Wednesday 31st May 2017 - what a month!!! loads to do still

Posted 2:40pm

Well, our opening month is just about over. The Bank Holiday weekend has intervened, hence the lack of an entry over the last few days.

It's been a hell of a month though. Our first program started on the 8th May with SHP and we have had three weeks so far (the BH Monday meant a break in the proceedings as the SHP offices were closed that day.  It has been wonderful to actually be dealing with clients, and the feedback has been tremendous.  It's just the lack of people that has concerned - which I think is out of our hands at this moment.

The ultimate aim is to be working with people on JSA with the Job Centres, or with corporate business with graduates and/or apprentices. But we are also happy to do programs with people on ESA, or out of work for other issues - as I know from first hand experience just how good this kind of intervention can be on individuals.  However, as I know myself, if people have issues that can also interfere with their daily routines (or people choose to allow it to interfere - which us one of the reasons we are doing this project).  People can wake up with no energy to even leave the flat or house. Just the thought of exertion can cause stress.  It is sad in a lot of ways. We are trying to show people that when that happens they can either choose to allow these feelings to overwhelm them, and therefore now allow them to move on - or they can choose to say "no way, I am not going to let this control me" and find ways to move on.  We can empathise, and understand how difficult it can be.

I think that is the reason why numbers have not been strong.  The feedback from clients, and from SHP, to what we are doing, has been extremely positive. In fact, last week when I was in the SHP offices I was told by a key worker that they had not seen their client so upbeat before.  This is about one of our clietns, Wayne, who is really pushing himself.

We had our third, and final, free visit to the St Pancras Leisure Centre Gym yesterday, and there was just myself, Dean our PT, and Wayne - but it was refreshing to see just how far he has come in such a short time. I did ask the Manager if it was possible to allow Wayne to have three or four more sessions, but he said he could not set a precedent - and he was absolutely spot on.

This week we are sorting out our ""Nutrition" week presentation - I have also several other "to-do" items to get on with.  It seems never ending - and I have to be honest it can appear to be overwhelming too, so again I totally understand the pressure service users are under.  But if we want to succeed we have to carry on.

Wednesday 24th May 2017 - lots of positives

St Pancras Leisure Centre

Ajani - Tuesday May 23rd

Posted 1:30pm
It's a nice sunny day, and feeling positive about a lot of things.
If only program numbers were just a bit higher.
But this is the pilot and finding our way.

On Monday - week three (counting prelim) we had three people. It was great to see Rosie, Wayne and Michael, and the program on "health and fitness" seemed to go down okay. We talked a lot about looking after your insides as well as your outsides.

Tuesday saw us having our second free gym session.  Last week it was Emma and Rosie with us. This week it was just Wayne, accompanied by myself and Dean. It was really good to see him so positive and pushing himself. He had a great time. "I can't believe more people have not turned up. It's free" he told us - which did echo our own feelings.

"It's the first time I have run for 10 minutes in the last fifteen years" he also added. So we definitely doing some good.

Had a good meeting with Scott yesterday - and once again my to-do list has grown. We would like to investigate the corporate opportunities of the program with Graduates and Apprentices. We all feel that big companies, who like to ensure their staff are looked after physically and mentally, would like what we are doing.

We have found a contact at Hackney Council that may be able to introduce us in the area, and I have left a message on her voicemail to meet up - more news to hopefully follow on that.

We also finally found a contact in Islington that might be able to help link us to the Islington CCG. We are very much aware that there are rules about commissioning and tendering, but we just want an opportunity to show what we are doing and the potential outcomes.

We are still waiting to hear about the Great Get Together event - I did not realise they were waiting for some extra information from us until I messaged this morning - so I am getting that off to them today.

Personally - I am throwing myself back into the fitness - it definitely helps that we have Dean as our Personal Trainer. I have already lost weight this week - I have my targets yet again (people must be so frustrated at me). Yay!!!

Sunday 21st May 2017 - ready for week two - very encouraged

Posted 10:15pm

Well, week one is over on our first pilot program with SHP. A great deal. Unlike other programs, one of our Unique Selling Points is that it isn't just a once a week course, where people may sit down, gather handouts, and hopefully pick up pointers. We are proactive.

