Prader Willi Syndrome

New Directions has been committed to the Investor in People ethos and award since 2001.  This month we have been re-assessed to ensure that we still meet all the standards required to be able to display the IIP logo and to show that we are passionate about training and development for all our staff.

 

The assessment lasted for 2 days, and our assessor went to all four homes, starting at 0630 each morning to enable him to interview night staff and day staff.

 

The assessor saw a total of 20 of our staff team of 75, and gave feed-back to Gayle and Dave Davies on the afternoon of the second day.

 

We were delighted to be told that we had retained the award, and that Bishops Way was now also recognised by Investor in People.  The home will have a new plaque outside within the next few weeks.

 

Gayle and Dave Davies would like to express sincere thanks to the Managers and staff teams at all of the homes for their efforts and hard work to help us to continue to be a company which is and ‘Investor in People’.

Anthony Lawson, who lives at Bishops Lodge, sent an article to the Prader Willi Syndrome Association Newsletter about the holiday he enjoyed with a group of people from New Directions in Yorkshire earlier this year.

 

Anthony’s letter and picture has been published in the latest newsletter and for his great effort, he won a tee shirt (pictured below).  Well done Anthony!

 

Gayle attended the Hastings Achievers Award 2009 as a guest of the company Accountants. Imagine her surprise when the category Student of the Year was announced and one of the finalists was Stanford Chiripanyanga, who worked at Bishops Corner as a full time senior support worker until he started his university degree 3 years ago. Since then, Stanford has remained on bank for Bishops Corner and the other New Directions homes. Not only has Stanford attained Student of the Year, but also remains a enthusiastic and cheerful member of the team.

 

 

 

On 30^th September, the Trustees of the Prader Willi Syndrome Association organised a concert at the beautiful St Luke’s Church in Chelsea from 7.30pm.

 

Gregg, Nick and Josh who live at Bishops Croft attending along with Gayle and David.  We all went to London by train from Robertsbridge and then took a black cab from Charing Cross station to the venue, arriving at about 6.15pm.  We had been asked to arrive early as Gregg, Nick and Josh, together with others at the concert who have Prader Willi Syndrome, had been asked to present the flowers or bottles of wine to the musicians at the end of the performance.

 

It turned out that there were 3 adults 2 teenagers and 1 child with PWS at the concert, the child being a charming young lady called Hermione who very quickly stole the heart of all she came into contact with, including Gregg who did a great job of taking care of her for the entire performance and helping her to present flowers at the end.

 

It was a superb event with a wide variety of music, something to suit all taste.  The headline act was Mark Knopler (lead singer/song writer with Dire Straits).  Half way through the proceedings, Jo Brand (comedienne) delighted the audience with 15 minutes of humour. 

 

The concert was really well attended and we are sure that we will hear how much money was raised for the PWSA.

 

Professor Tony Holland gave a short talk about Prader Willi Syndrome, and the photo below shows Professor Holland with Gregg and Hermione taken before the concert, as there was no flash photography allowed during the performance.

 

After the show, it was a struggle to get out of the Church, as there were so many people congregated outside, but we managed to find each other, hail a taxi and get back to Charing Cross station to get the 2245 train back to Robertsbridge.  We arrived back at Bishops Croft at 0015, all very tired, but still chatting about what a great evening we had all enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

On Wednesday 30^th September the annual Job Fair was held at Azur on Hastings seafront.  For the first time New Directions took a stand at this event.

 

There were over 450 people attending this event and we were one of 20 or so exhibitors.  Although we did not have any staff vacancies at this time, we spoke to a large number of people interested in working for New Directions and gave them contact slips to complete so that we can get in touch as and when there is a suitable vacancy.

 

There was another important aspect to our presence at the Job Fair, and this was to help to raise the awareness of Prader Willi Syndrome.  We had a table with leaflets and other information about the syndrome and display boards which was covered with posters about New Directions and also PWS and the work of the Association.  In fact, to our amazement, a lady approached us and informed us that she has a young child with the syndrome.  We hope that this contact be of benefit to the family.

 

David and Gayle were there at the beginning and end of the event, but thanks to Mandy (manager at Bishops Lodge) for spending the entire 4 hours at Azur, talking to dozens of people and flying the flag for New Directions and PWS.  It was such a success, it looks like it will be something we participate in every year.