Cornerstone News issue 3, 2014

www.cornerstone.org.uk

CornerstoneNews Issue 3, 2014

2014 Star Awards Ceremony

Our third biennial Star Awards Ceremony, held at The Invercarse Hotel in Dundee on September 3 has to be the best one yet. There were smiles, laughs and even tears as the range of emotions stirred by the stories told and awards won surfaced. This year’s Star Awards received a record number of nominations and each one of them told a unique and wonderful story about our colleagues and supporters across the country.

F r o m a l l t h e w o n d e r f u l nominations there could only be a handful of winners, and we are delighted to announce that this year’s winners are:

Outstanding Individual Award, Cathy McCabe Outstanding Team Award, Glasgow Services Management Inclusion Champion Award, Pat Strickland Nick Baxter Award, Christine Petrie Nick Baxter Award (Highly Commended), Tracey Howell Supporter of the Year Award, Ronnie Proctor Families Award, Lynette Ross CNR Award for Innovation, Cornerstone Connects Galashiels Special Recognition Award, Cecilia Eldridge

A Special Recognition Award was added to the event for the first time, recognising the nominee who received the highest number of nominations from their peers. Well done to Cecilia Eldridge for being the first ever winner in this category!

Congratulations to all those who were nominated - you are all Cornerstone stars. Special thanks to our wonderful event sponsor, CNR International, as well as everyone who contributed to the awards and attended the ceremony. Thank you all for helping make the day such a success.

WATCH THE FINALIST INTERVIEW VIDEOS

THE OFFICIAL PHOTO GALLERY

THE UNOFFICIAL PHOTO GALLERY

SDS advisory service in Aberdeenshire

Cornerstone SDS is a new service in Aberdeenshire which offers impartial advice and information to help people choose the best possible care available through Self-Directed Support (SDS).

SDS means anyone in Scotland has four options from which to choose the best means of managing their care or support.

Whether it is to answer a question or to assist with the entire SDS process, Cornerstone SDS will provide you with an Advisor who will help you make the choices that are right for you. Cornerstone SDS currently operates in Aberdeenshire and Perth, with plans to expand the service across Scotland.

Full details of this new service can be found on the website: sds.cornerstone.org.uk

Date set for official Baxter View openingWe are well beyond the halfway mark and in the final stages of our West-Dunbartonshire housing development for people with autism and other complex needs. Baxter View will be officially opened on October 20 and if you would like to come along from 2-4pm, please contact [email protected]

Following the opening the residents will be welcomed into their new homes; benefitting from the installation of the latest technology to ensure they feel safe and enjoy a valued and independent life.

Our Director of Business Development having a look around the Baxter View site.

A string quartet from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) performed a one-off summer concert to support our charity in June at the Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen. The concert was supported by Aberdeen-based oil and gas operator CNR International.

The quartet provided the audience with an evening of light, popular classics and delighted the audience by staying later and performing additional pieces not listed in the programme. The biggest surprise of the evening came from Willie, one of the gentlemen we support, who during the intermission got the audience singing and clapping with an improvised song.

By being both energising and stimulating, music can play a major role in the life of the people we support. It was a delight

to see Wi l l ie us ing music to express himsel f and to communicate with others.

Having found out about the RSNO concert and how it had sparked an interest in music with the people we support, the Albyn School in Aberdeen very kindly offered us a fun and interactive afternoon of music.

Albyn School’s music department prepared a fantastic experience for us using a range of instruments and getting everyone involved. It was a lovely day and we appreciate their support.

Hitting the right note for Cornerstone

Support for new mumsWe now operate a free to attend Mum and Baby Group in Irvine to provide new parents with a safe and secure environment to learn parenting skills, bond with their child and increase their confidence and self-esteem. Meeting at Towerlands Community Centre, the group takes place every Thursday until February 2015. Ten new mums and their babies will be attending for a total of twelve sessions, after which the group will welcome a new intake.

