Registered Charity No: 1098917 Company Registration No: 4258543
SAFSS is one of the lead organisations at the Sandwell Parents and Carers Event.
The event, being held at The Public, will outline the future of services for children and young people with SEN or disabilities.
Come along on Tuesday 22 March 2011 between 9.45am and 2.30pm, lunch provided!
We look forward to meeting you there!
Members of the SAFSS Adults group are holding workshops on healthy eating and keeping active.
The group, made up of members who have a learning or physical disability, will learn about having a healthy heart, making a shopping list, going shopping, making a plate of food and keeping active. Members of the group are also involved in the planning of the activities and the workshops. The group will also be making hearts and organs out of play dough and understanding more about how their bodies work.
Supported by Sham Malhi Health Education Support Officer from the Saathi Project, the group are working to the Sandwell agenda of being healthy and being safe. Consultations, led by Birmingham City University Social Work Placement Student Kelly Grubb, ensure that the workshops are working to the Personalisation agenda and involving all members of the group.
We will report back with some photographs in due course!
For further information on the adults group please contact Arathi Nahar on adults.safss@btconnect.com (0121) 558 2198
We were told by one of our families about the difficulties some adults with disabilities face in getting a passport.
One member of our adults group Baksho* has had a passport application refused because her disability meant that her photo was not within the passport guidelines. Baksho was due to go on holiday to visit family in India. Baksho’s mum came to SAFSS and asked for help.
A SAFSS Support Worker supported Baksho to get her photograph taken at a photo booth. SAFSS wrote a letter of support to the passport office outlining how her disability would affect her photo. Baksho has Global Development Delay and is unable to look directly at the camera.
We have had an excited phonecall and a letter from Baksho’s mum saying that Baksho has now been successful in obtaining a passport! SAFSS were also commended by the Passport Office for the initiative taken in supporting Baksho and her family.
” I am writing to say thank you very much for your help and support as you took out your time to write a letter for Baksho* passport as our Doctor refused to write a letter about Baljit’s disability, we count on yourselves SAFSS to take your time and write a letter, this was very much appreciated…”
By sending a letter from SAFSS with the application and anticipating the difficulties Baksho would face we turned a stressful situation into a positive experience for the family.
SAFSS are committed to ensuring that adults with disabilities are supported to participate fully in family activities and activities within the local community. SAFSS works to the Personalisation agenda.
Baksho can now go on holiday with the rest of her family. Have a wonderful time!
For further information about our services for adults with disabilities please contact Arathi on asc.safss@btconnect.com or (0121) 558 2198
*names have been changed.
Chief Executive Parpinder K Dhatt is participating in the YMCA Sleep Easy and sleeping rough for one night.
If you would like to support Poppy please log onto her donation site at:
http://http://my.artezglobal.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=311936&Lang=en-CA
The event takes place on the weekend of the 28-30 January 2011 and we will let you know how Poppy gets on! Keep warm Poppy!
At our AGM in December 2010 the Board of Directors presented the annual report and accounts for the financial year 2009-10. Please follow the link below to find out more about our year at SAFSS 2009-10.
Please contact us if you would like a paper copy of our Annual Review or if you would like a copy in an alternative format or language. Please contact Claire on (0121) 558 2198 or devmgt.safss@btconnect.com
This Thursday (13th January) our Parents and Carers Group session will be led by Shaam from the SAATHI Project. Shaam will be talking to our parents and carers about diabetes within the Asian community and keeping healthy.
If you would like to attend the session or know more about our Parents and Carers Group please contact Neelam on (0121) 558 2198
A big thank you to everyone who supoprted our Winter Celebration Raffle. We managed to raise over £50 towards the cost of our Winter Celebration Party. The raffle was drawn on Monday 20th December by Claire Bradshaw and Amar Hussain and the winning tickets are as follows:
Argos Vouchers – 304
Next Vouchers – 139
Cinema tickets – 296
Hamper – 165
Costa Coffee Goodie Bag – 136
Tin of Celebrations – 245
Green Goodie Bag – 148
Pink Goodie Bag – 241
Thorntons Chocolates – 251
Beauty Gift Set – 166
M&S Chocolates – 185
Thank you to everyone who donated prizes and bought tickets. If you havea winning ticket please contact Claire or Geeta on (0121) 558 2198 to collect your prize!
Snow outside our premises in Fenton St, Smethwick on 18 December 2010.
Winter conditions did not stop the SAFSS Winter Celebration Party on Saturday 18th December. The event, supported by Irwin Mitchell, went ahead despite the terrible snow. Food, dancing and fun was had by all and our thanks to Irwin Mitchell and all our staff and volunteers who helped the event.
SAFSS AGM took place on Thursday 10th December. Attendance was once again very good and several of our families came to support the event. The Board presented the annual accounts and annual review for the financial year 2009-10. Copies of these documents will be available on-line in due course.
Above Centre: Neelam Pallen (Manager) and Sayma Akhtar (Out of School Club Co-ordinator) from SAFSS receiving the ME2 award.
Congratulations to all our staff at our “Smiling Stars Out-of-School Club” who were awarded the Me2 quality kite mark in November. The award recognises, celebrates and promotes inclusive play in childcare and play settings for children and young people with disabilities. The award was set up by Mencap and organisations are audited by a young people’s panel of children and young people with disabilities.
Our feedback from the Young People’s Panel was “Smiling Stars should get the award because the building is accessible, the staff are sensible and talk to children in different languages because they are from different cultures and they do Makaton to let the children understand what they are saying to them.”
For more information about ME2: http://www.mencap.org.uk/page.asp?id=14940
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