Thursday we had our Izzwalkz CP again, and the stretches and exercises are going down very well with the users. We did invite everyone from the program, although this week nobody came. I am not worried. This week we are putting in printed details to their files with the walk and a map. Hopefully we can get one or two coming this week.

We have also started a Personal Training session after the walk - which Dean is running. This week it was just him and myself - and I certainly need it.

Friday, we had our tour of the Emirates Stadium - for which we are very grateful to Arsenal FC. As you can see from the photo at the top of this entry, there was five of us - Rosie from the group came. I think just her feedback will encourage people up and about. She had a great time. Dean, our PT was there, and we also invited a member of Highbury Grange Medical Practice (our Izzwalkz CP partners) to come - and Jaimie, the Reception Manager, thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Our final member was Karen from SHP - we thought it was important to have our program hosts along - and being an Arsenal fan she was delighted.  The photo shows us sitting in the Arsenal dugout (in fact I am sitting in Mr Wenger's chair!!!).

We are prepared for tomorrow's program - the subject for this week is "health and fitness". We are looking organs of the body, what they do, and how we can look after them better. We are also introducing a further two exercises to the group, and will be discussing people's thoughts on health. We also want to start setting targets.

Wednesday 17th May 2017 - we have launched - and it's going well

Posted 8:55pm

Yes, I realise this is Wednesday, and we launch Monday, and a lot has gone on - for this blog entry you may need a cup of green tea and low calorie snack!! 

Monday was really good, but almost came a cropper for Luke - who is delivering the program with me as my assistant.  Playing football Sunday he damaged his neck, and then had to head to the hospital in a neck brace and on a stretcher at 2am. Thankfully, all clear, and he managed to get to the program, and we are thankful to see him walking.

Dean, our PT, and I met early and set up the laptop and got the room ready.  We had 10 at the prelim event, and five this first week.  That was a small disappointment as we are desperate to prove outcomes, but SHP have said they are happy with what we are doing.

We had a terrific time - lots of laughs - lots of positivity - and it appeared to go down well with everyone there.

We concentrated on Mind-set for the first hour, and after the break we had Dean demonstrate stretches with everyone, and then some exercises - we did squats, press ups, lunges, crunches, and plank.  We will be introducing two extras exercises every week.

It was better than I could have imagined, Joe, one of the SHP Managers, sat in for the whole morning, and he said he thought we managed very well.

Yesterday, we headed off to a free session at the St Pancras Better Gym at 10am. I was initially disappointed at the numbers - there was Dean and myself, with two service users.  I think I felt let down as I know how much the participants can benefit for activity, exercise and socialising.  Certainly, Emma and Rosie enjoyed themselves after an initial induction.  We used several machines, and ran through a few exercises too.  After they left around midday, Dean and I did a 30 minute Tabata High Intensity session - which was awesome (lots of sweating).

We heard back from the Great Get Together Fund application - this is to run a community event the weekend of the 17th June - and we have proposed a joint event with Disability Action Islington and Single Homeless Project - and we might invite Change Grow Live too,  We have to supply our insurance document and our Constitution to the Council, which I will do tomorrow.  But it appears we are in with a great shout of getting that money. The £500 has been split by Food/Drink - refund of travel costs - and small gift to attendees.  I am very hopeful this will be approved.

I attended the third week of the "Bags Of Taste" cookery course today - and enjoyed making a red lentil dahl, a spanish kind of omelette and some kind of fish curry thing!! I do not know what they called it.  But it all came out very tasty.

We are getting things ready for week 2 of the program - on Health.  We did give all particpants a file on Monday - and that included a diary planner showing all events - as well as the exercise diaries we completed for them last week.  Tomorrow, after the Izzwalkz, Dean is going to put me through an exercise session at the park and then we will talk about the second week exercise diaries for the clients.

There is so much still to do behind the scenes - but a great few days.

