I just wanted to confirm that we are not holding a Singalong in October (we did have it down for the 27th) but there are lots of other things going on!
If anyone is interested John Bell from the Iona Community is coming to Manchester on Saturday October 29th and the Inner mancheter Mission Network have organised a "Big Sing" with him in the afternoon. Come to this instead! Here's a link to the flyer:
http://www.anchormediacityuk.org/upload/8/event/doc//event-rad2C1C1.pdf
John Bell is a big fan of L'Arche and we are a big fan of his. I saw him speak at Greenbelt this year and he was, as always, very inspiring. He takes the Gospels stories I think I know well and makes them come alive in the most immediate and relevant way. As if they were a tweet written this morning! Go along and hear him speak and have a sing in the afternoon.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Friday, 7 October 2011
September Update
Change of date!! The Christmas Boogie Night scheduled for Friday 9th December will now take place on Friday 16th December still at St.Cuthbert’s and still at 7.30pm. Be there or be square!
Quiz Night
What a great night! Everyone who came said how much fun they had and we raised over £900 which is a fabulous total. Thanks go to Caroline for organising this and to Mike and Gregg who ran the quiz itself. We need to follow this up with another fun night that also raises some money. Any suggestions anyone?
Prayer evenings
Continue to be held on the first Wednesday of the month and seem to be attracting new people to the group. This is running well and people seem to appreciate the regularity.
Boogie Night
The Boogie Night in September wasn’t very well attended and I worry that it is not on everyone’s radar. There were a few new people there from St Cuthbert’s parish (which is actually very good news given that Heathside – the new house – is in this parish!) Our next Boogie Night is the Christmas event on December 16th (change of date – see above!) and we need to really sell this one as widely as possible and make it a huge success.
House Update
We continue to move on. The house still not quite been bought (but we are very nearly there) and I am meeting with the architect and Arcon to finalise and then cost the plans for the renovations. There are many considerations here and people have been very helpful with their ideas and experiences of living in similar houses. I visited L’Arche in Edinburgh and Liverpool and discussed with assistants and core members what they liked and did not like about their houses. I also need to consider the financial viability of the house and the current shortage of ground floor accommodation. Finally Arcon have their own ‘exit strategy’ requirements. So questions we have been asked to consider include:
• Could we squeeze a second bedroom in downstairs? Or would this be too detrimental to the communal space available on the ground floor?
• More than one living-room helps people take space when they need it and stops one person’s bad mood affecting everyone else.
• An activity room would be useful – especially if we need to provide daytime activities.
• It is good to have a separate prayer room. Even if this is not big enough for everyone it is good to give people the choice to be by themselves in what is still a shared space.
• Sound proofing between rooms is essential to allow some people to be awake and making noise when others want to sleep. This also relates to open plan spaces.
• Arcon have asked that the design makes it possible to return the house to two separate dwellings - if needed.
I am also taking as much advice as I can get from the members of Manchester Learning Disability Partnership. These are the people who we will be working with once we are established so it makes sense to try and benefit from their expertise as early as possible in the design process.
Potential core members
I am in discussions with the Local Authority to identify people who might suit L’Arche. Not everyone who would like to live in L’Arche Manchester will end up doing so. Some people would be better suited to being friends of the community, to receive support from L’Arche but to continue to live where they are. Others may not end up being a good match for the other people in the house. We don’t necessarily want everyone in the house to be of similar age and have similar interests but we do want people who want to live together and who, as far as possible, choose to be together.
Potential assistants
We have pinned a lot of our hopes on finding the right calibre of assistants to come and live and work in our community and we now need to start finding them. I am addressing the Catholic university chaplaincy gathering at their Sunday Mass in a few weeks time and I hope this will be an opportunity to recruit. I have approached St Peter’s chaplaincy with a view to do a similar talk to their congregation.
Quiz Night
What a great night! Everyone who came said how much fun they had and we raised over £900 which is a fabulous total. Thanks go to Caroline for organising this and to Mike and Gregg who ran the quiz itself. We need to follow this up with another fun night that also raises some money. Any suggestions anyone?
Prayer evenings
Continue to be held on the first Wednesday of the month and seem to be attracting new people to the group. This is running well and people seem to appreciate the regularity.
Boogie Night
The Boogie Night in September wasn’t very well attended and I worry that it is not on everyone’s radar. There were a few new people there from St Cuthbert’s parish (which is actually very good news given that Heathside – the new house – is in this parish!) Our next Boogie Night is the Christmas event on December 16th (change of date – see above!) and we need to really sell this one as widely as possible and make it a huge success.
House Update
We continue to move on. The house still not quite been bought (but we are very nearly there) and I am meeting with the architect and Arcon to finalise and then cost the plans for the renovations. There are many considerations here and people have been very helpful with their ideas and experiences of living in similar houses. I visited L’Arche in Edinburgh and Liverpool and discussed with assistants and core members what they liked and did not like about their houses. I also need to consider the financial viability of the house and the current shortage of ground floor accommodation. Finally Arcon have their own ‘exit strategy’ requirements. So questions we have been asked to consider include:
• Could we squeeze a second bedroom in downstairs? Or would this be too detrimental to the communal space available on the ground floor?
• More than one living-room helps people take space when they need it and stops one person’s bad mood affecting everyone else.
• An activity room would be useful – especially if we need to provide daytime activities.
• It is good to have a separate prayer room. Even if this is not big enough for everyone it is good to give people the choice to be by themselves in what is still a shared space.
• Sound proofing between rooms is essential to allow some people to be awake and making noise when others want to sleep. This also relates to open plan spaces.
• Arcon have asked that the design makes it possible to return the house to two separate dwellings - if needed.
I am also taking as much advice as I can get from the members of Manchester Learning Disability Partnership. These are the people who we will be working with once we are established so it makes sense to try and benefit from their expertise as early as possible in the design process.
Potential core members
I am in discussions with the Local Authority to identify people who might suit L’Arche. Not everyone who would like to live in L’Arche Manchester will end up doing so. Some people would be better suited to being friends of the community, to receive support from L’Arche but to continue to live where they are. Others may not end up being a good match for the other people in the house. We don’t necessarily want everyone in the house to be of similar age and have similar interests but we do want people who want to live together and who, as far as possible, choose to be together.
Potential assistants
We have pinned a lot of our hopes on finding the right calibre of assistants to come and live and work in our community and we now need to start finding them. I am addressing the Catholic university chaplaincy gathering at their Sunday Mass in a few weeks time and I hope this will be an opportunity to recruit. I have approached St Peter’s chaplaincy with a view to do a similar talk to their congregation.
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