NEWS
“MCL gave me my independence back.” Client F
“I’ve made many friends and memories through Lifestyles” Client A
“Zoom meetings during Covid was fantastic” Client
Celebrating 25 years of Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles.
Our two charity CEO’s past (Barry Marsh) and present (Ed Whitefield).
Over 40 staff and clients celebrated the joyous occasion at the Lanhydrock Hotel and Golf Club. It really was a fantastic day.
There were quizzes, speeches (short), music from The Barrel Tappers, a poem (especially written for us), games, indoor golf and of course a slap up lunch!
We also shared stories of our very dear friend and Trustee, Simon who sadly passed away earlier in the month. Simon will always be remembered by us and is close to our charity’s heart.
Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles started as a small, short lived project set up by Social Services in 1999. Followed by some lottery grant funding, this sowed the seed of success for the Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles charity we see today.
Now twenty five years later Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles is deserving in celebrating its successes.
Going from strength to strength, Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles is self-funded, and currently supports 27 clients across Cornwall and employs 33 members of staff.
Our thanks must extend to the Artemis Charitable Trust for enabling us to bring our clients and staff together to celebrate another very successful event.
Our Christmas Party & visit to The Eden Project.
It really is something we missed during Covid when we were unable to meet up together. But the 7th December 2023 we met at the Treverbyn Community Hall and held our Christmas Party followed by a trip to The Eden Project.
With over 30 of us we enjoyed quizzes, ‘fun awards’ games and a delicious party buffet.
Treverbyn Hall is a perfect set up to hold our meetings and parties with accessibility, a meeting room with a kitchen & refreshments area and toilets.
It’s always good fun bringing our clients and support workers together and we hope you enjoy the video of our day together.
Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles is one of the 10 organisations that forms The Cornwall Disability Alliance.
The clip above is our section on the video but to watch the whole video and see all the brilliant work that is done around Cornwall please use the link: Cornwall Disability Alliance: Stronger Together - YouTube.
The Cornwall Disability Alliance is a pan-disability alliance supporting people with a long term health condition and/or disability and local communities in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly to improve their economic and social wellbeing.
The Disability Alliance comprises of 10 organisations who meet regularly to share experience and expertise. Our vision is a fully inclusive and equitable society, with equality of opportunity for all in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Members attend various other meetings and boards, representing the Disability Alliance and our community’s interests, providing a strong, united voice to raise awareness and educate.
We believe, through providing a collective and representative voice, we can work positively and proactively with service providers across all sectors which will enable us to create inclusive communities for all. We work as a provider collaborative, collectively bidding for funding to support our individual stakeholders whilst working in partnership ensuring no duplication and addressing gaps in provision to achieve the best outcomes for people.
Watch this video to learn more about the brilliant work that the member organisations deliver and how they benefit from working in partnership.
For more information on the alliance or if you would like to collaborate, please email: Hello@disabilitycornwall.org.uk
Our Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles AGM was held on 18th February 2023 at St. Austell Printworks.
It was lovely to be able to get all of our Trustees together and meet in person after such a long time.
We would like to welcome Barry Marsh (our former CEO) as one of our new Trustees at this year’s AGM.
On the 4th September we finally got everyone together to celebrate Barry’s retirement. Nothing like a party and a catch up combined with ‘farewell’, games, chat and laughter.
We all wish Barry a happy and long retirement.
Click here to view the Cornwall Disability Alliance video showcasing the different Cornwall charities, including Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles, and the work, projects and successes.
We are actively seeking Support workers to join our valuable team. CLICK HERE if you would be interested in ‘Trying before you buy’ and volunteer with us. We cover all areas of Cornwall and are especially looking for help in the Wadebridge, Newquay and St Austell areas.
Our current team play a huge and crucial part in the lives of our clients. Offering flexible and practical support to any person with a long term health condition or disability so that they can live the life of their choice.
Do something different today !
'“All week I look forward to my lifestyles carers coming in to help me”
We invited Southwest Water to join us in our end of 2021 Big Gameshow.
The funding SWW has allowed us to do through your Neighbourhood Fund has been invaluable in helping our disabled community stay in touch, have fun and meet up once a week online. Vitally important especially during Covid but also as many of our clients live in remote areas of Cornwall the contact we have with one another once a week is immeasurable and has benefits in so many ways for each individual.
Their funding has directly allowed us as a charity to provide this service. A service which we are developing to now encompass basic digital skills alongside our weekly socials.
This was our 34th social and we are going from strength to strength.
Thank you so much for funding us.
“we can see the real impact you are making on so many individuals and their support circles. It was an absolute delight to share in your world.”
Shielding through the pandemic
Covid Shielding Survey
Please complete this short survey by clicking on the above link, to give your views on shielding. This survey will close on 31/10/2021.
The purpose of this short survey is to find out how people coped during shielding and their concerns as we move into the Winter, now that shielding will not be used during Winter 21/22.
Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. It should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete and your answers will be kept completely confidential and stored securely.
The survey is being undertaken on behalf of Cornwall Council by the Wellbeing and Public Health Team. The information gathered will help them to better understand the impact COVID-19 has, and continues to have, on people living in communities across Cornwall.
