Merry Christmas

December has been a busy one at Choices for Life with lots of different sessions, events and activities going on. We'll get some blog posts up about what we've been up to in the new year and update everyone with the  newsletter but for now we'd love to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Hartlepool Choices for Life. Have a good one!

It's a Wonderful Life

Get into the Christmas spirit by coming to see the ultimate feel good Christmas movie. It's showing at the Town Hall Theatre on Sunday 16th December at 3pm. Meet at 2.40pm outside the Town Hall. Contact Sam on 07972107236 to let her know you're coming or for more information.

Newsletter

We've been working with project members to create a new way to communicate with them about what's happening within Choices for Life. When the service started we handed out wallet sized leaflets on individual sessions with dates and times on, then we handed out timetables and programmes but the problem was that all the information wasn't anywhere all together, especially for those project members who we didn't see as often as others.

So we've come up with a solution! A newsletter every month with a timetable, programmes, service updates, stories, poems, recipes, photos and more. Our first is for November and December (since there wasn't much of November left!) and hopefully we'll have January's ready before Christmas. If you'd like one pop into the service or get in touch with a member of staff!

What's On in Hartlepool

November

Saturday 17th November- Saturday 5th January

Hartlepool Arts Club 65th Annual Exhibition and Christmas Craft 10.00am-5.00pm @ Hartlepool Art Gallery

Saturday 24th November
Arts and Crafts Exhibition @ Grange Road Methodist Church 1.30pm-4.00pm

December

Saturday 1st December
Create your own Christmas tree decorations from natural and recycled materials - some to take home and some to decorate the Park's Christmas Wishing Tree. Meet at the place in the park cafe, Ward Jackson Park 12.00pm-3.00pm

Sunday 2nd December
10.30am-12.30pm Create your own fabulous Christmas tree decorations from natural and recycled materials - some to take home and some to dress Seaton Park's Wishing Tree. Meet at the bowls pavilion, Seaton Park.

Saturday 8th December
Farmers Market 8.30am-3.00pm @ Historic Quay. Free Entry.

Sunday 9th December
10.00-12.00pm and 1.00-3.00pm Gorgeous Garlands- make your own beautiful Christmas wreath with a little help from the Countryside team. Booking essential, ring 01429 853325. Cost £5 per wreath.

Wednesday 12th December
The friends of Stranton Cemetery are holding their annual concert of remembrance for people to come along and remember friends and family members at Christmas. Please wear warn clothing and bring a torch. 4.50pm for 5.00pm. Meet @ Stranton Cemetery Lodge, Tanfield Road.

Friday 14th December
Christingle in the Park 6.30pm-7.30pm @ Ward Jackson Park. A spectacular candlelit family Christingle complete with a silver band and choir. Wrap up warm and enjoy the festive event which includes hot chocolate and mince pies. Meet @ Ward Jackson Park Bandstand

Saturday 15th December
10.00am-12.00pm and 1.00pm-3.00pm Christmas wreath workshop - join the Wild Green Spaces team in making your own traditional Christmas Wreath. Booking essential, ring 01429 853325. Cost £5 per wreath.

Sunday 23rd December
10.00am-11.30am and 1.00pm-2.30pm Make Christmas tree decorations and centrepieces from natural materials collected from around Summerhill. Booking essential. For details of charges and to make a booking  ring 01429 284584

Voices for Choices Meeting

Voices for Choices is Choices for Life's steering group, a group of project members who take a unique role in making important decisions about our service. We are always looking for new project members to be involved and make their voices heard as well. The next meeting is at 12.15pm on Wednesday November 14th. If you'd like any more information about it ring Maureen on 07967192189.

Good Luck Lucy!

We are all very sad to say goodbye to our Access and Inclusion Manager Lucy Turner who is leaving the service today. She's been a key member of our team since the service's start just over a year ago and she's been an incredible manager, organisation queen, valued colleague and most importantly a wonderful and fun person to have around in all of Choices for Life's adventures.

