Wednesday 27th November 2019 - Organisation is key

Posted 2:30pm

I thought the pic at the top was quite appropriate as we are a mental health project based around mindset. And it is true, the more positive your thinking, the better you will probably prepare.

We are busy getting dates and times into a diary for the Jan to Mar sessions. Overall we will be doing 19 day interventions at the moment, and I am naturally looking for more money to do others.  It is therefore very important to keep a detailed calendar to ensure we do not overlap or double up on days. I managed to find a really good template online for a 2020 Year Spreadsheet Calendar. I have added the two health walks (thurs and fri mornings), plus the two fitness sessions (tues and sat mornings), and have added temp Ajani sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays throughout the period.

I have to be careful as there are bound to be other events and meetings to incorporate. If I concentrate Mondays and Wednesday mornings for the Camden and Islington projects, then I can know I have Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons all free for other arrangements.

I will probably buy a small hand pocket diary - for myself and for Dean - again so we have written information always with us.  Handy for Dean who keeps a lot in his head - clearly not a good idea in this instance.

I have also just reorganised photographs online for the last two months - ensuring they have titles that correspond with dates and sessions. If anyone needed a pic from a certain time of event I can very quickly pinpoint it now.

This week I am going to finish off getting the current accounts up to date - as well as getting last years to the auditor (I have to go personally as I cannot work out how to email them - technophobe). This would mean we had two years of trading accounts - which although we have not had a lot of money in would also show that we have history to prospective funders.

Thanks as always to anyone who reads this. We need and love all support. :-)

Friday 22nd November 2019 - Venues for Courses

Posted 1:30pm

A busy morning today as Lazza searches for venues for our 17 days of intervention in Camden and Islington in 2020 - 1 Jan to 31 Mar.  We need to find 10 days in Camden (five in the Somers Town ward and five in the Regents Park area). We also have 7 days in Islington.  Time is slightly against us with Christmas fast approaching. From around the Monday 16th December to Tuesday 3rd January (over two weeks) I would not think there will be a lot of interaction with companies. We also have a deadline to get into the Camden Newsletter.

I am hopeful that we will have the Highbury Roundhouse for three days in Islington, and a venue in Seven Sisters Road for the other four with a company called Better Lives.  We need to do a couple of three days courses with the Job Centres - so would use Highbury Roundhouse for Barnsbury Job Centre and Seven Sisters Rd for Finsbury Park Job Centre. Plus we have an extra day to do an intervention with Better Lives themselves.  I am meeting HR later today, and have phoned and emailed Better Lives to organise a meeting for next week.  That way we can also nail down the dates too.

For Camden, we have the Living Centre in Somers Town, and would be doing a four session course, plus one extra separate day. We have build good links with them and am looking to meet them next week to tie down the dates.

Our one problem is the Regents Park. We need to do a further four session programme and separate day in that area. I have contacted University College Hospital to see if we can possibly use space there, as well as leaving messages with a couple of community centres. The funding we got does not stretch to venue costs - at least not to large costs. We would look to interest them by allowing users of their centres to take part.  A lot of work in the next week ahead.

Wednesday 20th November 2019 - Camden, and a special trip

Sky Garden Trip - Wed 20 Nov

Win, Rob, Phylis, Joan, Rosie, Lazza, Kath, Dor and Roz

Posted 8:45pm

Let's start with out wonderful trip to the Sky Garden this lunchtime. I wanted to treat them (it was free) as it has been our third birthday for Izzwalkz.

Rob brought Win, Phylis and Joan down in the car. All three, especially Win, have difficulty moving - you can see they all have sticks, so it was wonderful they took the time to join us.  Lazza met the others at the health centre and came down on the 141 bus.

We arrived at Fenchurch Street (the Garden is at the top of the Walkie Talkie building at 20 Fenchurch Street. We went through security and headed to the lifts that took us up to the 35th floor.  The views were extraordinary, and we spent ages picking out buildings and towers and features. It was special.

Will also mention we had a cracking meeting this week with Mind in Camden. We fit in perfectly with what they are doing and we are sorting dates to spend the Camden Giving money with them, working with users and bringing our unique take on mental health to the borough.

Friday 15th November 2019 - Hackney DWP; Izzwalkz birthday; Website success

Posted 1:50pm

A terrific last few days brings another week to a close. And it is all down to being proactive and persistent.

On Wednesday, Lazza sat down with the DWP Borough Manager for Hackney, Tower Hamlets and City of London, and had a really good discussion about the Dynamic Purchasing System. It is imperative we get ourselves onto it, so we can get noticed by the various Job Centres around London, especially now we are going to be working with them between January and March in Islington and Camden. It is quite a complicated process, which is off-putting and one of the reasons we have delayed that approach. But really it is a case of knuckling down for a day and just spending the whole time going through the online forms.  It was a solid meeting though, and positive outcome.

Walk 156 - Izzwalkz CP third birthday

Thur 14 November - with Mayor

Izzwalkz celebrated its third birthday this week - and we were delighted to welcome the Islington Mayor along - i think you can spot the chain around her neck above!! :-)

It was a lovely walk - dry, but damp following overnight rain. Lazza prepared a tree walk, filling us all in with information on various trees on the route - which included a Bosnian Pine, a Serbian Spruce, Horse Chestnut, Medlar, Oriental and London Planes, as well as British Lime. We also discussed the history around the park, house, river, and the animals.  We have to say thanks.

