New Year, New Horizons
2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Fair Shares. Since our humble beginnings as the first UK time bank back in 1998 we've had a consistent presence in Gloucestershire.
In 2017 we achieved some great results and we're looking forward to carrying this momentum forward into 2018 including some special celebrations for our 20th anniversary.
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Police and Crime Commissioner & Youth Work
We’re really excited at the prospect of another year working with young people and finding new and interesting ways to get them involved in our communities.
This will be the seventh year of the Gloucester Fair Shares Youth Project. In that time we have worked with over 250 young people from the age of 14 upwards. They have painted church halls, helped out with residential homes, taken part in community fun days and loads more. Many of the young people have gained skills and confidence through their volunteering and have since moved on to jobs or further education. For some, it was a life changing experience and has opened new doors and new opportunities.
We’ve been very lucky that this work has been funded by Martin Surl, the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner, through the Commissioner’s Fund. We can’t thank him and his team enough for enabling us to do this vital work.
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Trips & Suggestions
We're open to suggestions on where you'd like to visit in 2018, all exciting and unique ideas are welcome! Give us a ring on '01452 415900', email at 'time@fairshares.org.uk' or just pop by our office.
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Support with Family Bereavement
Together with the Ronan's Trust we're hoping to offer those in the Matson and Robinswood area an opportunity to get support regarding bereavement. This could include creative workshops, monthly community lunches and allotment work.
There will be a meeting on Friday 19th February where you can view a short presentation and share ideas about how people would like to be supported following a bereavement.
For information on how to attend this meeting, click here.
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A New Arrival
Sif, one of the Danish students that joined us in late 2017, has let us know that she's given birth to a healthy baby boy on the 22nd of December!
We wish her and her family all the best for 2018.
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We're hoping for a busy 2018 in Stroud!
We're looking to offer more gardening and DIY support. We think things are more fun as a team and are therefore looking for a group of people that can get together and go help others. If you're interested or know someone who might be, then please do get in touch!
Our usual groups continue in 2018, including the gentle park walks, social group and the activity group for those with long term health conditions - please check the website or contact us for more information.
If you're unsure how to contact us then it's either 'stroud@fairshares.org.uk' or '01453 706555'.
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Trips
We're currently scouting for ideas on where to go on a fun trip. If you have any ideas of places to go, feel free to contact us on the above number with your suggestions.
We'll also hopefully be doing another Fair Shares holiday this year, so watch this space.
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Youth Work & Chance to Chat
We're interested in working with the Youth Support Service, as in Gloucester, so we can give young people the opportunity to learn new skills and build their self-esteem. Rich, our Gloucester youth worker, will be helping us with this endeavor.
Our well known 'Chance to Chat' project will be making it's way to Stonehouse this year thanks to Su Chard. For those who don't know, it uses specifically designed post card to encourage people to chat and stimulate memories. Although aimed at those with dementia, anyone can use them. Hopefully they'll soon be placed all around Stonehouse for you to pick up and use.
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Prison work continues to flourish!
Offenders who are part of our prison time banks can donate the hours that they have spent volunteering in the prison to help their families; however this can be tricky as a lot of them are from out of the Gloucestershire area.
With the help of Spice, a Time Bank in South Wales, we have been able to donate vouchers to 2 families. One family hope to take their children to an Ice Hockey Game and the other family hope to take the children to Jump.
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International Interest
We recently met with Hyeran, from an organisation in South Korea looking to set up their own Time Banks. There are currently 3 in Korea but they hope to expand. She was especially interested in our work with offenders and how to bring that over to Korea. It was an interesting afternoon for all involved!
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Times2 Math
The new year has also seen the launch of Times2, the Fair Shares prison maths peer mentoring project, in another prison. This project means that offenders with good maths skills are now helping other inmates learn basic numeracy skills which can help to reduce reoffending and improve self esteem as well as the possibility for employment on release. Times2 also provides more opportunities for people to volunteer in prison and give hours to our community pot that can be spent in Gloucestershire.
Our colleague down south continues her work in a Devon prison to develop a time bank there so that the offenders can exchange positive skills, develop new skills and also contribute hours and products to the local community.
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Podsmead Sculptures
The Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust held an event at Podsmead on the 17th to show off the new community space - including the sculptures made by Jon, our woodwork project leader.
Check out the GWT blog here!
Jon and his team will be very busy during the next couple of months but if you'd like to commission something in the Spring or later then please contact us.
Christmas Celebrations
We had our annual Christmas parties for both Gloucester and Stroud on the 13th and 14th of December respectively. People turned out in force and helped make both parties a jolly good time.
There're too many photos to put in here, so make sure to take a look at them on our website.
We also went to St. James City Farm's Christmas nativity. It was a superb event and narrated by one of our new trustees Pat Gifford!
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