November 2013

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City of Aberdeen Baker Hughes 10k running Festival

issue 78 November 2013 in this issue 1 Main Event

Local people feeling inspired by the upcoming Commonwealth games in 2014 can now sign up for the largest road race in the North East of Scotland – The City of Aberdeen Baker Hughes 10K The online entries are now open, with early bird prices being available until 31 December 2013, saving you more than 15% on the 2014 price. The 10K event – which is being organised by Sport Aberdeen – is now in its 28th year and always receives a high number of participants, with last year’s run selling out; therefore get your entry in now to avoid disappointment As well as the 10K, early bird entry is also available for the 10K wheelchair race, 2k schools race which is open to children from Primary 6 to Secondary 4 and you can enter the Banks O’ Dee Family Fun Run on race day. Race Director, Graham Morrison said: “We are delighted to once again welcome on board Aberdeen

Cyrenians as an affiliated charity. The continued support that they provide the event is much appreciated and play’s a vital role in the success of the event.” He continued: “The City of Aberdeen Baker Hughes 10k Running Festival provides a great opportunity to considerably raise the profile of Aberdeen Cyrenians in the lead up to and during the event as well as raising vital funds for your good work” Race entries are available online at www. sportaberdeen.co.uk/10kaberdeen

Pictures from Bakers Hughes 2013

Layout & Print by Iceberg Print & Design

3 StrEAT Alternatives cook book 4-5 At home at Margaret House

6 Volunteer’s View – Irene Merrilees 7

Itsy’s festive support All set for busking day

8 Run the Baker Hughes 10K for us

2 Cinnamon celebrates

NE W S L E T T E R

Sleeping bags ready – the Sleepout is back as part of their degree course in Events Management, final year students at RGU have been set a charity challenge called The Main Event. Groups of three or four have each been assigned to a different charity and have to design and stage a fund-raising event which will bring in at least £5,000 for their charity. Robert Poller, Chloe Scamps, Patrycja Graczyk and Joanne Donald will be raising money for Aberdeen Cyrenians. Joanne knew a bit about the charity from taking part in a sleepout a few years back. That was the starting point for their event planning and now plans are well advanced for their new-look sleepout. “Our concept is a corporate-based event. We investigated the success and impact of similar events and have decided to limit ours to just 10 businesses, institutions or workplaces which will each nominate two employees to spend the night of Wednesday, 23 April sleeping on the street and raising money for a very worth cause. In order to keep the event true to the charity’s purpose and beliefs, the event will highlight the dangers and challenges faced by people affected by homelessness,” they said. Already one of the 10 places has been snapped up, by the Wood Group, and it anticipated the remaining nine slots will fill up very quickly. More details about the Main Event will be released as they are confirmed but if you or your company would like to take part, please register your interest by emailing Cyrenians. [email protected]. This is the first time RGU has included this element in its Events Management degree course and it is hoped that the Main Event will become an established part of the course. Dr Daniel Turner, Senior Lecturer in Events Management and Course Leader, is overseeing all of the Main Events. He said: “The Main

Event project is designed to test all of the practical knowledge and skills our students develop during their studies and showcase their capabilities before they graduate next summer . It’s also a great chance for our students to make a significant contribution to our local community by raising awareness and money for a range of good causes. The students are going to be working really hard all year to make a success of the sleepout event and I know they’re going to get lots of valuable help and advice from Ruth and supporters of Aberdeen Cyrenians in the coming months too.” Ruth Morrison, Fundraising Officer with Aberdeen Cyrenians, spends an hour each fortnight mentoring the group. “It’s a fantastic opportunity for Aberdeen Cyrenians to become involved in something different and the enthusiasm from the students is incredible. They have taken an idea and given it a new twist already and have lots of other plans in the pipeline. “We hope that the city’s businesses will be as enthusiastic about this as we are and will register their interest as soon as possible.”

