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Changing Our Lives
Bernie crowned winner of Spotlight 2011!
After a wonderful evening of fantastic performances, Bernadette Realf was crowned winner of Spotlight 2011. In front of nearly 200 people, including the Mayor of Sandwell, local hero ‘blind’ Dave Heeley and up and coming sporting sensation Tannika Burgess, Bernie performed a beautiful rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ on harmionca and truly stole the show. Everyone found her finale really emotional – not a dry
eye in the house1
W I N T E R 2 0 1 1
Jessica Bromley, a Wolverhampton People’s Parliament MP, was a close second after singing ‘My Heart will go on’ from the film Titanic. It was a powerful performance.
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First prize was sponsored by Captured Music Ltd. They have donated studio time to create a sound and film recording of Bernie’s winning song. She will also go on to perform at the Sandwell Mayor’s Show in 2012. Bernie and Jess were also awarded prizes of £100 each by another show sponsor, New Hope Care. Our other sponsors included Formal Affairs and Sandwell Community Care and Trust.
Andy Howells and Jessica Bromley
Harriet Pooler and family
Nigel and 5 of his 6 wives … but where is number 6??
Everyone had a great evening and we received lots of compliments:
“A big thank you to everyone at Changing Our Lives. It was perfect from start to finish and we certainly felt like stars walking down the red carpet. Nigel did a magnificent job as host. Thank you for inviting us to be part of something that was truly special”.
Feedback
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Battle of the Boroughs One of the highlights of the night included Dudley Din winning Battle of the Boroughs. This part of the competition saw Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton Council employees singing and dancing their hearts out! Fake That really got the crowd up on their feet singing ‘Love Love’ with backing dancers from Performing Arts. Fake That have since gone on to set up their own Facebook page with a big following. Wolverhampton was represented by spoof Abba group Madda who gave a great performance.
The Best of the Rest The Fab 4
Gemma Caffrey, Philip Humphrey, Sonja West and William Horncastle have performed at Open Mic Nights regularly. They came together to form the ‘Fab 4’ and sang Lean On Me at the Spotlight Final.
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John Watson John is a talented organist who came to perform at Spotlight’s September open mic night. Despite his visual impairment he has developed his piano skills, which demonstrate his natural musical abilities.
Gina Patel
James Millard
Adam Crompton
Gina has attended most of our Open Mic Nights and has grown in confidence with each performance. James has entertained us at Open Mic nights with everything from opera to Queen celebration to a ventriloquism act with puppets James has made himself. Adam is part of the Halas Music Project who performed at the last Open Mic Night. A big thank you to everyone that came and supported our performers, it helped to make the evening really special.
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Frances Painter and Darren Selman Awards
Alan Slim
Dawn Evans
The winner of the Darren Selman award is Alan Slim. Up until last year he was in a low secure hospital in Sandwell. During this time he became a member of the Patient Council speaking up for the rights of people with learning disabilities and mental health issues. He has become an MP with Sandwell’s People’s Parliament. He is now getting ready to move into his own flat, which is a great personal achievement. Alan is an example of how someone can turn things around with hard work and determination and get the life that he wants. He says, “My life is now shining for me - I never thought I would get there”.
The winner of the Frances Painter Award is Dawn Evans She had lived in residential settings or with family for all of her life. She became an informal carer to someone she lived with but following a deterioration in his health she lost her friend and her home where she had lived for many years. She was supported to move into her own home in her own community. Since moving she has found new independence and has developed new friendships. She has come through a very difficult period where she was given many choices about where she wanted to live. She chose to live independently and has shown great enthusiasm and motivation to increase the control she has over her life and tackle new challenges and opportunities.
Robert Charlish Robert Charlish received a special acknowledgement for being part of a pilot project using assisted technology to develop independence and improve quality outcomes for people. Professionals were concerned that he would not be able to live independently, but he proved them all wrong but he now manages his own medication and has safe systems in place to ensure his well being 24 hours a day. He also travels independently and uses Skype to keep in touch with relatives.
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‘All of Me’
Changing Our Lives launched an innovative set of Quality of Health Principles for some of the most vulnerable members of the local population on 11th November, with the Chief Executive of the NHS for England, Sir David Nicholson.
The Quality of Health Principles were developed by people with learning disabil ities, physical disabilities, people with visual and hearing impairments and people with mental health issues and older people, for use by local health and care services. The Principles set out the expectations of local people about what a good quality patient experience should be like from local health services.
Launching the Principles, Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the NHS for England, said: “We need the patient to be at the centre of all we do and we must ensure every person has a high quality experience of our services”.
“I Pledge” All of the delegates who attended the launch signed up to the Quality of Health Principles, having their photo taken and making short films of their commitment. The photos can be seen on the Changing Our Lives website: http://www.changingourlives.org/current-work/47-i-pledge http://www.changingourlives.org/current-work/whole-of-life-standards/2-latest-news/51-whole-life-pledge
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Marking the launch of the Principles, Jayne Leeson, Chief Executive of Changing Our Lives, said: “It is fantastic that we have been able to bring together local people to define what a high quality patient experience is for them. I am proud of the work we have done together and delighted we have been able to share this with the NHS Chief Executive and Department of Health.”
The Principles will be used as a basis for audits of local health services by Changing Our Lives, carried out by auditors with disabil ities, older people and people with mental health needs. Auditors from Changing Our Lives wil l also be visiting Sir David Nicholson and senior ministers in the Department of Health in January 2012 to look at the work in more detail and share the audit methodology with the Department of Health.
Areas covered in the Principles include: accessible communication, information, choice, admission, staying in hospital, discharge, appointments, treatment, the way
professionals work with me, accessible environment, privacy and dignity, respect, medication and complaints.
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Training In November Nigel trained 400 medical students at Birmingham University medical school. They were trained in the history of people with learning disabil ities from the 1800s through to the present day, looking at how people were now achieving greater independence, living in their own homes, having relationships and buying their own support services with personal budgets. The training was very well received: “We wanted the students to leave with a different impression of people with a learning disability than many of them will have come with, i.e. citizens who can and should be able to have control over their lives. The excellent session that you two delivered achieved this aim”.
Liz Mabley – Trustee and friend
It was with great sadness that we learnt that one of our Trustees, Liz Mabley, passed away after a short period in hospital. Liz had supported Changing Our Lives since May 2009 - her experience and bubbly personality were invaluable. She worked with a range of communities across Sandwell for over 30 years and as a reward for her hard work and commitment as an active champion for community development she was awarded an MBE in 2001. She was known for making change happen in local communities, working with people to make sure their voices were heard. Liz was one of life’s diamonds and she will be truly missed by everyone at Changing Our Lives.
Spotlight Open Mic Nights
• 3rd February 2012
• 13th April 2012
• 1st June 2012
Come and perform at one of our upcoming Spotlight Open Mic Nights
at The Public 6.00 – 8.00 pm.
You may be selected for the 2012 final!
All the best for 2012 from Changing Our Lives!
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Changing Our Lives The Public, New Street, West Bromwich B70 7PG
Tel: 0121 533 7174
Email: [email protected]
www.changingourlives.org
www.twitter.com/Positive_Lives