The
“Supporting blind and partially sighted
people in
NEWSLETTER – August 2008
100th Birthday Congratulations
Off the Shelf Festival – Creative Writing Group
A – Z of Public Services in Sheffield
Christmas 2008 Holidays for the over 55’s
Audio Described Performances at Sheffield Theatres.
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
Exhibition – Professional Vision Services
Our
apologies for this newsletter being a few weeks later than intended but we have
been busy with lots of things relating to our new centre at
For
full details of all our events please refer to the enclosed Diary insert.
In this newsletter we had expected to be
able to give you a firm indication of when we would be moving back to
On Wednesday 13th August we closed our centre for a day in order to be able to spend time with all of our staff explaining how we foresee the new centre operating – this was a very worthwhile day with lots of good suggestions coming forward so although the completion of the new building might be late we intend to be well prepared for when we can move back to Mappin Street.
As always we would remind you that this
newsletter is available in Large Print and Extra Large Print on the paper
colour of your choice as well as in braille, audio and e-mail formats. If you would like your newsletter in a
different format then please contact us.
Many thanks to all of you who returned the survey we sent out to everyone. In all we had 650 responses which was even better than we had hoped for and represented more than a quarter of all our clients which is excellent.
The responses have now been collated and overall we are delighted that the satisfaction level with the quality of our services is very high. However, we are not complacent and there are some really useful comments and suggestions about things that we could do better and new things we could do, so our Services Development Committee will be kept busy over the next few months considering the results of the survey, looking at ways to improve and then prioritising any proposed changes. We will of course keep you informed of any developments in future newsletters.
Congratulations
Congratulations to the prize draw winner,
Mable Waterhouse. Her name was the drawn
out first from those who returned their survey by the deadline at the end of
May, and she has been sent a voucher for £50 to spend in our equipment centre.
Just a reminder that we can accept payments from you by
debit or credit card either when you are in our centre or over the telephone. This may make booking trips or buying products
easier for you so don’t forget about this facility – our only stipulation is
that we have a minimum transaction value of £10.
There have been two 100th
birthdays since our last newsletter. We
joined family well wishers and the Lord Mayor, Councillor Jane Bird, at Cairn
Home to celebrate the 100th birthday of Mr George Hancock on the 3rd
August. SRSB staff also joined family on
the 12th August to celebrate Miss Gwyneth Thelwall’s
100th birthday.
Do you enjoy doing crosswords and word
searches but struggle with the size of the print in most books? We may have a solution for you – We have
recently been working with Lindholme Prison, near
Our Creative Writing Group is now hard at
work with their preparations for
Off
the Shelf Festival of Writing and
11 October –
The 17th Off the Shelf Festival takes place this autumn offering a dazzling line up including authors David Lodge, Alan Sillitoe, James Meek, Catherine O’Flynn, Philip Henser, Chinese author Xinran, American author David Guterson, journalists Jeremy Bowen, Kate Adie, Tariq Ali and John Pilger, Indian chef Anjum Anand, actress Sheila Hancock, Dales woman Hannah Hauxwell, scriptwriter Andrew Davies, playwright Sir Arnold Wesker, poets Simon Armitage, Lemn Sissay, Patience Agbabi and the Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan. There are also local history talks, cricket writing, Victorian ghost stories, readers’ group events, a mushroom hunt, literary walks, book swaps, a trip to Howarth, a talk on stargazing, Florence Nightingale, and Nelson’s navy and a theatre show about Sherlock Holmes.
There’s tons for families including events with authors Judith Kerr, Caroline Lawrence, and Malcolm Rose, illustration and drama workshops and a super scary session with face painting and craft activities for Halloween.
Off The Shelf are delighted to be working
in partnership with the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind on three special
events. The Creative Writing Group will
be giving a performance of their most recent work at the Quaker Meeting House
on Saturday 25th October at
If you are a keen reader, join Librarian Ros Witten on Friday 31st at
Acclaimed local crime writer Simon
Beckett will be appearing at the Quaker Meeting House on the 10th of November
at
Admission to all these events is free.