We'll all miss you Lucy but wish you all the best for the future. Make sure to keep in touch with everyone at Choices for Life! 

Calling all poets

Calling all you budding writers! United Press are having a local poetry competition and asking people from Hartlepool and East Durham to submit poetry with the potential to win £1000. Poems must be no more than 25 lines and 160 words each. Previous winning poems have been about village life, a river, a tower, a country walk and local history.

To enter, send a poem about life in your own hometown or area to "Local Poem", Unites Press Ltd, Admail 3735, London, EC1B 1JB or www.unitedpress.co.uk or call 08448009177.

The closing date is December 31st.

Hartlepool's Beautiful Mind Finale

One of the biggest and best parts of our recent Beautiful Mind event was definitely the Finale event at the Studio Hartlepool. First off can everyone at Choices for Life give a huge thank you to all the guys over there who went above and beyond to make the event a huge success. They provided the venue to us free of charge and it was perfect for the event. Everybody was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and took a lot of pressure off us rock and roll wannabes! A massive thank you in particular to Daniel Mccarte at the Studio for giving us the venue and enabling the evening to happen, to Phil Swinburne for being enormously helpful with his contacts, expertise and charm, to Hartlepool Community Studio for their support, facilities and expertise whilst recording the writing, to creative writer Bob Beagrie for his generous contribution of time to create the beautiful and moving creative writing and to all the staff at the Studio (especially the bar staff and sound technicians!) for making the event run so smoothly.

Another huge thank you to all of the guest speakers and musicians who provided their talents for minimal costs and made the event such a great night for everyone who attended. They were:

Alan Wright, talented broadcaster and journalist who compared the entire event and kept the jokes coming.
For more information please visit website www.myhartlepool.com/soundswrightday

Emma Wolfindale, practicing artist working in London with an interest in exploring issues of spirituality and the unconscious mind through different media. Emma, who has bi-polar disorder herself talked about the ways in which she deals with her mental health issues through art, music and unique coping techniques which she shared with everyone in an inspirational speech. We were also all wowed by Emma's beautiful singing voice in a stunning acoustic set.
For more information visit www.emmawolfindale.co.uk

Simon Richardson, co-founder of Totally Laughter Yoga who has worked in a variety of Mental Health and Educational settings with adults, young people and children. He is the owner of SNR Consultancy and Training which provides a range of services including Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid. Simon gave an amusing and engaging talk about not just his experiences working in the mental health sector but also his own experiences of mental health.
For more information about Simon or laughter yoga visit www.totallylaughteryoga.co.uk

Fill, a Hartlepool based band including helpful chap Phil Swinburne have just released their new E.P. and are about to release their album A Thousand Colours which is available to buy on iTunes from 20th October. They finished the event following a fitting speech by Chairman of the Council Stephen Ackers Belcher and were really fantastic. The Choices for Life team were lucky enough to see them sound checking before the event began as we were setting up the venue, where they played lots of their songs so we got to hear them twice!
If you would like more information you can contact Fill through their Facebook page.

Mercedes, another local band who have supported and toured with the likes of Coldplay. They have just released their new E.P. The Wavelength which is available to purchase from iTunes. Mercedes were hauntingly good and we all felt very privelged to hear them playing live in an intimate acoustic set with just guitars, bass and Sharon's beautiful voice.
Mercedes can be contacted through Facebook or www.soundcloud/mercedesuk or www.myspace.com/mercedesmusic

Lee Madison + Nige Spavin and Bob Garrington. Lee is a well known singer songwriter in his own right and is also a Mental Health Nurse. He is currently in band Danny's House who released the album Upbeat and Melancholy in February 2012. On our evening Lee was joined by two band members, guitarist Bob Garrington and bass guitarist Nige Spavin. The album can be bought from iTunes and local outlets.
To see more of Lee Maddison and Danny's House have a look at www.facebook.com/dannyshouse or www.soundcloud.com/dannyshouse

 Lee Maddison, Nige Spavin and Bob Garrington

 Simon Richardson

 Emma Wolfindale performing (sorry for the blurring!)