Volunteer Trustee Wanted
Do you have passion, some expertise and a little bit of time which you could offer Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles as a volunteer Trustee – a charity that makes a big difference to disabled people in Cornwall?
Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles is a small Cornish charity offering practical support and advocacy to people living with a long term health condition or disability in Cornwall and we’re looking to find an additional volunteer Trustee to join our board.
Ideally (but definitely not essential) we are looking for someone who has an area of expertise and/or passion for disability matters. Someone who can offer experience or skills which could benefit the governance of a charity. Or alternatively, you might be someone who is just keen to get involved, passionate for our cause and be able to commit your time as a Trustee. If so, we’d love to hear from you.
Please see below for the full volunteer Trustee job description Or call us and we’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Volunteer Trustee Role
Person Specification
Background.
Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles was founded in 1999 from a group of adults living with a long term health condition or disability and friends in Cornwall wanting to develop their own lifestyle. A few years later Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles achieved charitable status and has continued to grow and thrive ever since. Many of these founding members remain Trustees to this day.
As a charity we consider ourselves unique in that we offer advocacy work as well as practical support to our clients. Our strength comes in our small size, we know all of our clients well and support them through the good times as well as the bad times when they need us most.
Initially based in Bodmin (hence Mid-Cornwall) the charity is now based in Bude and covers the whole of Cornwall – or where ever a client needs us!
There is an elected board of 5 volunteer Trustees and the charity is managed daily by a full time CEO and a part time administrative assistant from the charity’s main office based in Bude. Currently there are 20 clients who are offered practical support by our team of dedicated and trained Support Workers throughout Cornwall.
We are so pleased to be able to share the news that we have been successful in our application to the Southwest Water Neighbourhood funding scheme and are looking forward to continuing our really successful Digital Inclusion with our clients and supporters.
Thank you Southwest water
Amazon Smile
If you love online shopping Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles has signed up to Amazon Smile. Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases bought on Amazon to Mid-Cornwall Lifestyles charity.
Supporting us is easy. If you shop at Amazon just log into smile.amazon.co.uk and you’ll be directed to the same Amazon products with the same prices. The only difference is that Amazon will donate 0.5% of the value of your purchase to us.
Now that’s the kind of shopping we love!
Click on the link to sign up - https://org.amazon.co.uk/
Lifestyles Online Socials hits 100.
Our clients have come over 100 times to our weekly Zoom Socials since they started in January!
We have so much fun each week and now have become quite a team of friends!
We play 3 different games each week and have a laugh and a joke.
If you, or someone you know would like to join us please message Lifestyles and come and join in the fun!
Digital Inclusion.
Weekly Zoom Client Socials
The start of the New Year saw the start of our first weekly client online socials and what an amazing success they have been!
We regularly have 8 – 13 participants, some of whom had never been online before and it’s their first experience of the digital world!
Each week we see the confidence and digital skill levels of our participants increase as they interact with the fun games and socialise online, many for the first time!
Nobody is excluded as we provide IT support, equipment, WiFi to all who need it.
Lifestyles Virtual Pub Quiz
Our Virtual Pub Quizzes are held once a month via Zoom.
On the first Thursday of the month at 11am, Lifestylers, PHAB members and our friends have lots of fun trying to be the champion of the quiz questions!
At the moment Simon is our champion of champions!
There are questions for everyone with lots of different topics covered and only 5 questions per topic.
Co-hosted by one of our Lifestylers – we welcome anyone who’d like to join in to contact us.
“Lifestyles Loan IT” scheme
We have been able to make sure that our clients and staff have access to tablets and WiFi helping us deliver our service in a new way.
Clients have been able to keep connected digitally to their Support Workers and our staff have managed to complete vital staff training online.
Funding from The National Emergency Trust and Cornwall Community Fund has allowed us to fund our “Lifestyles Loan IT” scheme which is proving invaluable in keeping us all digitally connected.
Digital Inclusion funding.
Over the Covid 19 crisis we have had to find new ways of delivering a service remotely to our clients. We were awarded some funding for 4 months in April 2020 from Cornwall Community Fund to increase the digital skills of our clients so that they could access their Support Workers and distanced family online.
It has been a big success with some clients now having regular computer lessons and others contributing weekly to our social media sites.
Our Trustees all now meet online via Zoom both socially and for Trustee meetings and we have managed to make sure that all of our clients have the IT facilities they need to be able to go online should they wish to.
Covid19 Emergency Funding
In April 2020 we were awarded some funding from the Cornwall Community Foundation to help support the additional costs associated with supporting our clients during the pandemic. This included help with PPE and additional mobile phone costs.
In November 2020 we received further grant funding support from the National Emergencies Trust to continue our digital inclusion work with staff and clients.
Disability Action Funding
In November 2020 we secured funding to allow us to continue to support our clients for a further 8 months until June 2021 and through the tough Covid winter period. This money will allow us to continue to deliver our digital inclusion programme of events which will include regular online social meetings for our clients to meet others, as well as personal help in IT support.
This funding has also enabled us to provide support for our Support Staff who are now embarking on their own on-line training programme through the recognized training provider Careskills Academy.
We discovered in the first Covid lockdown in March 2020 that many of our clients needed additional advocacy and support. This funding will enable us to provide this invaluable time providing support, advocacy, sign posting and advice when it is needed the most.