For more information about these events or the festival in general or to obtain a brochure please telephone Off the Shelf on 0114 273 4400. The brochure is available in braille, large print, and on audio CD.
The Festival team can be contacted by e-mail
at offtheshelf@sheffield.gov
or visit the website at www.offtheshelf.org
An exhibition of Mixed Media Art
20 -
Tel: 0114 258 0482
www.heeleyfarm.org
I'm a member of SRSB and the Visually Impaired Walking Group and am registered partially sighted. I'm currently studying for an HND in Fine Art and am holding an exhibition of some of my work at Heeley City Farm. The pieces in the exhibition are all based around the sheep they have at the farm.
As I'm a visual artist a number of the pieces are purely visual and need some sight to be able to see them, but I have some pieces which can be explored by touch as well as sight, and will make the exhibition as accessible as I can. Some pieces will need to be protected in glass frames but others, where there is more texture to explore, will be hung unframed and people will be encouraged to touch them (clean hands please!).
On Saturday 27th Sept I will be running a workshop in conjunction with the exhibition where anyone can come and help me make a big sheep. Anyone who likes getting covered in glue and arty things is welcome to come along and help decorate the sheep.
Becky Vigor Tel: 07795 026377
As always you responded well to our appeal to sell raffle tickets resulting in us raising £3078 – Well Done!
We have introduced a new service for clients with e-mail. Each week we are sending out details of films which have audio description at the local CineWorld, and more recently we have also been able to obtain information from the Odeon as well. We are also trying to establish with the cinemas the availability of headsets as this has been a problem. We are trying to get information from other cinemas and will send this out when we receive it.
If you have not received e-mails from us already then it is because we do not have an up to date e-mail address for you.
If you have an e-mail address which we do
not know about then it would be helpful if you would send it to us. Just send an e-mail to patrick@srsb.org
I am a student from
The trip to Bridlington was lovely, it was such a treat, and the social night was lovely, so friendly and lively.
So, thank you very much for your hospitality.
Alix
X-PIL makes medicine Information more accessible – Patient Information Leaflets are the small print leaflets found in packs of medicines you get over the counter or on prescription. They contain important information about the ingredients of the medicine and any possible side effects.
RNIB has helped to set up a new service called X-PIL to make this important information accessible. You can now get those leaflets in a bigger font, audio or Braille, or you can listen to the information over the phone.
Simply phone RNIB’s Medicines Information
Line on 0800 198 5000 where
you will be asked for the PL (Product Licence) number from the leaflet of the
medication concerned. As the PL number
is usually in small print on the Patient Information Leaflet, you may need to
ask a friend, family member or your pharmacist to identify it for you.
You can also ask your pharmacist to make the phone call on your behalf and order the information in an alternative format. You can choose either to listen to the leaflet information over the phone, or order a hard copy in your preferred format, which will be posted to your home address. If the leaflet requested is available on the X-PIL system you should receive a copy in your chosen format in just two working days. If the leaflet you request is not available, RNIB will liaise with the pharmaceutical company concerned, to ensure that you ultimately receive the information in a format you can access.
If you have internet access, you can
visit http://xpil.medicines.org
The A – Z of Public Services in
This is a very useful list of people to contact about all sorts of problems.
The A – Z is also available in Braille, large
print and on CD. If you want a copy in
any of these formats then please contact Deborah Stephenson on 0114 205 3546 or by e-mail to
deborah.stephenson@sheffield.gov
We will be running a day trip to
43 people joined our holiday In July to
We were welcomed on board by Pat, our courier from Creative Travel, and our driver, Steve, both of whom would be with us for all trips we had. The journey seemed long but worthwhile.
We arrived at
The staff were all very well trained and willing to help us at all times. Pat the courier never stopped telling jokes, stories or assisting people wherever and whatever she could throughout the week.
Monday consisted of a day trip to
Everywhere we went Pat explained to us about the landmarks and history of the place. We were also left to explore places on our own, most of us found that challenging in unfamiliar surroundings however we supported one another.