Sleepout planners: Robert, Patrycja and Joanne

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Looking for an easy way to support Aberdeen Cyrenians? Raise money for us every time you shop online with Amazon, M&S, Tesco or 2,700 other retailers. www. easyfundraising. org.uk/causes/ aberdeencyrenians

Spectacular celebration at Cinnamon The award-winning Cinnamon restaurant is holding a special charity evening on Monday, November 18 and will be splitting the profits with Aberdeen Cyrenians. The evening will also see Cinnamon’s owner, Anis Ahmed, receive a major award from Pat Chapman, founder of the Curry Club and editor of the Cobra Good Curry Guide. Last year he awarded Cinnamon a Top 100 cachet, the equivalent of two AA rosettes and this month’s award will be just one of 16 to be presented by the Cobra Good Curry Guide in the whole of the UK. To help celebrate, Cinnamon is planning this spectacular evening and has renewed its links with Aberdeen Cyrenians having previously supported our Chef of the Year event a few weeks

ago. All money raised through ticket sales and raffles on the evening will be divided between Aberdeen Cyrenians and the Shomu Miah Memorial Fund which raises money and awareness for meningitis-related causes. Tickets cost £35 each and that will include an elaborate six-course meal ethnic mix style entertainment provided by Latin Style Diversity Performance Group. There will also be cocktail making demonstrations by Valdamar Skotka of London’s Nightjars. Tickets are available now from Cinnamon, 476 Union Street, Aberdeen.

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Make a date for St Andrews Day

Do come along and support our St Andrews busking day at the Trinity Centre on Saturday, 30 November. We hope to be there from 10am till 4pm with a range of musicians providing a range of tunes, but they have all promised to include something Scottish in recognition of Scotland’s national day. Amongst those who will be performing are groups from Kemnay Academy and the International School of Aberdeen, Daniel Mutch, Ariana and friends, Andrew Ross and Abbie Patterson.

We have a prime spot, just outside Debenhams and right beside the centre Christmas tree so you will easily find us. Daniel Mutch came in to our HQ the other day to give us a preview of some of the songs he will be singing as part of our busking day.

Itsy serves up a festive donation

Itsy, Aberdeen’s leading provider of quality catering, has arranged to deliver a very special present to Aberdeen Cyrenians this year. For each order Itsy receives from its festive menu, it will donate £2 to us.

Latin Style Diversity Performance Group

Did you know

• • •

Curry-crazy Brits blow more than £30,000 on Indian curries in their lives, the latest Cobra Good Curry Guide reveals.

The average Brit forks out £51.44 a month on restaurant curries, according to a survey published in the Guide, or to put it another way, that’s £30,864 over 50 years.

There are almost 9,000 Indian restaurants in the British Isles and for the benefit of curry lovers, the Guide identifies the best 1,000 all over the UK, as voted for by members of the public. 62 Summer Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1SD

tel: 01224 625732

What many Itsy fans probably don’t know is that the superior sandwich business started right here in the Street Alternatives project kitchen at 62 Summer Street three or four years ago and came about as the result of a chance meeting between a member of Aberdeen Cyrenians staff and a couple of the Itsy entrepreneurs. They were looking for kitchen space to develop their new business concept and the project kitchen was empty at just the times they needed it. “Aberdeen Cyrenians were able to draw an income from renting out spare and unused capacity in the kitchen and Itsy had a ready-made bunch of staff guinea pigs all eager to sample, taste and feedback on their creations,” said Aberdeen Cyrenians depute CEO, Scott Baxter. “The Itsy staff soon became very much part of the fixtures and the team here. “Almost overnight – OK, six months or so – Itsy became so successful and their food was such a hit in Aberdeen it was clear that they would require even bigger

www.aberdeen-cyrenians.org

premises and they moved out in March 2010.” Matthew Tutt of Itsy explained: “Having the use of Aberdeen Cyrenians kitchen with its city centre location at the start was such a big help. We were gob smacked as to the cleanliness and specifications of the kitchen that the staff and volunteers take so much pride in. “Now we have gone from two staff to more than 13. The business is growing and I felt it was time to see how Itsy could continue to reciprocate the support we have had. That’s why we will be promoting this in any way we can, encouraging our customers to get on board. Knowing the charity as we do, we know in the run-up to Christmas there is a constant need to raise unrestricted money and we know the money will definitely be put to good use.” Scott added: “We were so delighted when Matthew approached us and offered the £2 donation from each order from their festive menu.” [email protected]

