Birmingham and the Three Counties Mobility Team Newsletter

GUIDE DOGS

Birmingham and the Three Counties Mobility Team Newsletter

Spring 2016

Welcome from Colin Vince team manager

Hello everyone and welcome to our Spring 2016 newsletter.

2016 is going to provide many exciting challenges as we focus on reaching even more people with sight loss. The team will be piloting new ways of delivering the My Guide service. We will have a Service Officer and Volunteering Officer working alongside one another to create more My Guide partnerships and increase the number of trained volunteers we have supporting people with sight loss. We are piloting both roles in five mobility teams across the UK to understand and learn more about developing what we feel should be a volunteer led service.

Our guide dog service will continue to grow in 2016 with a planned number of 41 partnerships. We will continue to train 50 percent of our puppies from Harborne, where we carry out early training. This year we have also planned to work with over 100 children and young people with sight loss via our habilitation services and buddy dogs through Blind Children UK.

We will be giving out local volunteer awards this year and hosting another tea party for people we support and volunteers, in late September. Such has been the popularity of the last two years we are currently looking at larger venues. We will ensure to keep you updated and I hope to see even more of you this year.

Fundraising continues to be challenging and we couldn’t do it without your support and I end by thanking everyone who continues to raise income for us through our fundraising groups or in initiatives such as Name a Puppy.

I look forward to working with you all again in 2016 as we continue to focus on reaching more people with our services. I hope everyone has had a great start to 2016 and enjoys the content of our Spring newsletter.

Included here is a picture of Colin in the office with Policy Manager Carl Freeman and Golden Retriever puppy Crumble.

News

Updates from the team

We have had a few staff changes since our last newsletter. Holly Bowdler, Guide Dog Mobility Instructor (GDMI) has decided not to return to work following maternity leave.

Jason Mann GDMI has transferred to the Exeter team, and Hannah Gibson My Guide Ambassador has moved to a new job in London with the Alzheimer's Society, we wish them all the best in their new roles. So, that means that we are busy recruiting and will update you in the next newsletter as to who our new team members are.

We thought we would share a picture of some of the team getting into the Christmas spirit in the office.

Included here is a picture of the Birmingham team wishing everyone a happy Christmas!

Service User Representative Derek Thorpe

Hello everyone – I think it’s too late for Happy New Year perhaps, but it is never too late to wish you a wonderful year ahead. I am now getting to know the team at Birmingham pretty well, they have been very supportive and I think it’s fair to say that we are all getting along famously. Surprisingly, I don’t know everything yet, but I am working on it.

I attend team meetings regularly and get an opportunity to share my views with the team. I am here to share your views too, but you will need to get in touch with me so I know what your views are. Please remember though, I don’t make decisions, but I can influence those who do. A key part of my role is to assist and support all of you with guide dog related matters. You may wish to talk to someone that is not a member of staff, here I am. Whatever you say to me will not be shared with anyone without your permission, that’s a promise.

If you want to share your views and help to make Guide Dogs even better, please do get in touch, I can’t contact you and ask; you have to get in touch with me. Here are my contact details, so now there is no reason not to share your thoughts.

Best wishes,

Derek Thorpe – Mobility Team Service User Representative

Email:

Tel: 07468 711997

Our services

Update from Kendal Yardley Service Delivery Manager

In 2016 we are looking to train 41 new working guide dog partnerships. I am pleased to tell you by the end of January we had already trained three new partnerships. All to replacement guide dog owners.

We currently have three partnerships in class training and 15 dogs in advanced training, six of these are matched and due to commence class training shortly.

We received a further three dogs in February. These dogs have started their advanced training with their Guide Dog Mobility Instructors.

As always, matching our dogs and making successful life-changing partnerships is our number one priority. Getting the right dog available at the right time is always a challenge but we do our best to the very best of our abilities.

In addition to our guide dog service we also currently have nine buddy dog partnerships.

Included here is a picture of a guide dog sitting in harness.

Life-saving guide dog

In January a Worcester guide dog owner was walking home with her guide dog Casa via Sabrina bridge, as they normally do. As they went down the steps to the other side, Casa stopped.

Although Casa is a very well trained guide dog, she would sometimes do that because she knows there is a bit of grass and she wants to play. However, it was late in the day so her owner instructed her to go forward - she refused to move. Thinking she was just being stubborn she was given the command to move forward once more. This time she did move, but she stood directly in front of her owner and barked. Casa rarely barks and it was quite unnerving for her owner to hear it, she realised something must be wrong.

After a bit of feeling around and with Casa still barking, her owner realised there must be a real danger. There was. If she had walked forward one step more she would have been in the flooded river, which had broken its banks, and the bottom steps were under water.

In her owner’s words "Casa was a superhero dog, stopping me falling into the river. Needless to stay, I turned us around, back up onto the main bridge and gave her lots of cuddles. We could have then tried walking down the long ramp off the bridge to see if that was clear, but I decided not to even think of it, and went back all the way round over the main bridge. My dog is worth a million."

Disabled Persons Travel Card

You may not be aware, but the majority, if not all, guide dog owners who regularly travel by train can take advantage of subsidised train travel with the Disabled Persons Rail Card.

Additionally holders of this card can usually get a third off discount on most train journeys for themselves and an accompanying adult. You can find out more here www.disabledpersons-railcard.co.uk

RNIB Tax Advice Team

Did you know that RNIB has a tax advice team who support people with sight loss across the UK with tax related issues?