Each session lasts for two hours, with the first hour focussing on strengthening the bond between the parents and their children. This will be achieved through activities such as: baby sensory, baby massage, positive play, baby first aid, healthy eating, weaning and cooking activities. The second hour offers opportunities for parents to socialise with each other, share their learning and make lasting friendships.

To find out more, contact: [email protected]

Top: Our Children’s Services Manager, Susan Lorimer.

Bottom: Mums at one of the sessions offered.

Clockwise from bottom left: The Glasgow String Quartet with our CEO Edel Harris, Barry Duncan from CNR and our Board Chairman Peter Nicholson. Willie performing for the audience. Our fantastic volunteers from Bibby Offshore. Mikey enjoying playing drums for the first time.

‘Kil i Challenge’ fundraising updateOn the 2nd of October, 23 of our colleagues and supporters will take on the challenge of a lifetime as they embark on their ‘Kili Challenge’ and conquer Mount Kilimanjaro.

We are aiming to raise over £50,000 from this challenge to help make life less of an uphill struggle for people with disabilities across Scotland. To make a donation and help the hearty adventurers reach this fundraising target please contact: [email protected]

Fundraising HighlightsAnn and Antonia Chapman have raised £11,371 between them, raising £5,500 at their ‘Bag a Mountain’ Fundraiser.

Frances Halligan has raised £6,621.15 so far. The Dunoon community has really got behind her. Dunoon Grammar School Learning Centre did a sponsored walk for her, and the Cowal Fiddle Workshop held 2 concerts to help her fundraise.

Kate Longmuir and Natalie Urquhart (Ledingham Chalmers) raised £5,791.70 at their Charity Ball earlier this year and have raised over £10,072 in total. Liz Delaney has raised £4,815 and has held some unusual fundraising events including a Mad Hatters Tea Party, which raised an impressive £560.

All our Cornerstone staff are doing well too. Sarah McCroskie, Hazel Brown, Lynne Gilchrist (and her partner Marc) have beaten their fundraising targets and have been training every weekend and taking lots of fantastic photos.

Fundraising events diarySeptember, 2014 – Climb for CornerstoneOctober 2nd, 2014 – Kilimanjaro Climb (Africa)October 5th, 2014 – Great Scottish Run (Glasgow)October 11th / 12th, 2014 – Big Fun Run (Glasgow)October 25th, 2014 – Fright Hike (Stirling)November 19th, 2014 - An Evening at The Marcliffe (Aberdeen)November 21st, 2014 - Festive Fizz Friday (Aberdeen)December 7th, 2014 – Santa Dash (Glasgow)December 8th, 2014 – Aberdeen Santa Fun Run (Aberdeen) January 10th, 2015 – Great Winter Run (Edinburgh) If you would like to keep updated on future events follow us on facebook or check our events diary on our website. If you are interested in hosting your own event and would like some help, please contact: [email protected]

VIEW SARAH, HAZEL, LYNNE AND MARC’S PHOTOS HERE

From left to right: The Happy Ukes supporting their friends in the East. Sarah McCroskie on Ben A’an training for Kili. Zoe Grant did a bungee jump dressed as Wonder Woman. Alison Evans held a fantastic 1940s themed party. Some people did the Titan Crane Abseil in aid of Kili. Kate and Natalie at their Charity Ball. Liz at her Mad Hatters’ party.

F a n t a s t i c FundraisersWe value all of our wonderful fundraisers and although we cannot name everyone, we are pleased to mention a few of our recent supporters.

Many thanks to Margaret Whyte who took on a 21 challenge and rode her bike to work for 21 days - covering 117 miles and raising over £150 for Cornerstone.

Sarah and Jamie in Aberdeen put a lot of work in to arranging a ‘Breakfast and Baffies’ morning for their colleagues and raised over £140 - fundraising in your slippers, great idea!