 Mercedes

 Fill

Hartlepool's Beautiful Mind

Hi all! Apologies for the lack of posts during the last month or so. It's been a busy Sept/Oct preparing for Hartlepool's Beautiful Mind and everyone at Choices for Life had a lot to do with both the service and the event! It was a hugely successful few days and we were truly astounded by the generosity of everyone involved in the event, whether they were giving their time to have a stall on the Saturday or providing their services at incredibly low rates or completely free so we would like to give a huge thank you to everybody who got involved. Here's to next years event!

Here are just a few snap shots of some of the things Choices for Life provided for the finale event! We have our Big Draw Wall where people were invited to draw (or write if they really didn't want to draw) how they were feeling that day or what makes them happy, some of the wonderful willow sculptures created by the Choices for Life Art Club which decorated the site, the tranquility garden where Kirsten provided 10 minute shiatsu massages and later was the site for stone balancing with HBC's Arts Development team to promote Adrian Gray's Balance exhibition and our Wellness Tree that invited people to write promises and goals based on the 5-a-day for Wellbeing and hang them up on an actual tree.

World Mental Health Day Open Art Session

An exciting day of arts and crafts that will be on display in Middleton Grange Shopping Centre during Hartlepool's Beautiful Mind event!

Macmillan Coffee Morning

Come along for tea, coffee, tasty treats and fun arts activities. All to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support!

Olympic Event

Wow apologies for the lack of posting for the past few weeks. We've been busy bees over here at Choices for Life, making, packaging and branding all our exciting products in preparation for the Olympic event as well as running our broad program of activities and sessions.

We all had a loads of fun at the event, despite the terrible weather which meant we were stuck inside. From sports activities to tasty snacks, it was a great chance to meet people from other services as well as show off just how brilliant Choices for Life is!

The stall was a big hit and our products, especially the tie dye tote bags and bath bombs were really popular. The response about our future cafe and selling social enterprise was really encouraging and people from lots of other services were very eager to get involved in our future ventures. 

Here are just a few pictures of our gorgeous products on our lovely stall! More to come.

Making Group

On Monday our Art Group had a hugely successful afternoon creating pieces to be sold at the Olympics event. In two hours everybody produced a huge amount and had loads of fun trying out different techniques. This week we did some felt making and tie dying and the results were fantastic! Next week we'll continue with these making sessions, as well as adding bathbombs to the mix and then spend the week after we'll focus on packaging and finishing everything off to a high standard.

Olympic Event

Although the official Olympic celebrations ended last night everyone at Choices for Life is looking forward to attending Creative Support's Olympic event. It will celebrate the opening of the Paralympics later this month and will include loads of fun activities. Also we will be there with a stall selling wonderful crafts and artwork created by our Service Users so make sure to look out for us.

Hope to see you all there!

And to get you in the spirit here is one of the really wonderful adverts created as part of Channel 4's Meet the Superhumans advertising campaign for the London Paralympics 2012. How inspirational!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw

Seal Watch and Walk

A couple of our Service Users braved the British summertime weather to head over to Seal Sands in Hartlepool and watch the wildlife. This was a walk run by the Country Wardens and open to the public.  There was a lot of photo opportunities and a chance to socialise with other walkers and enthusiasts from outside our Service. Despite the sunshine not quite making a lasting appearance everyone had a great day out.

Felt Making

Our very talented Art Group took part in some felt making sessions last week with great success! The bright and colourful final pieces will look beautiful framed and are definitely works of art.

Artwork from the Art Club

Here is some of the beautiful work to come out of the Art Club in recent weeks, including the silk painting that is now finished. We have some very talented Service Users who are producing some really impressive artwork don't we?

