Welcome to the second edition of our monthly Crocus Fields update. Slightly late of the press this month due to some technical difficulties with our wifi and getting the site updated. We hope that you are enjoying the website and being kept fully up to speed with the various goings on at Crocus Fields.
If you would like to advertise anything to other families or professional’s, please don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and get in touch with us. Pete Corkhill updates the site on a monthly basis and is more than happy to include a story for parents or carers. It would be great if you could let us know when you find any youth groups or clubs that are suitable for our young people so that families can network with each other.
Finally if you have any questions about anything within the site or in a news update, just send an email to peter.corkhill@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Night Staff Posts
We are currently looking to recruit to three night staff posts. The post holder will work in a team of three caring for the young people throughout the night, ensuring they are safe, happy and making sure they get a good rest throughout. There are also personal care and domestic duties involved within the role. The post holder should have experience of working with people with disabilities and be willing to work night shifts. Night shifts are from 10pm until 7am. Our night staff work a set rota:
Week 1 : Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday
Week 2: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
If you know anyone who may be interested in this post please alert them to it! The closing date for applications is the 2nd August. It would be great if you could send some outstanding staff our way!
The jobs can be applied for by clicking here
When we have recruited to the post we will introduce you all to the new staff members via the website.
Goodbye Chris
On another staffing issue, there will be an advert going out in the near future for a Residential Social Care Worker. This is due to the fact that Chris Mangan has now left the team onto pastures new. Chris has been at Crocus Fields for the past two years and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris for all his hard work during his time with us. Chris has moved on to a residential unit nearer to his home.
Sponsored Fitness Crocus
Several congratulations must go out to the staff and young people this month after a successful number of sponsored events have either taken place (or are due to).
Bubble Run (Nottinghamshire Hospice)
How we managed to miss the first off last month’s newsletter is beyond me, but Emma W and Emma F, along with five young people took part in Nottinghamshire’s 5k Bubble Dash! The group had an incredible time raising a significant amount of money to go towards Nottinghamshire hospice. A massive thank you to Emma and Emma for organising this event and to all the young people who took part.
Efforts for the Sensory Pod
There have been two events in the last few weeks to raise money for our new sensory pod and two more booked in. This is an ongoing process and every penny counts. If you know of any funds we can apply to, please let us know and we will apply to each and every one! The money we need to raise is substantial and we are aware we will need to look at funding from outside in addition to sponsored events. The pod will be an amazing resource for the unit and the community. If you or anyone you know would like to sponsor this event you can do so by visiting our crowdfunding site:
Great Nott’s Bike Ride
In June, Frankie, Emma W and Carly alongside Morton and Vikki took to the Nottinghamshire countryside streets to complete the Maid Marion course of the Great Nott’s Bike Ride (25 miles!). This was a huge achievement for the staff and young people, in particularly for Morton who has now taken part in the event for Crocus Fields for three years in a row! The group completed the course in a Crocus Fields personal best. Huge congratulations to all involved.
John O’Groats to Lands End
Not content with the Great Nott’s Bike Ride, the staff team and young people managed to cycle the entire distance from John O’Groats to Lands’ End on a exercise bike over a six week period. A massive thank you to Ashley for organising this and to the youth club for lending us the equipment. This was also in aid of our aim to raise £65000 to purchase the sensory pod.
Robin Hood Half Marathon and Mini Marathon!
Following on from his efforts insisting the staff team cycle just shy of 1000 miles, Ashley Saunders has committed himself to take part in the Robin Hood Half Marathon in September. This is also in aid of our sensory pod.
Ashley has also organised for a group of young people from Crocus Fields to complete the 1 mile mini marathon.
If you would like to support Ashley or the young people in his/their half/mini marathon, his/their run will start at the embankment on Sunday 25th September. A group from Crocus Fields will be cheering him along the route so feel free to come on down and join us!
Changing Rooms!!
The building has gone through some huge changes in the last few months. Brenda has done some great work in upgrading some of the bedrooms to make them more personalised. She completely transformed bedroom seven to make it into a transport haven, including a wallpaper map of the entire city of Nottingham! She also helped turn bedroom 6 into an artists paradise with a huge chalkboard covering an entire wall!
Brenda's creativity has transformed the space and everyone at Crocus is extremely grateful to her for these efforts. Plans are already in place to continue upgrading our unit for the young people.
And downstairs the dining room on Unit 2 has had a children's kitchen fitted. This has been installed after we were informed the young people were no longer able to use the main kitchen where we have always practiced independence skills A big thank you must go to Ella, John and Alan who sourced the units and fitted them so brilliantly. The space looks fantastic and the young people have loved having an area that they can access and build on their skills.
Training Session
We would like to take this opportunity to thank John Simpson for coming in to provide us with an exceptional training session on living with autism. His presentation was an insightful insight into this topic and we believe it has greatly furthered staffs understanding of many of our young people. We hope that the parents who attended this session enjoyed and took something from it. It was great to have parents join us for a training day and we hope to be able to invite you to sessions in the future.
We have requested that John allow us to email out his presentation to our families and should we receive permission we shall share it with you all. John has a number of videos on Youtube, if you are interested in learning more about him have a look on the video streaming site.
Summer Bookings
All families should now have received their dates for short breaks from now through until October. If you are yet to receive them please get in touch with us.
Enjoy the Summer!
We hope you all have a splendid 6 week summer holiday. Another bulletin shall be posted in August.