At our Izzwalkz partner - Highbury Grange Medical Centre

Tea and nibbles with our walkers

After the walk we headed back to the centre for tea and nibbles. Terrific thanks to our partners, Highbury Grange Medical Centre, who have backed us from the start - way back in November 2016. They provided us with tea and coffee, and we brought in snacks - including some amazing homemade salmon and cream cheese bakes from Roz, and a wonderfully moist ginger cake from Win - we are lucky Izzwalkers.  Lazza gave a speech of thanks, and the Mayor talked about how what a great boost for mental health this project must be. HMHB is eternally thankful for all our walkers - previous, current and those to come.

Also we must here give praise to our local Councillors - Osh Gantly, Caroline Russell, and the wonderful Sue Lukes, all of whom have been womderful in their support of our project, for recognising the benefits of our work, and for helping us financially through the Local Initiatives Fund.

Lastly here, we have our website through Wix.Com - they host it, and we pay an annual fee - which is pretty competitive we feel - it is around £10 a month. We pay in one go every November. I cheekily contacted them to ask if there was a chance of a discount this year as we are a small project, with limited funding at the moment, and anything could help. Chatted to a cracking guy in the States, who found they had an offer of 50% off just about to go out of date. So we ended up paying around £60. What a great end to the week. Always nice to make a saving.

Tuesday 12th November 2019 - Growing numbers at our fitness sessions

Posted 1:20pm

I thought the picture at the top was appropriate. It has taken a while for our fitness sessions to take off, but finally numbers are growing nicely.

Both our Saturday and Tuesday sessions are thriving. And it is a real mix of people attending.

Tuesdays - 9:30am - Highbury Leisure

Saturdays - 9:00am - Sobell Centre

No two weeks are the same. We like to mix up the exercises, try out new ideas, use all the equipment we can find, and generally have a laugh too.

We have to thank both gym managers, Better Gyms, and especially PT Zombie (Dean), and our very own Lazza, who both run the sessions professionally. We pride on making them accessible to all.

We have started to get double figures attending, which is great. Being in a group can be terrific for encouragement and inspiration. We have all ages, from 20s to 80s. I am especially pleased that people enjoy the sessions who would struggle in most classes, both physically and mentally.

Monday 11th November 2019 - Islington Giving Success

Posted 11:45pm

Following on from our award from Camden Giving, delighted to announce that Islington Giving have also awarded us a grant to work with Job Centres in the borough.

This is fantastic news for us. It means a lot of preparation to start but gives us the opportunity now to work with the DWP in two boroughs. We will be receiving £3000 from Islington (we are getting £5000 from Camden), and it will mean we can do intervention with both Barnsbury Job Centre as well as Finsbury Park Job Centre.  Both are between the 1 Jan and 31 Mar in 2020.

We have had to move our Kensington and Chelsea sessions on the Dalgano Estate to January. We were due to be there next Monday (18th Nov) as well as the 3rd Dec.  However, due to the funding being held up, and a general lack of money at the moment, we have not been able to promote the events properly, or provide the handouts. We are also down to bring the lunch on the day. All of this involves money.  I think it is sensible to postpone. We want to provide a quality and professional service, with terrific outcomes and feedback.

Monday 4th November 2019 - Another cracking month ahead

Posted 2:00pm

Another new month. More opportunities. So what are we up to this month?

We have the first of our two day interventions in Kensington and Chelsea on the 18th. Lazza has ordered flyers, and will be distributing at the end of this week. This is the Peabody sessions. We really want to impress them with our unique delivery. The second date is in December.

We are starting to organise our three month intervention in Camden - starting Jan 2020. This is an exciting opportunity too - a chance to work with the Job Centre, plus with mental health too. We will be promoting our Ajani programme as well as a couple of one-off day events.

We have our third birthday with Izzwalkz Clissold Park, and have a featured walk with the Mayor, followed by tea and nibbles with our fantastic partners Highbury Grange Medical Centre. That is on the 14th.

Following on from that, on Wed 20th we are taking our walkers on a fantastic lunchtime trip into the heart of the City of London - I cannot say where on here as I am not even telling them. It will be great to have a social event away from Islington, and would be a fitting thanks from HMHB to all our walkers for their continuing support for the venture.

We have our first birthday of Sobell Saturday sessions. They are growing now with more people coming along.

We have meetings booked in Hackney, Haringey, Camden - all to look at providing intervention. And we are drawing up plans for another lottery bid, with move evidence, and a better chance.

On the 6th we are attending the Voluntary Action Islington Volunteer Awards - we are not winning anything, but the networking chance is too good to pass up.

On a personal health note - it is a big month for our Lazza. He has hospital visits re his hernia, his eyes, and his knees this month. We wish him the best.

But we also thank all our friends and supporters and wish them good health and lots of laughs. We must not allow life to overwhelm us and bring us down. Roll on Christmas.