Cafe Meeting

We would like to say a big thanks to everyone who attended our Choices for Life cafe meeting on Thursday 19th July. We had a really productive afternoon discussing the cafe branding, menu and our idea that the cafe will become a community hub with everything from a deli counter to an art gallery space. We're still in the idea stage and everything is still to be confirmed but the huge amount of creative ideas and exciting input from our Service Users was a huge help and we look forward to continued involvement from our Service Users.

News Flash!!

We have secured our new premises! Our service will be based in the brand new Gemini Centre at the heart of Hartlepool and will include our cafe, sessional space and office. We're still waiting for a moving date but all of the Choices for Life team are very excited to get moved and we will keep you updated with everything as we find out.

Bath Bomb Making

Following our pamper sessions at Hartlepool College of Further Education we decided to hold a session in DIY beauty products with the main focus being on creating bath bombs. This gave our service users the chance to try a cheap and cheerful way of pampering themselves whilst also getting to be creative and a little messy, which is also fun!

Art Club

Our art club has really started to take off in the past few weeks with a lot of creative service users attending on a week to week basis. Recently we have been running longer programs with the club where we focus on one area of art for between 4-6 weeks to allow people to create some exciting finished pieces whilst also allowing those who are interested in working on their own art pieces such as drawings and paintings the space to do so and access to advice as well.


This month we will be looking at textile art and the first workshop looked at silk painting. Here is a sneak peak of some of brilliant work they started this week. We'll be sure to show off the finished pieces once they're done!

Pamper Sessions

After the big success of our cookery course at Hartlepool College of Further Education we are now running a pamper course with them too. This has helped Service Users to learn manicures, facials, how to use and choose correct products and more! It's been a lovely chance to get together for a girly evening whilst also learning skills that they can take away with them and put into their everyday life. We're always looking to involve more Service Users so if you would like to get involved get in touch with your key worker or contact Lucy on the number above.

Open Afternoon

Just wanted to give a big thanks to all that attended our Open Afternoon. We had a great and informative few hours with everything from circus skills, mosaic, questionnaires, a quiz, a raffle and a nice relaxing sharing of tea, coffee and chat. It was a great help to all of us at Choices for Life to hear from such a large group of our Service Users and we look forward to putting everything we learnt into our service!

Jubilee Crafts

Here are a few of the wonderful crafts that were created for the Jubilee. The bunting was a mammoth task but with the help of Service Users and the residents of Hartlepool we managed to print a massive 22 metres of bunting using foam stamps! Our inspiration was the 1950s and of course the Queen. Hopefully we'll be able to get some photos of the bunting hanging up in the future as we plan to keep it for future events.

And here we have some examples of the dancing figures that kids were invited to cut out and colour in. We also had crowns to make but they were such a success we didn't have any left to take photos of!

Jubilee Weekend (June 2nd/3rd 2012)

Apologies for the lack of post until now but we at Choices for Life have had a busy weekend joining in with the Jubilee celebrations! The whole event was a huge success. Our information stand attracted a lot of interest despite the bad weather (on Saturday in particular) and there was really positive feedback from everyone, Hartlepool residents and those who'd traveled from further afield, whether they themselves had a mental health need, knew someone who did or were just interested in talking about mental health. There was also some very popular crafts on the stall with dancing Queen's Guards, Corgis and Beefeaters to be coloured and cut out as well as crowns that could be coloured in and worn, allowing adults the chance to chat about our service whilst their kids were busy.

On Sunday our Staff and Service Users took part in the Big Lunch. We were all treated to a big selection of picnic treats created by Service Users who were able to gain their Food Hygiene certificate in preparation. The spread was amazing and it was a wonderful experience to sit down as a large group that included our Service Users, Choices for Life staff and staff from some of the other services who provide support for our Service Users. The marquee setting was impressive with live music and activities including circus skills and recycled rangoli portrait making by Choices for Life Sessional Staff. 

A big thanks to everyone who was involved and we are all looking forward to our next big event!