Keep up to date with what is happening at Aberdeen Cyrenians on a daily basis by following us on Facebook

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Thank you Once again, our appeal for help in the run-up to Christmas has met with enormous enthusiasm. Many of you have been in touch to say that you are organising friends, colleagues or members of various organisations to fill shoe boxes with gifts for service users. Cash donations are coming in which are vital to extend our Street Alternatives opening hours and to help finance us through 2014. We are setting up a dedicated Christmas and Beyond Just Giving page at http://www. justgiving.com/RuthMorrison1 where you donate at the touch of a button and help us reach. You could also use this page to send a Christmas message to all your friends instead of sending Christmas cards, and donate the money to Aberdeen Cyrenians, or make a cash gift to us in a friend’s name rather than give your friend a present. We really appreciate your help all year round but especially at Christmas which can be a particularly sad, distressing and lonely time for someone who is homeless or experiencing difficult times. Your support will make this festive season so much happier for our service users.

Volunteer’s View: Irene Merrilees Irene Merrilees is celebrating her second anniversary as a volunteer with Aberdeen Cyrenians. “I remember I started just as the harvest appeal was coming to an end a couple of year ago,” she said. Harvest is one of the busiest and most important times for the organisation with a large proportion of the annual donations being received then. “And then it was straight into Christmas and that was busy, too, with lots of shoe boxes full of gifts, and cash donations being handed in.” Irene came as the Tuesday afternoon receptionist in the days before Aberdeen Cyrenians had a full-time staff receptionist. “I started off on a two week trial on either side and that worked out fine so I’m still here. “I like the variety you get being down in the reception area, meeting drop in service users and chatting to them. I remember being told when I started that some other volunteers brought in a book or their knitting to help pass the time, and I did carry a book with me for a while but I never had a chance to read it so that stopped.” Irene admits she’s not very good at “sitting on her bottom” and her nosiness – her word – meant she was soon finding things to do. In those first few weeks she busied herself with Christmas decorations then became involved in making up food parcels, something she has elevated to art form status. “I found there were never enough food parcels made up in advance and ready to hand out, so I started doing that,” she recalled. She prides herself on including something from each food

group and suitable for all meals. She is a stickler for filling in the label stating when the food parcel was put together and which item has the nearest use by date. She was also a pioneer of toiletries parcels having seen a new way to use all the donations of soaps, shower gels, deodorants etc. She secured a couple of cupboards and filled them with labelled boxes so it can be seen at a glance which categories need topping up. Service users now rate the toiletries parcels as highly as food parcels and appreciate their contents. “I came here after finding out about Aberdeen Cyrenians at a volunteering fair. I thought it sounded interesting and it’s lived up to my expectations.”

62 Summer Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1SD

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StrEAT Alternatives cook book

The idea of creating a recipe book to sell to raise funds for Street Alternatives came to volunteers Mary Holland and Alison Sim back in January this year.