Every meal we had quality food, plenty of
choice and any minor problem was dealt with to our satisfaction. From 7.45 in the evening there was
entertainment every night until
Tuesday we went for a half day out to Burnham on Sea, and then we could do as we pleased. In the afternoon some of us went in the local shopping centre then onto the sea front until meal time.
Wednesday was a free day so a number of us visited Jill Dando's garden before returning to the hotel for sandwiches or snacks; then out in the afternoon again.
Thursday involved a visit to Wells Cathedral
then we were into
The final evening in
In general a very enjoyable holiday was
had by all.
Creative Travel are
running “Early Christmas Holidays” to various resorts in the
Creative Travel make all the arrangements including insurance, coach, accommodation, courier and outings. A full traditional Christmas dinner and a New Years Eve candlelit dinner are the highlights and a special delivery from Santa with your own Wrapped Christmas present.
For further information please call Creative Travel on 01503 220 422
Firstly I would like to say thank you to all the participants of the reminiscence group who shared their lovely stories, memories and poems which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Each week we had a theme and discussed a wide variation of topics. The first week we spoke about earliest memories and had some really emotional stories, both sad and funny.
We talked about fashion, clothes and shoes. Some of which were dictated by the war situation and some ladies drew a line on the back of their leg to look like stockings. We laughed about the navy blue knickers which seemed to be worn by all and one member enlightened us about when she was running for the bus and hers fell down!
Holidays was one subject we spoke about
with the favourite destinations being
We also discussed schools, some were
catholic and one school was even attached to a convent. Most of the schools have since been knocked
down but members of the group remembered all the names and roads where the
schools were located. We had a funny
story of a school play with a lady playing King David and ended up being
covered in slime. Some people have
always lived and stayed in
Alicia, Social Work Student
Some of you will have seen on the news details of the awards which have finally been given to all those people who served in the Land Army during the Second World War. We are sure many of you will have been amongst the proud recipients, and we were very pleased when one lady brought her award into the Activities Centre to show us all. There is not enough space to list every one of our clients that has received this award but Well Done to all of you and a big thank you for all your efforts during the war.
If you would like further information on audio described performances listed below or to make a booking, please contact the Ticket Office or call 0114 249 6000.
More information can be found at http://digbig.com/4mkda
Performances are usually in the evening.
We have managed to secure a number of
free tickets for the performance of Horrid Henry which is suitable for both
children and adults. Tickets are
available for individuals or families with at least one member of the party
with a visual impairment. The
performances for which we have tickets are on Thursday 4th September
at
Other performances over the next few months are: -
September
Horrid Henry
Absurd Person Singular
October
Evita
November
An Ideal Husband
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Romeo and Juliet
December
The Witches of Eastwick
Alicia, a Social Work student, worked with us for three months, visiting clients and running some activities in the Activities Centre. She said, “Unfortunately my 3 month placement at SRSB has come to an end. On my last day I received some really gorgeous gifts and cards with lovely comments from every one which are still displayed on my mantle piece with pride. During my time I learnt so much about how to work with people with sight problems and challenge obstacles that society enforces. As the first voluntary organisation I have been placed in I found the atmosphere of SRSB was extremely welcoming and accepting of every one, this helped me tremendously to feel able to experience and try out new skills that I had learnt. For that again I would like to thank all the staff and clients of SRSB that I have met and visited and I will miss everyone. Cannot wait for the new building though, as I will definitely be coming down for a nosey!! xx. Alicia
Over the last few months we have enjoyed a
number of events, trips and performances. In June we visited the Millennium Galleries
for the Vivienne Westwood Exhibition, as well as braving a bracing British
Summer evening for the Jazz in the Gardens at Renishaw
Hall. We all had such an enjoyable time
that we also attended The Botanical Gardens Jazz night in July followed later
on in the month with a visit to the stunning
We already have some dates for your diary for forthcoming months.
September 9th,