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SUMMER 2018

SUMMER 2018

BEECHTREE CENTRE NEWS

Welcome to our summer newsletter and what a summer it has been so far!

Thanks to our community garden staff and volunteers our vegetables, fruits

and salad patches are being well watered and our café is making good use of

the produce from sunny salads to thirst quenching smoothies and iced coffees.

Latest News!

New Telephone Number

Please note we have a new telephone number you can contact us on 01948 258220.

Due to the new GDPR regulations that came into force on 25th May 2018 we would like to thank you

for your continued support and hope that our Newsletters events and activities inspire you to come

along to our sessions & to spread the word to the wider community. If you are continuing to receive

our mail by post and would prefer it via email please let us know by emailing info@btcc.org.uk.

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Statistics – Who’s Online?

Over a quarter of over 75s are using tablet computers and half of online baby boomers have already taken to

social media according to Ofcom’s annual report, which reveals how people use, understand and feel about

the media and communications they rely upon each day.

There has been a sharp rise in over 75s using tablets, from 15% to 27%, and the use of smartphones, among

this group has nearly doubled from 8% to 15%.

Around nine in ten (87%) social seniors aged over 65 opt for a Facebook account, but a smaller proportion use

WhatsApp (6%) and Instagram (1%).

While older internet users are increasingly active online, some older people lack on-line confidence. A fifth

(20%) of people over 65 describe themselves as “not confident” online, much higher than average (7%).

Friends of Beechtree

Our friends committee have held several fundraising events this year including a coffee morning, film night and a stall on the Makers Market, raising approximately

£400 in total. Their next planned event is a coffee morning at Whitchurch Civic Centre on Friday

10th August 2018, please do call in and see us. We are also holding a car boot

sale on Sunday 2nd September 2018 at Alderford Lake.

Are you keeping up to date with computer technology?

Gilda our Digital Inclusion Officer is here to help you with any queries

Wednesday IT drop in sessions

These happen every week on a Wednesday 1pm – 3pm, you can pay weekly £5 per session or

block book for 5 sessions for £20 (getting one week free). We have laptops, tablets, IPads, mobiles

and cameras brought into this session with all sorts of queries.

One to One IT sessions

This is purely your session on a one to one basis, the cost is £10 for one hour, to answer your

queries or support you in any way to get a better understanding of your laptop, IPad, tablet or mobile

phone (very popular).

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Sessions take place throughout the year –

Internet for Beginners

EBay for Beginners (Full day including lunch) – Friday 7th September 2018 10.00am – 3.30pm

IPad for Beginners

Bite Size sessions on composing letters, internet searching, shopping on line, Facebook, Skype and

lots more, please ask.

For more information or to book a One to One session telephone 01948 258220 or email

info@btcc.org.uk

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Dates for your diary ….

Please come along and support us if you have any brick- a- brac or draw prizes you would like

to donate we would be very grateful.

Friday 10th August

Coffee Morning 9.00am—12 Noon Whitchurch Civic Centre

Sunday 2nd September

Car Boot Sale 9.00am – 12 Noon Alderford

Wednesday 12th September

Open Day 11.00am—3.00pm Beechtree Community Centre

A chance for local businesses and members of the community to come and have a look at our

facilities and what we have to offer. Meet and greet our team and maybe get involved in

volunteering or becoming a trustee. Visit our community garden and see how produce is being

put to good use in our onsite café. ……...

Summer Quiz (Answers at the back of Newsletter) 1. What is the collective name of a group of seventeen hundred islands

between Canada and the USA which are popular summer resorts?

2. Whose summer villa is at Castel Gandolfo?

3. When is the Christian festival of Midsummer Day?

4. Where were the 1968 Summer Olympics held?

5. What is used as the filling of a summer pudding?

6. Which institution, introduced by Harold Wilson, consists of TV and radio

lectures and summer schools?

7. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, what was done all on a summer's

day?

8. Elvis Presley was the King, Bruce Springsteen the Boss. What nickname

was given to Donna Summer?