Team MacHart, which is made up of Claire Mackenzie and Sandra (Sanny) Hart, have raised over £1,400 for one of our services in Stonehaven by taking on a 170mile cycle challenge. Claire and Sanny wanted to raise sponsorship for Cornerstone as Claire’s brother has been supported by us since 2013. We are delighted that they took this challenge on to provide the service with a little ‘something

Companies compete in boat race for CornerstoneEmployees from 29 oil and gas companies across Aberdeen took to the water for the Activity Mix Corporate Decathlon Dragon Boat Race, for which Cornerstone were the official charity partner.

Taking to the water at Knockburn Loch on the weekend of 23-24 August, teams competed in traditional Chinese Dragon Boats and in fancy dress. Cornerstone had their very own team consisting of Snow White and several team mates singing ‘Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, its off to the loch we go’.

Baker Hughes not only sponsored the event but alsoadopted Cornerstone as theirchosen charity, raising a magnificent £6,744 by rowing the equivalent distance of Aberdeen to China – that’s 8,000km by the way! Baker Hughes have been wonderful and we appreciate the support, enthusiasm and generosity they have show us.

Over £500 was also raised from children’s activities during the weekend and Team Stork generously donated £169 to Cornerstone from their Dragon Boat entry.

We are delighted to have been involved with the corporate decathlon this year and are very grateful for all the voluntary support we received throughout, thank you!

Snow White (Gary) looking very happy at coming in last place. Team Baker Hughes. Two of our wonderful volunteers on the day.

6-9pm, 21st NovemberAberdeen Art Gallery

Don’t miss the opportunity to secure your tickets for this one-off seasonal spectacular. Contact Katie Watters on 01224 256 023 or [email protected]

Across Scotland on July 22, celebrations were held in recognition of our children’s services which provide valuable care and support to children and young people with disabilities and other support needs.

The National Children’s Funday saw the children we support, their families and the public joining together to have a fun filled day and setting a new record for the longest synchronised Teddy Bear chain.

There is an existing record for the longest teddy and human chain in a single space, which took place in Guernsey in 2008 with more than 1,700 people and bears joining together. Inspired by this, Cornerstone aimed to create their own brand new record for a human and teddy bear chain across multiple venues, as opposed to in one single space.

At exactly 12:30pm the families at our Elgin, Aberdeen, Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Ayrshire fun day events linked together to form their Teddy Bear chains. We knew we had a lot of families at each event, but were absolutely delighted to find out that our synchronised chains totalled 273 teddies!

On the day people were using the #CSteddyselfie to post photos of themselves with their favourite cuddly toy, some of these are displayed below.

National Children’s Funday

FIND ALL OUR PHOTOS FROM THE DAY HERE

Cornerstone Connects was officially opened in June by athlete Samantha Kinghorn and now provides a range of activities to people with learning disabilities in Galasheils.

Samantha is one of wheelchair racing, and Paralympic sport’s, fastest rising stars. In only her second season of racing Samantha gained pre-selection for Team Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and competed in the T53 1500m event.

Athlete opens Connects service in Galashiels

WATCH THE OPENING CEREMONY

21 years of support at SliochEarlier this year our Slioch service in Moray held a party to celebrate the service’s 21st birthday. Residents were joined by family members, friends and staff from past and present for an afternoon tea party.

Among the guests was Deanna Cruickshank who has a special link with the service, not only was Deanna part of the original

Over a hundred guests, including the Honourable Gerald Maitland Carew, turned up to watch Samantha open the new service and to get an exclusive tour of the building. Commissioned by the Scottish Borders Council, Cornerstone Connects Galashiels provides people with activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, gardening and IT skills. The facility also has a sensory room and offers other opportunities within the community.

Tricia Hunter, Service Manager at

Scottish Borders Council, said; “We are confident that Cornerstone will work closely with people with a learning disability and family carers in Central Borders to get the right activities and opportunities in place. This is an exciting development and we look forward to working closely with Cornerstone in the coming years.”

The sensory garden used by the service was kindly donated by Borders Sport and Leisure, and the team are working hard to develop it to supply ingredients for their cooking classes.

