February 2024
- We met with Radfield Home Care to update on progress
January 22024
- Trained 18 Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champions at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
- Meeting with Shropshire Council to update on Covenant Action Plan
- Met with Grain Photography to catch up on plans for this year’s LGBT+ History Festival exhibitions
- Met with some of the SSHERPa (Stoke, Staffordshire, Shropshire Health Education Research Partnership) team to discuss the development of a resource around research and difficult conversations’
- Meeting with a Financial Advisor from SOLLA (Society of Later Life Advisors) to discuss our mutual relevance
- Catch up with Partners in Care on the development of a resource looking further at weaving inclusive practice as a Golden Thread throughout social care providers’ practice.
- Trained 23 Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champions at Princess Royal Hospital, Telford
- Met with 2 Telford Councillors to discuss adoption of the Covenant
- Trained 15 members of staff at Telford & Wrekin CVS
- Attended the bi-monthly network of trained EMBRACE Facilitators
- Attended a meeting about Advance Care Planning
- Met with Shrewsbury Town Clerk to discuss their Action Plan to take the Covenant forward
- Continued conversations with Cruse Bereavement Support about the development of a resource to support Bereavement Volunteers to work with older and old LGBT+ people
December 2023
- Delivered our last session for the second tranche of EMBRACE Facilitators at the Lantern in Shrewsbury
November 2023
- Had a catch up with the Equality Lead at Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust
- Attended the Face-to-face network meeting of trained EMBRACE Facilitators
- Met with the High Sheriff
- Attended a meeting about Advance Care Planning
- Had a catch up with Coverage Care
- Facilitated our second face-to-face session with trainee EMBRACE Facilitators
- Gave a presentation on Disenfranchised Grief online to the Kicking the Bucket festival
October
- Met with Community resource to discuss the development of an ‘Inclusion Lite’ resource for groups providing social prescribing and wellbeing activities
- Met with EDI leads at SaTH to discuss progressing the EMBRACE Covenant
- Hosted our first sessions on Zoom to welcome new trainees on our Facilitators programme
- Attended the End of Life Advance Care Planning group
- Attended a Health & Wellbeing marketplace event at the football ground
- Hosted our first Small Steps Big Difference Conference
- Attended a health & wellbeing marketplace event in Market Drayton
September 2023
- Had a catch up meeting with our external evaluators for the EMBRACE Project
- Delivered a well-received presentation at the ICB Cultural Diversity day
- Facilitator Network zoom – catching up on the progress being made
- Met with Shropshire Council to advance implementation of their Action Plan
- Met with Radfield Home Care to discuss their inclusive work
- Met with a GP and colleagues at Radbrook Green Surgery to discuss taking forward an action plan across PCNs
August
- Met with Shropshire Partners in Care to discuss their facilitation of a workshop at our upcoming conference
- Met with Community Resource about their presentation at our upcoming conference
July 2023
- Met with the facilitator of the Council-led Forces Veterans Group
- Met with Community Resource to support the development of their Covenant Action Plan
- Met with the In the Cafe Group to help them with planning how the group will move forward
- Delivered training to Shropshire Fire & Rescue
- Met with Wrekin Housing Group to discuss progression of their Covenant Action Plan
- Attended Network meeting of EMBRACE Facilitators
- Attended Ludlow and Church Stretton Community Connectors and gave a short presentation
- had an online meeting with with Much Wenlock and Cressage GP practice about taking forward ideas for inclusive working.
- Attended Madeley over 50s Fun day
- Met with Sath Director of Nursing and Director of Workforce and Colleagues to encourage sign up to the Covenant
- Met with MPFT EDI Equality lead
June 2023
- Attended In the Cafe group
- Delivered a presentation to MPFT EDI Care Group
- Met with The Hive around potential collaborations in the future
- Made contact with 2 community development mental health workers to share information
- Attended a carer’s Week event at Bridgnorth Library to share information about SAND
- Attended a Dementia Showcase day – stall, networking and sharing information about SAND
- Delivered a training session for Joint Training – SAND Awareness at the Wildlife Trust
- Delivered a presentation at SaTH Carer’s Week event
- 9th June 2023 – we went over to OsNosh in Oswestry with our stall, to circulate SAND Matters Booklets and had good conversations with representatives from Fire & Rescue Services; Alzheimers; Severn Trent Water; West Mercia Police and Shropshire Council Carers Services. This was part of Carers Week.
- 9th June 2023 – we had a follow up meeting with Midland Partnership Foundation NHS Trust Associate Director of Equality & Inclusion
- 8th June 2023 – we went to Telford for a Carers Event, we took our stall and had good conversations with half a dozen people.