9. Which brothers wrote the song summertime?

10. Esther Summerson is the heroine of which novel by Charles Dickens?

11. Which hit song describes summer thus “Those days of soda and pretzels

and beer”?

12. The film Summersby starred Richard Gere and which actress?

13. Who had a hit record in 1961 with Summertime Blues?

14. The tiny Summer Isles are a few miles Northwest of which Scottish port?

15. Which group had a hit with the song In the summertime?

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(National Lottery Funded & European Social Fund)

Building Better Opportunities Shropshire

Help for job seekers at Beechtree Community Centre

Whitchurch Community Services Association (Beechtree) supports participants

with the skills they need to get into volunteering and/or employment.

One to one support –helping individuals to set up email and register on recruitment

websites:

Support workshops – to build personal confidence / self-esteem, develop

communication skills and address personal barriers to employability:

Social inclusion and volunteering opportunities – Gardening and Walking for

Health / Work experience to improve social and communication skills, plus

development of daily routines;

Advocacy with employers – liaison with local employers: CV writing – support to

develop CV’s uploading these to Gov website.

Mock interviews – to help overcome phobias and anxieties, and prepare

individuals for interviews;

Job searching and application support – access to laptops and completing job

applications with support.

Outreach support addressing rural isolation – access to IT help for those that have

transport problems.

The programme delivered can be shaped around the needs of individual

participants and can focus on gaining skills, boosting confidence and increasing

motivation.

This service covers: Whitchurch and surrounding area of North Shropshire,

including Prees and Tilstock localities. Contact our Employability Officer Tom

Nielsen Telephone 01948 258220 or email info@btcc.org.uk

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Taking Charge Of Your Life

A Big to

Confidence Building & Life Skills

5 Week Course at -

The Beechtree Community Centre - 10 am till 2.30 pm

14th – 21st – 28th September and 5th – 12th October

Topics covered - Effective Communication, Self-esteem, confidence building and

assertiveness, Stress Management & Managing Change.

Quotes from previous course attendees.

“It gave me confidence to go places by myself and do things I never thought I would be

able to.

“I feel happy and in control of my life for the first time in ages”

To book a place contact Hayley on 01952 24515 or email

hayley.foley@landau.co.uk

Whitchurch Town Council for funding the purchase of a new screen projector this will

be used for IT & Beechtree publicity presentations, and up and coming film nights.

Buildbase - Nantwich donated sand for our community garden sandbox which will be

used to preserve produce when lifted from the garden.

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Whitchurch Community Car Scheme

Are you a car driver that would like to make a valuable contribution to your community?

Do you like meeting and helping people?

We are looking for volunteers to use their own vehicles

Shropshire Council reimburses at a set mileage rate and any out of pocket expenses.

This scheme has proven invaluable for people who are unable to use other forms of transport and

need to go to hospital appointments and doctors, dentists, optician’s appointments etc.

Please telephone Linda Field here at the Beechtree Community Centre for more information or call

in for an information pack.

Community Cars Telephone Number 01948 664447

The Whitchurch Community Car Scheme is organised and run locally by volunteers, providing

transport for essential journeys where public transport is either unsuitable or not available and the

passenger does not have access to a vehicle.

Transport can be booked by calling the volunteer coordinator. There is a small contribution charge

based on mileage and also passengers will be expected to pay for any car parking charges.

Hospital appointments take priority over other appointments therefore there may be a rare

occasion when another booking may have to be cancelled.

Availability is totally as the discretion of the volunteer driver.

The service is available Monday to Friday.

To make a booking telephone 01948 664447 the phone is usually manned between the hours of

9am and 4pm (Not including weekends or bank holidays) if you telephone out of hours there is an

answerphone facility so please do leave a message not forgetting your contact telephone number.

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Quiz Answers 1 Thousand Islands

2. The Pope

3. 24 June

4. Mexico

5. Soft fruit

6. Open University

7. Queen of Hearts made some tarts

8. Queen of Disco

9. George and Ira Gershwin

10. Bleak House

11. Lazy Hazy crazy days of summer

12. Jodie Foster

13. Eddie Cochran

14. Ullapool

15. Mungo Jerry

.