Ewan Jackson, Chief Executive, Borders Sport and Leisure, said; “This is a great opportunity for us to work together with another charity and to provide Cornerstone’s clients with the chance to become more active and enjoy the outdoors.”

Our Chief Executive Edel Harris, Athlete Samantha Kinghorn, Regional Director for the East Howard Elliott.

staff team that opened the service but her daughter Joanna now works at the very same service.

Joanna, now a team leader at the service, has said that her decision to go into social care was very much influenced by hearing stories about residents and visiting services such as Slioch with her mum. Deanna and Joanna joining in with the

celebrations with everyone at Slioch.

A t C l y d e ’ s s i d eIt would be very easy to make this issue of Cornerstone News a Commonwealth Games special. The games have had such a big impact on the whole country and we are delighted that so many people from Cornerstone got involved.

Our Chief Executive, Edel Harris, waited excitedly for the news that she was going to be a Clydesider (volunteer) at the Commonwealth Games. Over 50,000 people applied for voluntary roles at the games and only 15,000 were chosen. Edel’s role at the Games was to meet and greet sponsors as they arrived for the various events taking place at the SECC and the Hydro.

Edel said, “Cornerstone relies on volunteers every day of the year to help the people we support lead a full and valued life – it’s a very important role that they play. This was my way of promoting the value of volunteering, as well as giving something back”.

If you follow Edel on Twitter you will have seen that she was very active in documenting her experience, one of her photographs was seen and used by STV. One photo that stands out is her selfie with William Sharman, who was competing in the games and earlier this year spoke at our Investors’ Dinner.

Edel in her voluntary role greeting people attending the games and below, catching up with William Sharman.

C o m m o n w e a l t h E x p l o r e r sThanks to funding from The Big Lottery Fund we were able to fund our ‘Mini Commonwealth Explorers’ this summer. This project allowed the children we support to join in the build up to the Commonwealth Games by learning about the various cultures in the Commonwealth and taking part in various activities. The project gave 23 children in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow the chance to take part in activities that taught them about the culture, heritage and traditions of the countries within the Commonwealth. We also looked at the history of the Games, the sporting

Better accessibility i n P o r t l e t h e nFor Callum, who lives at our Angus Court Service in Portlethen, the kerbs ouside his home were an issue for his wheelchair.

However after writing a letter to Aberdeenshire Council, he received a prompt reply followed by workers appearing to lower the kerbs making getting out and about a lot easier for Callum.

Have you had any similar experiences or would like to share a story with us? We would love to hear from you. Please contact: [email protected] e v e n t s involved

and finished the project with a group trip to the Games.

For a day of outdoor sporting events we were incredibly lucky with the weather as June 18 was the hottest day for Scotland this year, with Glasgow temperatures reaching 26°. On this glorious day the events were opened by our Chief Executive Edel Harris, Operational Manager for Glasgow Eric Boslem, our mascot Joe and very special guest Clyde, the official Mascot for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Sport can have such a positive impact on the lives of people with disabilities and our Alternative Games acted as a great way to recognise individual achievement. The games enabled the people we support to share in the spirit of sport that swept Scotland this summer and also showed our support for the Commonwealth Games.

The day had events to suit all interests and abilities, including football, netball, space hopper races, skittles and many more. A ceremony was held at the end of the day to award trophies and medals.

Many thanks to the volunteers from the University of Glasgow for helping the day run smoothly.Congratulations to the organisers for making the day possible and to everyone who attended.

Clockwise from top: The fantastic volunteers from the University of Glasgow who helped out on the day. Our athletes posing for a picture with Clyde. Our winning netball team celebrating a well deserved win. Highlight of the day - Eric Boslem our Operational Manager for Glasgow, getting drenched with wet sponges and buckets of water.

T h e A l t e r n a t i v e G a m e s 2 0 1 4To celebrate the summer of sport held in Scotland, our teams in Glasgow pulled together to arrange the Alternative Games, a sports day for the people we support in the Crownpoint Sports Complex.

