Volunteer of The Year Awards 2017

On Wednesday night, Centre 404 staff and volunteers headed to Voluntary Action Islington for The Volunteer of The Year Awards where we were nominated for Volunteer Team of the Year, Young Volunteer of the Year (16-25yrs old) and Older Volunteer of the Year (60+ yrs old).

Last year we had a wonderful night as our gardening team won Team of the Year and our Chair Jean Willson won The Pat Haynes Memorial Trustee of the Year award. All the volunteers had a wonderful evening and therefore we were excited to go again this year.

Upon arriving we were treated to a delicious feast of Mediterranean food with falafel, humus, pitta, baba ganoush, and other delicious bites and then sat down for Voluntary Action Islington’s AGM. The guest speaker was James Banks from London Funders who gave an interesting talk about volunteer engagement. He has been working and volunteering in London’s voluntary and community sector for over 15 years. Immediately prior to joining London Funders, James was Chief Executive at Greater London Volunteering, the regional membership body for social action charities in the capital.

Latest News from Leigh Road- Service users go clubbing and a new healthy eating cafe is launched!

Charly, one of Centre 404’s Support Workers at Leigh Road has put together this week’s blog post. Not only has Charly set up a healthy living café at Leigh Road but a few weeks ago she took some service users on a great night out clubbing.

CHARLY’S CAFE

Charly’s cafe opens on a Thursday at Leigh Road. The food is served at 6.30pm but the cafe opens at 4pm for the tenants to come help prepare the food and learn how to cook and what ingredients are in the food.

What we make is pre discussed in tenants meetings and all the food we make is 500 calories or less ranging from dinners to desserts. I collect all the money from the tenants and I prepare ‘menu cards’. On these I put pictures of what is in the food and the quantity needed and the steps on how to make the food. When it comes to buying the food I support the service users to the local shops to buy the food.

The last time Charly’s cafe was open we made chicken and peppers in whole meal wraps with sweet potatoes wedges and a side salad. This cost only £1.90  per serving  and was only 450 calories.

Amanda’s trip to the National Television Awards!

This week’s blog post comes from our wonderful volunteer Amanda, as she recounts her night out at The National Television Awards.

In January My Husband and Me went to the National Tv awards by tube from Highbury and Islington station to Green Park then we took another Tube from Green Park to the o2 Arena in Greenwich. When we got there we had to walk to Gate H where We was going to sit then We waited for our bags and coats to go through security. After that We took a escalator to the Arena where We was shown where our seats were. We had good seats about 20 or more rows from the front We were there by 630pm  as the show started at 7pm till 10pm.

Andrew and Me took pictures of the o2 as We were waiting, then about 640pm a warm up man called Andy Collins come on the stage to tell the Audience when to clap, cheer, and boo .

Then at 755pm a countdown started to the start of the show then Dermot o Leary sung with Tom Jones and after that the awards started with Ant and Dec, This Morning, Mrs Brown’s Boys Emmerdale, Casualty, and many more winning Awards.

Then in the break Andrew and Me took a toilet break, Stood at the bar We saw Richard Blackwood, Scott Maslen, Lee Jay and Billy from Eastenders, We also saw Aaron, Robert, Cain, and Moira from Emmerdale, then We saw David, Tyrone, Sarah, Shane ward, from Coronation Street.

An Evening with Jean

On Wednesday 25 January, our Chair Jean Willson presented a talk to over 40 guests about the history of Centre 404 and her experiences growing up in the borough of Islington, and as a family carer.

Jean took her audience through the decades introducing it with music. She spoke about what was happening in the decade; what her family was doing; what was happening in the learning disability world, and how the centre was founded and grew.

Jean has been involved with Centre 404 for over 40 years, and an associated exhibition was displayed in the main hall where the talk was held documenting the history of the charity. This included information and pictures from when it was first founded by family carers of people with learning disabilities who were struggling to access the support they needed, and the involvement of our Patron Jeremy Corbyn over the years.