- 8th June 2023 – we went to RJAH in Oswestry to meet the CEO and the EDI Lead. There was a photo shoot with us while CEO Stacey Keegan signed the Covenant
- 6th June 2023 – we were on Radio Shropshire talking about the launch of The Wave Project Exhibition
- 5th June 2023 – we went over to Whitchurch Library to set up our display for Pride Month, hopefully encouraging people to pick up a SAND Matters booklet. We had a talk to 2 of the staff about the project and they were very positive
- 4th June 2023 – the launch of The Wave Project exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery. About 50 people came to hear Paul Gossage from Shropshire Council welcome the exhibition and the partnership with SAND and to see the mayor cut the rainbow ribbon to formally open the exhibition – a thing of beauty!
- 31st May 2023 – we continued our conversations with Shropshire Council Joint Training about the new Skills for Care Learning Framework
- 30th May 2023 – we met with 2 key staff at Morris Care to talk through the EMBRACE campaign
- 30th May 2023 – we set up our Pride display in Shrewsbury library
- 25th May 2023 – 4 of our trained facilitators managed to check in for a zoom catch up
- 25th May 2023 – we had a zoom catch up with Bracebridge Care
- 25th May 2023 – we met with 6 members of staff at Shrewsbury Library to brief them on the SAND Matters booklet
- 24th May 2023 – we had a meeting with Axis counselling to help them to develop their covenant action plan
- 22nd May 2023 – one of our regular catch ups with Cruse (3 of the team) to discuss the Kicking the Bucket Festival (amongst other things!)
- 22nd May 2022 – the second ‘Big Conversation’, supporting the Integrated Care System to engage LGBT+ people in the conversations about future health provision. (1 service provider)
- 20th May 2023 – one of our SAND team set off for a day trip to Leeds today to an event organised the LGBT Consortium, funders of The Wave Project. They spent the day with about 20 others, all from LGBT+ organisations.
- 18th May 2023 – the whole of the SAND team headed to Shrewsbury Town Football ground for the Dementia event organised by Radfield Home Care – we must have talked to about 50 people in total!
- 15th May 2023 – we provided our half day LGBT+ Awareness Training to 20 of the staff at Community Resource
- 15th May 2023 – early doors we took to the airwaves with a little feature on Radio Shropshire, alongside Coverage Care talking about the LGBT+ Champions in their homes
- 13th May 2023 – we met 2 LGBT+ locals who are planning a Shrewsbury Pride event for later in the year
- 12th May 2023 – we met our new Funding Officer from the National Lottery Community Fund
- 12th May 2023 – we caught up with the researcher we have commissioned to undertake some work on LGBT+ carers/caring, along with 2 staff from Shropshire Council’s carers team
- 11th May 2023 – a catch up with Shropshire Council’s Joint Training Officer to explore further the Skills for Care new learning framework relating to older LGBT+ people – coming along nicely!
- 10th May 2023 – our SAND meeting with a small but perfectly formed group of 5 meeting at our offices
- 10th May 2023 – we had a Zoom call with the CEO of Coverage care and Management Team – 5 in all
- 9th May 2023 – we headed off to Market Drayton as part of our Outreach (in the North) where we joined 8 members of the Patient Participation Group to give a brief presentation on the Covenant and SAND Matters.
- 8th December 2022 – we delivered another LGBT+ Awareness Course for Joint Training with 15 participants
- 7th December 2022 – we had a mini Away-Day – well, an afternoon, to make some progress with the LGBT+ engagement plan for 2023
- 6th December 2022 – the last of our Facilitator training events – sad to see them go but totally delighted with the way the whole programme has gone and what people got from it – all 13 of them!
- 4th December 2022 and we headed to the Old Market Hall cinema in Shrewsbury for the premiere of the film All the Lonely People, Produced and Directed by our Gen Silent pals Stu Maddux and Joe Applebaum
- 23rd November 2022 – and the In the Cafe group headed off to Withywood – one of Wrekin Housing Group’s Shire Living initiatives. 8 people went along to find out more about Extra Care housing and to have a tour of both the independent living and communal areas.
- 22nd November 2022 – the last ‘Punctuation Point’ in our Facilitator Training – on Zoom, exploring how older and old LGBT+ people ‘ Don’t Count’.
- 17th November 2022 – catch up meeting with 4 of the team at AgeUK on the REACH Tele-friending service
- 10th November 2022 and two of us attended the AgeUK STW AGM at Hadley Community Centre, where we partook of some line dancing!
