Week 10 - Back from work

Hello everyone it has been a while now since I last wrote the blog as we have been on our two week work placement! Personally I fully enjoyed my placement at St Luke’s Hospice Coffee and Cakes, I loved the atmosphere, the staff, the customers and the whole experience in general. In fact I liked it that much I have actually decided to volunteer there when I complete this course.

Back together

The first Monday back we reflected on our experiences we gained whilst on placement. Listening to the stories in the Team room I believe everyone else enjoyed their work placement however a lot of the Team members looked more relieved to be back as I think we have missed being around each other.

We also spoke about our Final Team Challenge which is next week. We have decided to support the residents at Overdene Care Home. Over the next 2 weeks we have agreed to facilitate a Christmas Party, help out at Lunch Times and take the residents out for a Carvery, to fund the activities we will use the money we raised when we completed a bag pack event last week at Morrisons in Winsford.

Log books

Tuesday was time to get out our neglected log books and bring them up to scratch! Everybody so far has had their log books moderated and we are all heading in the right direction, we all felt a good sense of achievement! We were filling in our work placement worksheets; this took a bit more time than anticipated as everyone kept reminiscing about what they got up to.

Disability awareness training

Wednesday we had the pleasure of having Tom Spare and his Team come in to deliver disability awareness training for us. The training was split into 2 parts; we had a theory presentation followed by a practical session. The session certainly highlighted the issues people living with a disability face on a daily basis, simple things that I hadn’t even thought about like the position of a door handle and which way the door opens. These things really can be extremely difficult for wheelchair users.

Matrix Standard

We were aware that the service was applying for a Matrix Standard. To achieve this standard we had to take part in a Q+A session with a couple of guests. Working in pairs we were asked questions about if and how we have been helped or supported throughout the course.

We were also asked about what we would like to do when the course finishes and have we received any support in achieving this. All the team said it was a bit like an interview but not as frightening as the guests were very approachable. We were told on Thursday that that the service passed the criteria and achieved the Matrix which was really good to hear.

Text Santa!

Thursday we were back at Morrison’s bag packing. Although we have now bag packed a few times today was different. Today we were bag packing to support UK Charities over the Christmas period. We spoke about the impact our money could have on people less fortunate than ourselves so there was a lot of enthusiasm…..as you could imagine.

We finished the week of with a visit to a Suit Hire Shop in Crewe. The lads were all sized up (and looking smart) for their suits they will wear on our graduation in less than 2 weeks’ time. Seeing them in their suits brought the reality that the programme has nearly finished and a few people are beginning to talk about not wanting it to end. Today also reminded us that we have a speech to deliver in front of our guests at our Graduation event which ALL of us are dreading!

I'll be back next week, Tasha