Sunday 14th May 2017 - official start of pilot programs

Posted 1:20pm

Well, after last week's prelim week where we introduced ourselves and our program to the SHP group, tomorrow is the start of the official project, and we are all very excited.

Sadly the DAI one has definitely been cancelled - although we have asked to meet with the organisers to discuss the possibility of one off events that we can manage - I think this would better suit the needs of their service users, and we would also be able provide suitable outcomes.

But tomorrow morning we meet with our group - 11 people are on this first pilot.  We will be covering "mindset", "budgeting", and "introduction to fitness" - we will also be promoting our extra events - such as gym sessions, two day outs, PT sessions, and Izzwalkz.  I really believe we can show our unique proactive approach can bring results.

We are also meeting up with Ian from the Islington DWP Job Centres to discuss the 6 June pilot we will be running with people from the Job Centre.  I want to be able to go into the centres this week and promote the project and see if we can pick up 12-15 people.  This will only be a 7 week course, but I know we can organise ourselves on this.

Tomorrow we are handing out files to each participant on the course,  This will include a planner, showing all the significant dates on the course.  We will also be giving each individual a weekly "exercise diary" - where our PT Dean has sorted out specific exercises for each to do daily.  This will grow throughout the length of the course.

There will also be sheets on the trip to the Arsenal Emirates Stadium, the Bags Of Taste Cookery course, the Gym sessions at the St Pancras Gym, the PT sessions we will be running with Dean, the Izzwalkz initiative, the First Aid Course we have organised with Red Cross, and talking about visits from the NHS Smoking team and the Oral Health Team.  As you can see, we are being very proactive. We want to get people out of the flat/house/hostel - in the fresh air, pushing themselves.

Over the next nine weeks we will not just be concentrating on the course though (courses with the DWP). Over the next fortnight we aim to get more videos filmed - we did some the other day but the sound was not good. We also will get a couple of "funding" pages live - with GoFundMe and CrowdFunding sites. It is very very difficult to keep going without at least some money coming in, and is very frustrating to see everyone excited by our work without actually seeing funding.

There is a huge amount of general admin to get through, and we are hopeful that one of our London Catalyst or Gunners Fund applications may bring some dosh in.

Personally, I am pushing myself on this course too. I want to lose some weight, as well as hit the mark on some other targets I want to set myself. I think ow the program is starting it will be easier for me. Dean, our PT, is going to put me through my paces too. Yay!!!

Thursday 11th May 2017 - organising diaries

Posted 9:00pm

The last couple of days have been very busy preparing everything for the program next Monday. In particular, we have thoroughly gone through all the paperwork provided by the participants, which show their level of fitness, energy levels, and their different targets.

After the Izzwalkz CP this morning, we sat down with out fitness trainer and organised exercise diaries for each service user. I have just spent a couple of hours typing them all up ready for their files.  Naturally, we are not pushing people too much. Everyone will have a daily target of walk and various easy exercises. We have taken into consideration that nearly all rarely do any exercise, and I am very grateful to the expertise of Dean.  We will also be joined next Monday by a lady Personal Trainer called Lizi to help us through the first week. She is very experienced, and I could not believe how lucky we are to be able to use her knowledge and experience.

The next three days we are honing down exactly how the first session is going to go - making it fun, interactive, proactive, but also learning.  We are also preparing files for everybody

Today's Izzwalkz CP went very well. The exercises are going down a strorm, and they like the fact we are not only getting them more active, but also explaining why we are doing the different exercises, as well as how it is helping them both short and long term. We are ensuring a good mix of legs, core and arms, and discussing nutrition as well - we had a good discussion about salt today.

We have also sadly decided to end the pilot with DAI, as it definitely did not fit in with what the service users were requiring and needing. No reflection on either DAI or HMHB, as the outcomes both organisations are seeking are similar. But the way to achieve them has to be a different program, which we are prepared to try and create with DAI. Discussions will ensue.

It is a learning process though.