- 26th October 2022 – In the Cafe with 16 people discussing what SAND has been doing over the years!
- 21st October 2022 – we met with the Strategic Equalities lead at Housing 21
- 18th October 2022 – Punctuation Point on our Facilitator Training, looking at ‘here & Now’
- 4th October 2022 – delivered our very first Face-to-Face Facilitator Training session to 13 participants – all nominees from our Covenant organisations. This is the first time they have been together and we had a great day, together with Betty, our 93 year old SAND member.
- 28th September 2022 – In the Café with a focus on Social Prescribing – just 5 of us there but a hugely valuable session
- 27th September 2022 – the second of our Zoom Introductory sessions for Facilitators – we had the remaining 8participants on this one – very exciting!
- 15th September 2022 – catching up with Cruse Bereavement Services and plotting a funding bid to provide useful and appropriate end of life information for older and old LGBT+ people
- 15th September 2022– another catch up with the ICS – making progress, and mindful that this it is a massive undertaking
- 13th September 2022 – our first Training For Facilitators Introductory Session (on Zoom). So pleased to have 14 sign-ups for a good cross-section of health and social care organisations. 6 attended this first session.
- 8th September 2022 – delivered a well-received Face to face awareness session for Joint Training, at the Wildlife Trust. So good to see us all as our 3D selves! 18 participants.
- 22nd August 2022 – meeting to find out more about Social prescribing and how we can work to ensure that prescribed activities are LGBT+ inclusive
- 18th August 2022 – catch up meeting with the Integrated Care System (ICS) to move their Covenant Action Plan on another notch.
- 1th August 2022 – meeting to find out more about NHS Engagement Officers work and how SAND can let them know what we are doing
- 4th August 2022 – catch up with Carer’s Support Network (Shropshire Council) and what they have to offer
- 3rd August 2022 – good conversation with someone from Alzheimer’s and hoping they will sign up to our Covenant
- 30th June 2022 – great meeting with 2 of the team at Covenant-holders Cruse Bereavement Support who have started a cracking action plan!
- 28th June 2022 – we led a session on LGBT+ Awareness for 9 students and 2 staff from the nursing preceptorship – at Telford FC
- 28th June 2022 – we held our first Face-to-Face public training since the start of the pandemic – wonderful to see training participants in 3 dimensions! All 5 of them!
- 24th June 2022 – we jumped onto a Teams meeting with 3 members of Shropshire Council’s Covenant working group
- 23rd June 2022 – catch up meeting with Coverage Care to discuss their Covenant Action Plan
- 22nd June 2022 – In the Cafe with guests from Radfield Home Care and 10 attendees.
- 14th June 2022 – catch up meeting with the Integrated Care System (ICS) to move their Covenant Action Plan on a notch
- 10th June 2022 – we met with 3 Council officers working in areas of Leisure & Tourism and discussed interesting ideas about exhibition spaces and potential venues for events
- 9th June 2022 – we delivered the first of 7 online training sessions for Wrekin Housing Group. Each one is 2.5hrs long and, in total we trained 104 members of staff (TBC).!
- 25th May 2022 – In the Cafe 3 touching on Wills, looking at Powers of Attorney and getting our ducks in a row, with guest End of Life Doula Helen Juffs. 11 people in total, incl Helen and 2 of the SAND team (on duty)
- 10th May 2022 – we had a stall at the Healthwatch Shropshire event “One Chance, conversations and information about death and dying”, where we had conversations with about 10 different people about what SAND does
- 10th May 2022 – we delivered a commissioned course on LGBT Awareness to 8 of the team at Radfield Home Care.
- 27th April 2022 – In the Cafe – Spend it or Save it for Old Age – contributors from Wrekin Housing Group joined the session to shine some light on the mysteries of finance in our later years. A total of 14 people were in attendance incl 2 from Wrekin, 2 of the SAND team and 3 volunteers.
- 23rd March 2022 – we hosted out first ‘In the Cafe’ event – 2 hours dedicated to older and old LGBT+ people – Supporting individuals to be active in and to contribute to the Campaign to EMBRACE A CULTURE OF INCLUSION. These 2 hr events are themed and this one was around the spaces and places that feel welcoming of LGBT+ people as we age. 10 people in attendance in total, incl 3 of the SAND Team. We are really pleased to have 4 volunteers helping us out as well!
- 14th March 2022 – we delivered our LGBT Awareness Training to 13 counsellors at Crane Quality Counselling
- 13th March 2022 – the screening of Two of Us – a French film telling the story of an older lesbian couple living hidden lives and the implications for their love when one of them falls ill. SAND helped the Old Market Hall to promote this film.
