On Thursday 20th October asphaleia held their autumn staff day in Brighton - and what a great day it was!

The asphaleia team 2011

The day started with a phone call to Sierra Leone, where the staff were able to hear from project manager Zainab straight from the heart of our project in Freetown. It was a lovely moment to hear her voice, and hear how the work they are doing continues to impact over 40 girls everyday.

Alan and Morris sit by the quote that meant the most to them

After some learning sessions focused on Peter Senge and Mental Models the fun really began with some egg-cellent team building. All staff were divided into teams and asked to build a device, using limited resources, that would prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a 8ft drop. The results were pretty impressive and all staff really got involved.

An egg device smashes to the floor

“It was a great opportunity to work together on a fun task,” says Jeni Whitchurch, MIS and quality analyst/sessional tutor. ”Everyone got quite into it - some more than others! Tensions were high as Dave suspended each egg contraption from a smashing drop of at least 7.5ft…would it break? Would the egg survive?! In all seriousness, it was a great staff day - my highlight was hearing from some of our young people on their worries, qualities and interests. It was eye opening for everyone.”

Claire and Juan demonstrate other ways to use their device

The winning design, modelled by Bella

All staff are looking forward to the next time we all get together…at the asphaleia Christmas party!! Watch this space for pictures.

And so the 12 week countdown to Christmas is well and truly on - where did summer go? - and to help you all get healthy before the Christmas indulgence begins, asphaleia are bringing back the fruit deliveries to all learning centres and houses.

“The fruit bowl initiative was first introduced in 2009 and whilst it ran it was very popular,” says HR Manager Steph Purcell. “Every week, we provide fruit for all staff to help themselves to - the challenge is for everyone to eat at least five portions per day. This year we are also introducing cereal bars, as a healthy alternative following feedback from young people.”

The fruit will start being delivered from Monday 10th October. So get energised, get healthy and eat some fruit!

We want to send a big thanks to four very talented young people who filmed and edited our first asphaleia video streamed from our new website.

Jade introduces the asphaleia film

Shannon Taylor, Lauren Kirkman, Jade Whyborne and Floyd Thomas interviewed and filmed a selection of asphaleia staff and young people to create a promotional film about the work of asphaleia for our website.

These fantastic young people had only been studying iMedia for one day when they were set the challenge - and I think we can all agree they did a brilliant job.

Floyd interviews Emma from boost

Take a look at the film on our homepage!

…the time is nearly upon us. Hundreds of hours of work have been clocked. Numerous links and pages have been created. Many hairs have been pulled. Hours of footage have been edited. All to make sure the asphaleia website is launched in time this coming Friday!!

The computers are set up for today's forum

That’s right, the new asphaleia website launch is nearly upon us and the whole of asphaleia is getting excited! “I can’t wait for the new asphaleia website,” says Ant Ryan, asphaleia training tutor. “I was allowed a sneaky look and it looks great. The opportunities it is going to create for our media students are really exciting.”

Today saw eight staff and young people come together to have a play on the test website. “We wanted to ensure staff and young people were able to see a preview of the site before it launched,” explains marketing and communications manager, Hayley. “The site is massive, with loads of links all over the place - it was great to test it out and check it all worked.

“I was so thrilled with the response - one young person even said it was the best website he had seen in a long time. After spending the majority of my Summer locked in a room with my laptop, I was pleased with that - it suddenly feels as though it is all coming together!”

The new website is seeing asphaleia launch itself into lots of new territory including social media (facebook, you tube and twitter, to name a few!) and media. Our learners have been busy editing a brand new film to launch, alongside the website on Friday. It is coming together very quickly and looking fantastic. More details to follow in the coming days….

Jeni Whitchurch checks the quality of site

And so the GCC is over for another year! Well done to all the staff members who took part, remembered to enter their steps and walked miles and miles to get fit this summer.

Final winners and great achievements will be announced in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, don’t forget to enter your steps before Friday 9th September otherwise you will lose your final chance to do so.