The service, supported by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), provides help to individuals with claiming tax allowances such as the Blind Person's Allowance and the Marriage Allowance, queries related to income tax, tax on savings interest, VAT relief and help with tax credits issues. They can also help customers to resolve tax problems through their contacts in HMRC.

Their contact details are as follows:

RNIB Tax Advice Team

Phone: 0345 330 4897 or 0151 702 5721

Email:

Website: www.rnib.org.uk/tax

My Guide

As you will have read in the team updates we have sadly had to say goodbye to Hannah Gibson, who has moved to pastures new in London. We wish her the very best for the future.

In other news, we are delighted to have been chosen as one of the teams to pilot a new way of working with My Guide. We welcome Isabel Proctor to a new role of My Guide Service Officer and Anna Canlan-Shaw as My Guide Volunteer Officer. Between them we are sure they will build on all the hard work that has gone on before to develop our My Guide service, and reach even more people who need a boost to their confidence to get out and about on their own terms.

Before she left, Hannah went to Erdington in Birmingham where she trained a team of Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers and a member of the West Midlands Police Diversity team in sight loss awareness and level 1 My Guide. The team really enjoyed their morning and all said it would help them a great deal when out on patrol and thought every officer should do it. Since then, another team at Castle Vale, Birmingham have been trained by volunteers Dee and Andy Dewhurst, ably assisted by guide dog Sidney.

If you know of any organisations or groups that would benefit from being trained, please let us know. If they have their own trainers, we can help train them to then train their staff. This is something we have done with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, so staff can have the same skills as the volunteers who take people to their wards and departments.

Volunteering

Volunteer Voices

Volunteer Voices is an important part of Guide Dogs. It is essentially a forum for existing volunteers, which provides a communication route between volunteers and staff.

Elected volunteers attend quarterly meetings to learn about local and national plans and share feedback from local volunteers. Your representatives cover geographical and/or role specific areas.

Their contact details and specific roles are as follows:

Mike Seales – Worcester.

Alison Timms - Birmingham, North Worcestershire and puppy walking.

Wendy Owen – Gloucestershire.

Dee Dewhurst - Guide dog owners.

Debbie Pitts – Herefordshire, WR13/14 and Upton on Severn.

Marie Court - Breed stock consultancy. Contact via office as no email at present

Linda Atkins - North Worcestershire.

Derek Thorpe - Service User Representative.

If you can’t get hold of the person you want to speak to, please contact the office and we will put you in touch with them.

Community Days

This year we are planning to have community days in each of our areas. This is where we invite the local community to meet us and learn about what we do, and hopefully be inspired. The first of these is being held in the Malverns on Saturday 16 April at Colwall Village Hall, WR13 6EQ, from 1pm until 4pm. We hope from these days to attract new volunteers to all of our roles as well as join our fundraising groups.

Pride of Guide Dogs

It was wonderful to hear back in October that Birmingham guide dog owner, James Preston, and Vince his dog won the Pride of Birmingham Volunteer of the Year award. As well as volunteering for Guide Dogs they both regularly visit a local hospice where the patients love to see Vince. He then went on to win at our own awards a few weeks later. Well done to both of them.

This year, nominations for our awards open at the beginning of March and we will hold our own regional awards in the first week of June. If you would like to nominate someone please contact Michelle Parsons on 07765 222596.

Pictured here are James Preston and Vince with Michelle and Sue.

Fundraising

Let’s make 2016 the best year ever

For those of you involved in fundraising, we hope you are enjoying a bit of a rest after a busy Christmas. Time to recharge the batteries and plan for the coming year is vital to us all. Why not try something new? The fundraise for us pages on the website have loads of great ideas and resources, there is nothing like enjoying yourself while raising funds, so why not have a read and give it a go and raise a smile as well as life-changing donations.

www.guidedogs.org.uk/fundraising

If you have a hobby like knitting or making cards, then why not link in with your local fundraising group? You can make new friends and most groups have stands at events, so you could also donate the wonderful things you make for sale.

Give a dog a home

Life-size dogs and counter top boxes

You are all very good at homing our dogs so we thought we would ask if you could consider finding homes for these collection dogs. I am sure they would much rather be sat in a shop, gym, restaurant, office or other place, where they could get attention, rather than our store cupboard!

Pictured here are a large collecting dog with its puppy and a small counter top box looking for homes.

Inspiring marathon runner

Dan Evans is running the London Marathon this year and raising money for Guide Dogs – not unusual, you say, many people do. He chose Guide Dogs because his partner has recently had a guide dog and his personal trainer at the gym is a guide dog owner too. Dan himself is visually impaired and although he hasn’t got a dog, he recognises the difference they make to the lives of others – read the full story of his personal challenge here: www.justgiving.com/dantheman1

Campaigning

Access all Areas – Sue Bushell Engagement Officer

We continue to work with our campaigns team to improve access for all, and are thrilled that you support us too by getting involved with petitions. We regularly send out petitions and place them on our website, such as the current campaign for tougher sentencing on taxi drivers convicted for refusing to carry a guide dog. You can find more detail here: www.guidedogs.org.uk/campaigns.

Petitions can be very useful at highlighting just how important some issues are. For example, I was delighted to go along to National Express in Birmingham at the end of last year to present a petition of over 25,000 signatures, for Talking Buses, along with Helen Honstvet - Campaigns Manager, and local guide dog owner Mohammed Rashid with his guide dog Solo.

Included here is a photograph of a blonde lady in a red coat, sitting on a bus with her guide dog.

Taxi reports - together we can raise awareness