- 11th March 2022 – a catch up meeting today with Wrekin Housing Group who are starting to develop their Action Plan for the Covenant
- 10th March 2022 – today it was great to touch base once again with Coverage Care who have just signed up to the Covenant!
- 9th March 2022 – 4 SAND volunteers came together with some of the team, to plan for the very first In the Cafe event coming up later this month
- 1st March 2022 – catching up with staff from the Adult Social Care Team at Shropshire Council to take the Covenant discussions forward
- 25th February 2022 – we met with a Project Manager from the Integrated Care System People Team to discuss furthering the Covenant
- 17th February 2022 – we started full on discussions with an external consultant about longevity ad risk assessment for SAND and for our EMBRACE project
- 10th February 2022 – this was the second of 2 online training sessions with REACH volunteers at AgeUK Herefordshire & Worcestershire
- 10th February 2022 – we met with the Associate Director of Equality and Inclusion at the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to discuss the Covenant
- 10th February 2022 – catching up with staff from the Adult Social Care Team at Shropshire Council to take the Covenant discussions another step forward
- 4th-6th February 2022 – Two of us took to the hills (in Malvern) to spend 3 solid days buckling down to framing, planning and writing our upcoming Facilitator Training course! We called it Winter School and it was a very successful trip!
- 3rd February 2022 – this was the first of 2 online training sessions with REACH volunteers at AgeUK Herefordshire & Worcestershire
- 3rd February 2022 – this was a busy day, as we also delivered our very first ‘public’ training course – it was over Zoom and we had 11 participants – the lovely people gave some great feedback!
- 2nd February 2022 – we met with staff at Qube to talk through areas of connection and the potential for the Covenant
- 27th January 2022 – we met with a member of the Adult Social Care Team at Shropshire Council to talk about the Covenant
- 27th January 2022 – we gave a dress rehearsal for our upcoming LGBT Awareness Training – thanks to Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin for being our guinea pigs!!
- 25th January 2022 – took part in an event on: Equality and Diversity Issues in Care Homes Research. Organised by BSG Care Homes Research Special Interest Group
- 24th January 2022 – we met with an outreach nurse at Severn Hospice to discuss LGBT+ Awareness Training and the Covenant.
- 21st January 2022 – conversation with Independent Domestic Violence Advisor from West Mercia Women’s Aid re support needed for LGBT+ people in STW experiencing domestic abuse
- 19th January 2022 – Covenant catch up with Citizen’s Advice Shropshire
- 18th January 2022 – continued meetings and conversations with Shropshire Partners in Care at a time when all care providers are struggling because of Covid SPIC
- 18th January 2022 – we made links with Shropshire Council’s Bereavement Services
- 13th January 2022 – we met with Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin to start discussions about them signing up to the Covenant
- 21st November 2021 – SAND Away Day – 8 of us gathered at The Hive in Shrewsbury on this Sunday for a productive day re-grouping, discussing where we are at, where we want to be and how we might get there.
- 27th October 2021 – we delivered the very first training for the first cohort of REACH volunteers. 5 prospective volunteers took part, alongside key personnel from AgeUK STW and members of the SAND team (9 of us in all).
- 25th September 2021 – Afternoon tea & chat with a focus on “Planning for Ageing”. With a full list of takers for Sandy Island Discs, hosted by Radio Shropshire’s Paul Shuttleworth, input on Age UKs REACH initiative and presentations by Lanyon Bowdler and End of Life Doula, Helen Juffs – the afternoon was already information packed when the ‘Getting it Together’ game tested our knowledge and made us ask some of those questions that we often put off til later. Over 30 LGBT+ people and our allies came along to find out more.
‘It was a most interesting and rewarding afternoon, leaving us with a lot to consider. A very friendly bunch too.’
Event participant
- 15th September 2021 – we met with local solicitors Lanyon Bowdler who are really keen to work with us
- 9th September 2021 – we gave a presentation to Shropshire VCSA Board where we spoke publicly for the first time about The Covenant. We were delighted by the response and to welcome Citizens Advice Shropshire as our first pilot to sign up!
- 23rd August 2021 – A further meeting with AgeUK organisations to plan the next steps of the REACH Project
- 20th August 2021 – we had a productive meeting with a local Residential Care Manager who is very keen to work with us to look at developing inclusive provision
- 13th August 2021 – we continue our meetings with members of Shropshire’s Integrated Care System to take forward our collaborative working