Brief word on behalf of the Beechtree Trustees –

Hello Readers

The Trustees of the Beechtree are so proud of our staff and enthusiastic volunteers, and on

behalf of them we would so like to see you at the Open Day, which will be happening on

Wednesday 12th September 2018, 11.00am – 3.00pm, demonstrations will be taking place

throughout the day. Please keep a look out for our posters and press releases which will give

you more information about the day.

If you shop on line, could we make a plea for you to pick the Beechtree as your chosen

charity at the Giving Machine, which is mentioned earlier in this newsletter? If you would like

more information regarding this, Wendy Wood at the Beechtree will be pleased to help you.

Remember every penny counts and will help us to help the community even more.

I look forward to seeing you on the Open day.

Roger Pearce

Trustee

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A quick update from the Wellbeing side of things….

The Tuesday afternoon Walking Football sessions are going well and the group is

growing. We’re always on the lookout for new members and it only costs a couple of

pounds. Everyone is looking a lot trimmer now than when they started, their ball

skills are developing well and good friendships have been forged. In contrast,

Sociable Sports on a Wednesday afternoon is not being utilised as much as we had

hoped. Apart from a pair of enthusiastic New Age Kurlers, the good people of

Whitchurch are not taking advantage of this FREE activity session. There are 3

sports available, 2 of which are adapted to all abilities. We have Badminton, 2 sets

of Boccia and 2 sets of New Age Kurling. The Boccia and New Age Kurling can be

played sitting down, with push sticks or ramps to deliver the ball/stone. We have

some volunteers on hand to get you started and it’s very relaxed and informal. The

session is open to everyone and I may have mentioned that it is FREE thanks to the

players of the Postcode Lottery.

Lastly, a quick mention about the Healthy Cooking and Eating sessions which are

taking a break for the summer to restart again in September. We’d like to say a huge

thanks to the Co-op Local Community Fund for the money they donated to helping

this off the ground. It was a big success and 6 men have benefitted from learning

knife skills and how to make simple tasty nutritious food that makes you feel good.

The group are all very supportive of each other and there is great camaraderie. We

hope to welcome some new faces next time.

Walking Football 2-3pm Tuesday Civic Centre £2. Please contact James at

Beechtree Centre to register

Sociable Sports 2-3pm Wednesday Civic Centre FREE. Free drop in

Healthy Cooking and Eating Tuesday morning 11th September 10am-12pm £4.

Please book your place with James at Beechtree Centre

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Young Men’s Project

A young men’s project has been set up at the Centre on Wednesday nights starting at

6pm and finishing at 8pm. This is in response to conversations with young people

about increasing the range of opportunities for young men aged between 12 and 16 to

enjoy and achieve.

Research shows that, when compared with young women, boys and young men are

more likely to be truant and be excluded from school, more likely to have learning

difficulties, much more likely to be involved in criminal activity, much more likely to be

involved in excessive alcohol and drug use and more likely to commit suicide. Also

between the ages of 12 and 16 many young men will be involved in high risk taking

behaviours, are busy proving themselves as “men” (fighting, drinking, driving too fast

etc.) find communication difficult and have difficulty expressing their emotions. This

research backs up a number of government priorities e.g. improving attendance and

behaviour and lowering the number of first time entrants aged 10 – 17 into the criminal

justice system.

The young men’s project at the Beechtree is a way of making our service more

attractive, accessible and relevant to vulnerable young people by providing social

education and fun activities and offers something that’s a bit different in a safe space.

It will provide young people with opportunities to develop the emotional and social

skills they need to make better choices.

If you have any queries or would like to find out more then please contact me on

01948 258220 or email at tom@btcc.org.uk.

Tom

Youth Worker

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Thank you to our IT support, i7

who donate to our centre regularly on a monthly basis.

www.beechtreecentre.org

Beechtree Community Centre, Claypit Street, Whitchurch. SY13 1NT

Tel: 01948 258220

email:info@btcc.org.uk

www.beechtreecentre.org

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