest
“Investors
in
Young
People
Business"
awards Mr Duncan Smith said, “This is an
excellent evening and a brilliant idea. I do
hope it continues because businesses are the
key to getting the economy back.”
Candidates were nominated by local
organisations, employers and young people
themselves. Thank you for nominating us!
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063
JACK PETCHEY AWARDS
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As gold scheme members, we are fortunate
to be able to choose nine young people
each year for a Jack Petchey Award. The
scheme is a reward and recognition initiative
which
enables
schools
and
youth
organisations to celebrate the achievements
of their young people. Here are the winners
from 2014:
HECTORS HOUSE
With his Jack Petchey award of £200, Albie
decided to purchase the materials to build
Hector, our tortoise, a new home. Hector is a
sulcata tortoise which is native to the Sahara
desert. As such, we’ve built him a large
enclosure and installed a thermostat to
maintain a temperature of around 20 ºC!
Well done everyone!
LOVE LAMBOURNE END?
LOVE SHOPPING?
You can raise a free donation for us
everytime you shop online! Just use:
everyclick.com/lambourneend.
Give as you Live is a shopping and price
comparison website with a heart. You can
shop for products from thousands of leading
online retailers; use our price comparison tool
to ensure you get the best price and even
save money by using the exclusive offers and
deals available on our site.
What’s even better is that a percentage of
every purchase will be donated to charity.
WE NEED YOU!
We are always looking for new volunteers to
become part of our vibrant team. If you have
some skills you think could help us, or you are
looking to build on your skills and develop
new ones, get in touch with us!
Volunteering roles include:
- helping on the gardens
- assisting delivering activities
- doing basic admin work
- fundraising and marketing
- maintenance
If you would like to be a helper at Open Day
we’d love to hear from you. Contact Claire:
[email protected]
Like other price comparison websites, we
generate money through marketing. Retailers
pay us commission each time a sale is
generated and we pass at least 50% of this
on to the charity of the supporter's choice.
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063
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Our Food for Thought garden placements are
designed for those who would benefit from a
supportive and therapeutic environment
doing practical activities.
Our friendly staff will support you to work in
small groups providing structured and varied
activities for you to enjoy such as:
Sowing seeds and seeing them grow
Watering and looking after growing plants
Picking fruit, vegetables and herbs
Weighing, labeling and selling produce
Food preparation and cooking, like making
jams, tarts and biscuits
Craft activities such as willow structures and
Christmas garlands
Off site visits to similar projects
If you are not sure, why not come for an
informal visit or a taster day? We can talk to
you, your parent, guardian, teacher or social
worker to see if we can offer you what you
need, arrange for you to come and see us to
find out more and look at funding options.
This is Jan Wade, the new
Coordinator. She says:
Funding may be available for residents of
Redbridge, West Essex or Havering if :-
“The past 6 months have
been
a
wonderful
whirlwind.
There
hasn’t
been a typical day yet! But
my favourite activity so far
has been the Christmas hampers. These were
a tremendous success, much more than I
was expecting. In
the last few days
before Christmas we
had an awesome (if
not rather frantic!)
production
line
going…we sold 58
hampers in the end!”
1. You are between 16 and 25 years old
2. You have a health need
Contact: [email protected]
or 0208 5003047 extension 227
CABIN REPLACEMENT
safe yet maintain the magic and uniqueness
of camping. We’re seeking further funding for
kitchen/dining facilities. Camping allows
people to take part in long term, enhanced
personal development programmes and the
building will continue to be used as a
teaching area for vocational courses.
Camping is a particularly popular and
very rewarding activity. For the past few
decades, our camping field and very basic
cabin building has provided opportunities for
young people to get out in the fresh air, reconnect with nature and learn about the
world around us with a very hands-on
approach. It is a fantastic resource, but the
increased demand and harsh winter weather
hit the cabin hard, so radical action was
needed to bring it back to life!
We are celebrating a recent grant award
from Essex Youth Strategy Group to re-build
the cabin in the woods. The grant will provide
a new modular building with toilet and
shower facilities which will be functional and
The cabin has been demolished and work is
now well underway to install a new modular
building in time for 5 different groups of 70
young people taking part in the National
Citizens Service over the summer holidays!
Thanks to VAEF for their funding advice.
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063
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CLIMBING BACK IN ACTION
STAFF & VOLUNTEER NEWS
We are pleased to say that our climbing wall
is back in action! Following refresher training
for staff we have begun clibing on the wall
again and abseiling will begin again soon.
We would like to wish Amy Bruce, one of our
fab weekend volunteers, good luck for her
new adventure. Amy has got a job in a
veterinary surgery and is looking forward to
gaining more experience. She says “Thank
you Lambourne End for the last 2 years. It’s
been an amazing experience and I’ve loved
every second of it!” Here is Amy volunteering
at Capel Manor with the rest of the crew!
OFSTED
Yes, that dreaded word!! We have never
been required to have an ofsted inspection
due to the nature of our work. But we were
recently given the bad news that our short
breaks programme for children with
disabilities will now require an ofsted
inspection.
This is a big shame as the process will take up
to 4 months, delaying our overnight stays
which are such valuable respite for families.
On the plus side, we will receive recognition
for the quality and standard of our outdoor
learning, which will hopefully build our
reputation even more!
FARM BABIES
In February this year, we welcomed 18 little
piglets and a baby goat. All are doing well
and are enjoying being part of our wonderful
farm.
We said a sad farewell to one of our longest
standing volunteers, Vincent Mahon. Vincent
made a huge contribution to the farm, Food
for Thought, and completed his animal care
studies. One of our favourite memories of
Vince is him winning a rosette at Capel for his
lookalike with Basil (pictured on the right)! He
is moving to Suffolk with his family, and we
wish him all the very best.
Another farewell to Heather,
Volunteer Coordinator (and of
course Harry the dog!) who is
moving to the Broads. Thank
you for your volunteer work
and bubbly attitude! We wish
you all the best too.
A sad farewell to Jean, the
centre cleaner. She has kept
us spick and span for almost 5
years and is now moving up
North with her husband.
Wishing you all the best.
Join us at our Open Day on Sunday
19th April when we will have even
more brand new arrivals for you to
stroke, expect piglets, ducklings,
chicks and lambs! See P2.
We are also saying goodbye
to Michelle, Rob’s PA, who will
be moving to live with her
new husband after their
wedding on Easter Saturday!
Congratulations to you and
Rich! You’ll be very missed!
Finally, big congratulations to our volunteer
Monika and Che on the birth of their first baby,
Zachary. Congrats to our computer guy Steve
and his wife Liz, who works at Wellgate, on the
arrival of their second baby, Benjamin.
Manor Road, Lambourne End, Essex RM4 1NB
E: [email protected] T: 0208 5003047 W: www.lambourne-end.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1105063