To celebrate the season in December, we made mince pies with the young people and they helped us to cook a traditional Christmas lunch with them. We played pass-the-parcel and gave them their present to put under their Christmas tree until Christmas day. We discussed celebrating Christmas in different cultures, and had a really fun afternoon!
asphaleia staff and young people enjoying their Christmas dinner
On Thursday 16th of December the Worthing Care team held a party for the young people at the training centre. The young people arrived to a decked out venue with Christmas decorations and festive music.
The Care team organised party games, starting with musical chairs which brought out a competitive streak in both the young people and staff! Then the young people got into small teams for ‘Karen’s Christmas Quiz’, which included questions about Christmas from all over the world.
After all the excitement we sat down to enjoy a Christmas buffet which included traditional English food, like turkey and cranberry sandwiches, Christmas cake and the Christmas biscuits the young people had made the night before at the houses.
Later the young people played ‘pin the nose on Rudolf’ which created a lot of laughter as the young people were trying to trick each other! Each of the young people received a gift chosen by their key worker, from asphaleia. Lot’s of fun was had by the young people and staff. All the Worthing Care team wish the young people a very Merry Christmas.
On Tuesday 13th December we held a special drop-in for the young people to come and make Christmas decorations for the houses with the Worthing Care team.
The table was full of sparkly card, glitter and stencils for the young people to get creative and make decorations for the house. A few of the young people made garlands to hang in the windows of the houses out of reindeer, Christmas trees and Father Christmas stencils.
Young people were also invited to take part in an angel making competition and the winner was awarded a prize at the Christmas party on Thursday 15th December. The winning angel is now taking pride of place on top of the Christmas tree in one of the houses.
Both the young people and staff had a lovely evening and relished the opportunity to get into the festive spirit!
The photo below shows the angels created by the young people.
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.
On 26th September, four of our young people took part in the asphaleia young people panel, interviewing prospective candidates for the position of mental health worker.
In a second interview round, applicants had to “face” the panel and answer questions relating to young people’s everyday life. The young people’s questions ranged from basic, everyday scenarios such as “how can you help me with my college application?” to more complex, sensitive issues, such as young people missing their family in their home country. Watching applicants respond to the young people’s questions also allowed asphaleia managers gain an insight into whether candidates were able to interact with young people and understand their needs.
Following the interview, young people were able to give vital feedback on which candidate they thought did the best job. “I really liked how one of the candidates responded to our questions,” said one of the young people after leaving the interview room. “I could really imagine working with her.” Her friend added: “It’s important for me that people understand my situation. I really liked the interviewing process. When can I do it again?”
A big thank you to all four young people who participated in the panel.
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!
On Thursday 1st September I accompanied a small group of young people to our summer field trip to Chessington Zoo. We were very lucky with the weather, it was a beautiful sunny day which made the day even more special.
We saw many animals of which we all found interesting and on occasion entertaining, the sea lions show was much enjoyed by all of us. Another hit with the young people was the feeding time for the Lions. We waited 15 minutes to see the lions pounce out of their dens to get there meat treat which was hung from a tree - we all agreed it was worth the wait to see these big cats.
There was so much to see and do at Chessington, but not enough hours in the day to really get around to everything. We all agreed it was a hit with the young people and that if we get to go again we will spend more time in the theme park on the rides.
By Carol Ann, Houseparent
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.