Wednesday 10th May 2017 - exciting start to pilots in different ways

Posted 4:25pm
Well, we finally launched our first pilot Ajani programs on Monday - with different outcomes.
We will start with Single Homeless Project (SHP) in Kings Cross, on a Monday morning.
Terrific start with 11 people - and it appears we will have 12 for most of the course. The prelim week enabled us to get all our paperwork completed - which has proven to be very beneficial. We also introduced ourselves and the program itself.  I have already heard back from SHP that people are excited for what we are doing.

Already this week we have contacted all the service users individually.  We have advised them all to get a free NHS Health Check - for things like blood pressure, cholesterol, and general overall health, especially as will be doing some general fitness with them. Luke, Dean and myself are all looking forward to what we can achieve.

Then we come to the Disability Action Islington (DAI) pilot - which is Monday afternoons.  The prelim week was very useful. It actually demonstrated that although we feel we can do some terrific work with their service users, the Ajani program itself does not suit their needs.  Nothing against the program, but the DAI outcomes and desires are much more personal to the individuals, and not so much the group - where Ajani is strong.

We feel we can though develop events that can be of benefit, and will be talking to DAI about this over the next week. This has no reflection on DAI , or on HMHB. And it was good to find out in a decent way.

So - ups and downs - but still very strong.
Meanwhile we have already established good links with an Adult Learning Service to provide various educational free courses for people if required.  And we have talked to the Islington NHS Stop Smoking service - and will be inviting them to meet with our service users who have expressed a wish to learn more about how they can deal with their smoking issues. Following a telephone conversation we aim to run a small event at the SHP office just for these people.

There is a huge amount of work to do before next Monday - all our clients will get a file with various papers inside. We will work out an exercise diary for each person, setting our targets, as well as asking them for their own.  We have to provide a timetable for the extra events - and various pull outs each week on our relevant subject.  But this is a thrill.  Yay!!!

Friday 5th May 2017 - just a weekend away - thanks

Posted 2:00pm

Well, we are finally here - just three days away from our first pilots.  Words are really difficult at the moment to describe just how exciting it feels. We need to grasp the opportunity. We need to demonstrate to everyone who we hope to get contracts with - DWP, Council, Organisations, NHS, Public Health, and importantly Islington Commissioners - that we can produce the outcomes we say from our new unique proactive and interactive programs.

This week has been busy behind the scenes.  Both pilots start with "prelim" weeks - getting paperwork signed, introducing the course, introducing us, establishing targets and outcomes for the service users.

We attended the second week of our "Bags Of Taste" cookery course - and they have asked us to see if we can refer anyone to their courses too - which is brilliant.  This week I cooked "Singapore Noodles" and "French Onion Soup" - and have to say I was very proud of my efforts.

We had confirmation from London Catalyst that our application for a small amount of funding - £4800 - is being passed to the adjudicators - obviously these grant making people get a large number of requests - but it would be nice to get recognised for what we are achieving on absolutely nothing so far.

We are putting in an application for a small grant of £500 - this is for a published event in June called the Great GetTogether - I believe it is based around the very sad and dreadful death of the MP Jo Cox from last year - and is being used as a way of bringing people together.  Our application will be joint with Single Homeless Project and Disability Action Islington to do a picnic between us for all our service users. That would be amazing!!!

We have arranged to meeting with the "LivingCentre" in Camden, who appear to be a large signposting company for service users - Camden is another borough I would really like to get into, and this could be a way of getting our feet in the door.  We will be applying for money through the Job Centre in that borough too.  As well as Islington and Hackney - where we may have found a terrific link - I do not want to go into details quite as yet.

We have also established links with Voluntary Action Islington in regards to our Izzwalkz - naturally I will not be able to attend every one - and we need to start growing volunteers to come along and manage the groups. Another thing for the "to-do" list!!!!  But we tweeted with them, and got some email addresses.  Let;s see what comes up.

We have sent in the necessary forms to Ian Smith at the Islington Job Centres to start a program with them on the 6 June - it can only be for 7 weeks due to the venue - but as it is free we have to work our way around them.

Finally - thanks to everyone who may read this - who has followed us along this rocky road. There have been some downs, but like our mindset base we must only concentrate on the many ups. To finally get to the opportunity to deliver the programs is amazing. Persistence, luck, and effort all count here.