Greystones Gazette

Supporting Homeless People Since 2003

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• Homeless?
• Looking for a safe place to live?
• Looking for support on your journey towards independent living?
• Looking for help with substance abuse and recovery?
• If any of the answers are yes come and join the team at Greystones.

View more information on joining Greystones.

In This Issue

• Residents Enjoy a Holiday
• Greystones Residents go on a Treasure Hunt in Ashton
• Quick Brownie Recipe
• Quiz, Games and Jokes
• Seth’s Workshop
• Meet the Team
• Toe By Toe
• Want to Join us?
• Contact Information

Residents Trip to Scotland

Four of our residents at Greystones decided they would like to take a short holiday, they all got together and decided they would like a trip to Fort William - Scotland. They then totalled up the holiday and chose which hotel to stay at. Staff helped them with the booking and confirmation. These residents then agreed to save an amount of money each week out of their benefits, both to pay for the holiday and to have some spends to go with...here are some of their memories.

Resident David

“On the 6 of June we left Oldham Bus Station, for a 4 day trip to Scotland, where we stayed at the Caledonian Hotel, in Fort William, North West Highlands, the journey was comfortable with plenty of breaks.

The scenery of the highlands was amazing, we were lucky with the weather it was looking fine most of the time. The hotel was brilliant, with friendly staff and good food. At night there was entertainment laid on which was good every night.

Whilst in Scotland we had 2 organised trips 1 to sky, the other to Mallaig This was a trip on the north western railway line, both these trips were good and the people were friendly everywhere we went.”

Resident Pete

Our short break in Scotland was very pleasant. The accommodation, meals and entertainment was very good. The tours of places of interest were excellent. The driver did a marvellous job, I really enjoyed myself. I met some very nice interesting people on the trip! It was very good value for money. More of the same please Thanks!

Resident Peter

After being picked up in Oldham we had a comfortable coach journey to the hotel where the food and accommodation was excellent. The weather was mixed but did not prevent a trip to sky on one day and a walk to Fort William on a shopping trip entertainment was provided in the evening to the end of the day.

Resident John

A Wonderful holiday, the views were breathtaking, the hotel staff were very warm and welcoming. Trips out visiting historic places were great. Thank you Lisa and staff at Greystones for helping us organise this holiday.

Greystones Residents Seek Treasure In Ashton!

Since our last treasure hunt was so successful we are planning another one to be held sometime in July 2011. This time we plan to make it a bit more exciting, we are hoping to get a couple of local celebrity's involved!

Everybody can be involved in the treasure hunt as it needs a lot of different skills and abilities to organise, it promotes team working, builds confidence and most of all is a lot of fun! Our Thanks to the staff at Stamford Park for their help at the last treasure hunt.

Quick Recipe for Microwave Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa

Method

Cream sugar and butter together. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Stir flour and cocoa together, then add into egg mixture. Mix well. Spray glass custard dish with non stick spray then coat with sugar. Add 4-5 tablespoons of brownie mixture. Microwave for approx. 1 minute. Let cool.

Quiz’s, Games and Jokes

Famous Names

Who was:

Reveal Famous Names Answers

Jokes

Q. What do you call a fish with no eyes?
A. Fsh

Q. Why don't aliens eat clowns?
A. Because they taste funny.

Q. What do you call a sheep with no legs?
A. cloud

Seth’s Workshop

Seth Van Martean is a service user who volunteers his services at Greystones for other residents. Seth is very knowledgeable with regards to benefits and uses this knowledge to help others. The following are examples of what he can achieve:-

• Check everyone is receiving benefits correct and to claim if not.
• Help with change over to ESA.
• Give advice regarding employment and support allowance, help with medical and appeals.
• Apply for DLA / pension credits / AA if suitable.
• Advice on common benefit rules, JSA agreements and explain possible sanctions.
• Assist filling forms.
• Representing at appeal tribunals.
• Calculation benefits if work has been found (maximising benefits).

Meet the Team

Greystones has recently acquired two new staff members, here is a brief introduction:-

George Pointon

George came to us from Drug Interventions Project at Bentinck St, where he specialised in housing and homeless issues. Previously he worked for both probation and the citizens advice bureau.

Katrina Dempster (Kat)

Kat came to us after working with substance misuse, mental health and learning disabilities.

She also specialises in house management, homelessness and re-settlement.

The Team

Lisa Shepherd
Project Manager

Andrea Boot
Assistant Project Manager

Scott Shepherd
Project Worker

Katrina Dempster
Support coordinator

George Pointon
Project Worker

Seth Van Martean
Volunteer

Rowan Boot
Volunteer

A special Thanks from everyone at Greystones to Diane Barkley and her Supporting People Team for securing our future until 2013.

Toe By Toe

Greystones as well as the literacy school have introduced the Toe By Toe method of teaching. Service users who have poor literacy skills are taught to read everyday for twenty minutes on a one to one basis.

About Toe By Toe

The Toe By Toe multi-sensory teaching method has been developed over twenty-five years. It arose out of the needs of a teacher whose abundant dedication and patience were still not enough to teach all of her students to be competent readers. Out of the struggle to meet the needs of these children came to recognition of
the role played by dyslexia. Consequent upon that recognition came the painstaking development of a system for the teaching of reading which the authors believe to be unsuppressed in its record of success.

Toe By Toe is the ultimate tool for teaching of reading. It is methodical, gradual, finely structured, measurable, easy to use and, above all, highly successful.

Want To Join Us ?

Here at Greystones we run a fun and busy programme where there are plenty of opportunities to tackle those barriers to independent living.

Within the project we provide activities free to residents every morning and every afternoon. We also encourage residents to attend therapeutic activities within outside, complimentary agencies within the local area.

We also schedule support sessions as frequently as each individual needs. Each support session is ‘tailor made’ to suit the individual’s needs.

Greystones run an active alcohol reduction and abstinence programme because although we allow alcohol within the project we work towards each individual being up and active every day.

The activities we currently offer are:

• Adult Literacy & Numeracy School
• Alcohol Awareness Workshops
• Arts & Crafts Workshops
• IT Workshops
• Benefit Workshop
• Gardening Club
• Holistic therapy
• Weekend Games & Activities Group
• Walking Group

Our interview and acceptance practice is flexible and speedy in response to the needs of homeless people.

• Telephone the project to discuss suitability.
• Complete the Common Referral Form and post/fax to the project.
• We will contact you to arrange an interview within hours of receiving the referral.
• We will arrange an interview at the person’s location wherever possible.
• We operate a waiting list but we will prioritise cases of extreme need.
• We encourage each person on the waiting list to keep in regular contact with the project for progress on their moving in date.

Contact Information

Greystones Tameside Ltd
215 Mossley Road
Ashton Under Lyne
Tameside
OL6 6LX

Tel: 0161 330 1557
Fax: 0161 343 4767
Email: greystones215@yahoo.com