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Autumn 2011 Newsletter

Autumn 2010 Newsletter

Forthcoming events

SHOC CHARITY GOLF DAY – Friday 18th May 2012

The 6th SHOC Charity Golf Day will be held at Burnham Beeches on Friday 18th May 2012. Please put the date in your diary so you don’t miss one of the best charity Golf days in the county. Registration is from 11.30 and tee times from 12.30.

We will play a four-ball format, full handicap, with the best two stableford scores on each hole counting towards the team score. Prizes will be presented to the first four teams and to the players winning the closest to the hole and straightest drive competitions.

Email to book as an individual or to enter a team.

SHOC clients help to make a video

As a result of our partnership with Slough Lifelong Learning, a video has been produced showing how clients have benefited from level 1 qualifications in basic skills, horticulture and cookery. Clients were given some basic training in talking to camera and using the camera. The video shows clients talking about their experiences of using SHOC’s Springboard Learning Centre. To view the video, .

SHOC Quiz Night 21st January 2012

150 people enjoyed a quiz night held at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Stoke Poges on 21st January 2012. The evening raised £2,000 towards SHOC’s funds.

Golf Day 13th May 2011

SHOC held its 5th Annual Golf Day on the 13th May at Burnham Beeches Golf Club. Everyone enjoyed both the golf and an excellent evening meal. Thanks to the generous support of SEGRO there were some excellent prizes on offer. The day raised £2,800 towards SHOC’s funds.

National Lottery grant ends on 31st August 2012

The Springboard Learning Centre is funded by the Reaching Communities Programme of The National Lottery. The annual grant, which amounts to £95k this year, expires at the end of August 2012. To carry on this successful and hugely valuable project, we are seeking new funds from many different sources including The Big Lottery Fund again and a campaign to recruit partners in local industries to help provide support for Springboard when the lottery money finishes. Local companies are invited to contact our Chairman at .

More clients achieve qualifications at SHOC

On 25th July 2011 five clients received level 1 certificates in horticulture and cookery from the Mayor of Slough, Cllr Sukhjit Dhaliwal. The clients obtained their horticulture qualifications through a mix of class work and practical work on SHOC’s allotment. The Cookery course included food hygiene and making best use of the produce grown on the allotment. The successful clients can now go on to higher level qualifications and potentially to obtain jobs in catering or gardening.

McAfee choose SHOC as principal charity

McAfee is in the business of protecting customers from the vulnerabilities of cybercrime. They see parallels in this with the role SHOC plays in protecting the vulnerable in our own community. For this reason they have chosen SHOC as their principal charity for 2011/2012. Jacqueline de Rojas, McAfee VP for UK & Ireland, says this:
“SHOC is a place which offers immediate crisis support to many vulnerable people. We believe we have made a difference at SHOC over the years and intend to continue contributing to the outstanding work that is done by so many people there. It is always a very humbling experience to visit SHOC and this encourages our teams to be passionate about their fundraising.

We are excited about the help we can give SHOC, but also excited about our own ability to contribute and work together as a team.”

Royal Garden Party

In recognition of their valuable work for homeless and vulnerable people, the SHOC Project Manager, Mandy McGuire, and the SHOC Day Centre Manager, Robert Layman, have been invited to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace on 29th May 2012. We wish them a well-deserved and enjoyable day.

All Change At SHOC

On the 4th October SHOC launched its new approach to providing services to our clients. The aim of the new approach is to give more tailored support to individual clients with an emphasis on regular individual assessment and planning sessions. In these sessions clients will be encouraged and supported to set individual goals to assist in turning their lives around. They will also be encouraged to make full use of the wide range of services SHOC provides, including support in finding and keeping accommodation, help in combating addiction, access to training courses and assistance in securing employment.

The changes have been accompanied by major renovation work to the downstairs of Serena Hall. As well as a complete redecoration of the ground floor (see below) a new reception area for clients has been created where they can arrange to meet members of the staff team. While clients are engaging in this support programme they will be able to make full use of the other services at Serena hall such as meals, shower and clothes washing facilities.

In recent times the presence of a sizeable number of people who are not registered clients at SHOC and who do not use our core services has given rise to anti-social behaviour in and around Serena Hall causing disruption to our staff and our immediate neighbours. The recent changes have greatly assisted in identifying and removing these individuals.

Before the new arrangements were finalised Staff and Trustees met with clients to discuss the changes and get their feedback and the new approach received their full support. We are also grateful for the good support we have received from the Police in asking those not using our services to leave the immediate area and from Slough Borough Council who provided funds to support the changes.

Serena Hall Gets A Makeover!

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of a team of employees from Akzo Nobel in Slough the downstairs of Serena Hall has received a complete makeover. Over the course of 5 days the team stripped and prepared the ground floor walls and woodwork which were then coated in the selected colours from the Dulux Worldwide Colour Scheme. In addition to the re-decoration a number of damaged doors were replaced, a new reception area was created and the electrical and alarm system were upgraded. All the changes were completed on time allowing SHOC to reopen its doors on the 4th October ready for the launch of the new way of delivering support services to our clients.

Happy Anniversary Springboard!

On the 1st September the Springboard Learning Centre celebrated the 3rd Anniversary of the start of the project. In the last 12 months we have run a wide range of courses aimed at helping our clients. A number of the courses have been specifically aimed at helping clients to find employment and have included gaining a CSCS card that enables the holder to work in the construction industry and training in basic horticultural skills. IT skills have been popular with many clients who learned how to use the computer to search for jobs and to write up their CVs.

Other courses have helped clients to raise their self-confidence and have covered basic literacy and numeracy and more creative activities such as the construction of a Dolls House that will be donated to a local children’s hospice. In the three years over 300 courses have been completed and 60 clients have gained employment.