Self-sufficient summer

Fun and healthy recipe e-book created by Sharon Irvine and John Prentice.

2014 gave us a fantastic summer and the weather has been great for the little crops that our services across the country have been growing.

Glebefield, Peterhead has had very productive poly tunnels, which were built and are maintained by the people we support, their families and our staff. The crop from this summer was plenty of potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and an array of beautiful flowers.

Over the past year in Glasgow, the people we support, staff and volunteers have been building a Community Garden, as part of our Healthy Living Project, and were invited to create an exhibit at GREEN2014.

GREEN2014 at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, is an exhibition that offers the opportunity to explore the great variety of legacy projects supported by the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and other partners around the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Based at the Bridgeton Community Learning Campus, the Glasgow Gardening Project garden has made use of un-used land and provides a range of vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit trees for all in the local community to enjoy. With the summer behind us, the group will continue to promote healthy eating for the people we support and have produced a range of materials to help people make an informed choice on what they would like to eat.

DOWNLOAD THE TASTY TREATS RECIPE E-BOOK

Gift in SportConference

On the eve of the Commonwealth Games people attended the Gift in Sport conference in Glasgow, sponsored by Cornerstone. The conference focussed on the special role sport can play in promoting unity and respect for all.

Speakers at the conference included 2004 Olympic sprint relay champion Jason Gardener, Special Olympian Leanne Peter, paralympian Frank McGuire, former British Taekwondo champion-turned broadcaster John Cullen, Gordon McCormack chair of Scottish Disability Sport and a group representing Cornerstone.

The group from Cornerstone was made up of Jacqueline, Connor and Lisa who spoke fantastically and with as much confidence as the rest of the day’s speakers. It was very uplifting to hear our trio talking about how sport has changed their lives, built up their confidence and provided opportunities to influence wider society.

Olympian Jason Gardner MBE with one of our speakers on the day, Connor.

Best dressed at Feein MarketWell done to our social firms, Woodview and Giftcorner, who won the best dressed stall at the Feein market, Stonehaven, for the second year in a row. We look forward to seeing what you will bring to the market next year.

Well done on your win ladies.

There are lots of ways you can support Cornerstone

Make a donation

Fundraise for us

Become a member of Cornerstone

Visit our social network pagesBecome a Volunteer

Attend Cornerstone events

More information can be found on the following pages.

Or to find out more please contact us at any of the following regional offices:

North: 01224 256000Central: 01382 220238West: 0141 5507580

www.cornerstone.org.uk

Cornerstone Charity

@CornerstoneScot

Cornerstone

CornerstoneScotland

Fancy dress walk-a-thonCongratulations to our IF group who completed a fancy dress walk-a-thon in Aberdeen’s Duthie Park to support their fundraising efforts for a new minibus. The walk-a-thon was influenced by our ‘Kili Challenge’ fundraisers and consisted of several laps around the park to match the height of Kilimanjaro, that’s a whopping 5,895m! What is more impressive is the £1287 the group managed to raise.

Cornerstone actively encourages the people we support to get involved in helping us to design services that meet their needs. We have established a network of local TASK (Training, Advice, Support and Knowledge) Groups across Scotland made up of people we support. Our IF (Independent Forum) group is one of these and represents the Aberdeen area. If you are interested in finding out more about your local group, please use the contacts below:

Everyone put in a fantastic effort to dress up on the day.

VIEW THE FULL PHOTO GALLERY

West Dunbartonshire [email protected]@cornerstone.org.uk

Moray [email protected]

North Aberdeenshire [email protected]

North Lanarkshire [email protected]

South Aberdeenshire [email protected]

Aberdeen Independent [email protected]@cornerstone.org.uk

Central [email protected]

Dundee [email protected]@cornerstone.org.uk

East Dunbartoneshire [email protected]

Glasgow [email protected]