the people the book would be “As we’re both volunteer cooks, often helping. working together on the same shift, a recipe “I felt that this element was book seemed a very good fit as a fundraising crucial to the project and idea” said Alison. “Both of us had seen similar would differentiate the Street things done for other charities, churches Alternatives recipe book and organisations and knew that although it from other, similar charity would mean a lot of work, it could also raise cookbooks that might be on a lot of money.” sale around the same time” And so the girls began to beg, steal and explained Alison. borrow recipes from friends, family, work “Everyone felt that Christmas colleagues, volunteers, staff – anyone who time was the best time of was willing to donate some of their favourite year to be selling the recipe recipes. Appeals for recipes and photos of book” Mary said, “as the price the dishes were made via email and Facebook would make the book good and slowly, but surely, they began to come value for money, making it a very attractive in. Then began the hard task of sorting stocking filler.” Fundraiser through all the recipes, categorising them, Ruth Morrison secured sales sifting out any duplicates, checking that the slots in the Trinity Centre and instructions made sense, and standardising at Asda Garthdee and many weights, measures and oven temperatures. other volunteers undertook to A mammoth typing job ensued, with Alison sell copies of the book in their and Mary splitting the work between them. workplaces. Gradually, the recipe book began to take Once Alison and Mary had shape. approved the final version, Mary and Alison then sourced further 2,000 copies of the recipe recipes in order to plug any gaps in some book finally went to print of the sections. Several meetings were held just in time for the Christmas along the way with Aberdeen Cyrenians staff sales. Both girls agree it has to discuss the format of the book, funding been a great project to have been involved for the project, sales strategy etc. with. “Everyone was delighted when Aberdeen Exactly how the funds will be used within Asset Management generously agreed Street Alternatives will be decided next to donate £2,500 to cover the cost of the year but Alison and Mary are hoping for printing of the book,” said Jenna Ingram, an upgrade to some of the ageing kitchen Volunteer Co-ordinator “as that meant that equipment – in particular, a even more of the money raised decent tin-opener that doesn’t from sales of the recipe book have a mind of its own! would go straight to Street Alternatives.” StrEAT Alternatives Cook Book Alison came up with the title of cookbook2013 will be on sale at the Trinity the recipe book, being a play Centre at the St Andrews Day on words which linked the fact busking event on Saturday, that it was a recipe book for November 30, at Asda Garthdee Street Alternatives. Alison was on Tuesday December 17 and also keen to include service Sunday December 22 and at user profiles in the recipe Asda Portlethen on Sunday book, so that anyone buying December 8. a copy could learn more about

STREAT

alternatives

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Alison Sim above Mary Holland below

Please vote for us at http:// www.marsmilk. com/fund/streetalternatives

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At home in Margaret House Asda Portlerthen and Asda Middleton Park have chosen us as one of their three November charities. You can support us by posting the green tokens you get at the checkout into the Aberdeen Cyrenian box in either store.

Aberdeen Cyrenians has had a residential service in Crown Street since 1981. Initially it was based at 91 Crown Street and it was the city’s only Women’s Hostel. In 1990 the Women’s Hostel moved to 71 Crown Street and in 2001 the name was changed to Margaret House. It was named after the former Lord Provost Margaret Smith in recognition of her work on women’s issues throughout Scotland. In 2008 Margaret House ceased being a service for women only – as it became clear that funding cuts within Aberdeen City had resulted in far fewer residential care services for homeless men being available than were required. Like the other Aberdeen Cyrenians residential projects, Margaret House provides accommodation and support to people who are homeless and who have other issues to deal with, which may include: substance misuse; poor physical or mental health; criminal offending behaviour; difficulties with managing finances; relationship problems. At any one time the house is home to 12 of the most disadvantaged people in society. For some it is the first

stable, safe and secure home that they have had. The team take pride in creating and maintaining a homely and welcoming environment – with clear boundaries, but a minimum of rules i.e. as domestic a situation as is possible. In reality, the majority of residents have complex issues and require assistance to access the appropriate resources and support agencies available throughout the city. Aberdeen Cyrenians philosophy is to support people to address the issues which have led to their homelessness – rather than exclude people from the services that we provide. In Margaret House the goals are very much to break the cycles of detrimental behaviour and to enable people to achieve their potential. For most residents, the issues with which they struggle will have been a part of their lives for many years. Different agencies and organisations will have tried different approaches, but the fact someone has been referred to Margaret House may mean that none of these interventions has been successful and lasting.

62 Summer Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1SD

Whilst they are at Margaret House, residents are supported and encouraged to cope with challenges in society. If coping for an individual means using alcohol or drugs, this will be also be worked with. Residents who depend upon substance misuse as a coping strategy are encouraged and assisted to utilise less harmful methods. The team support service users to work towards having positive, productive and enjoyable lifestyles. They understand that there are reasons behind the issues that people have in their lives and therefore assist individuals to address these effectively. When a service user is admitted to Margaret House, she or he is supported to draw up their own care plan. The level of involvement and responsibility that this entails is intrinsic to the approach taken. Margaret House works closely with

Aberdeen City Council’s Housing Department Homelessness Service – providing a resource which supports people to work towards being able to cope or manage in more permanent accommodation. Over the course of their stay at the service residents are encouraged and supported to address personal issues and to work towards moving on to the type of accommodation which is best suited to their individual needs. The individualistic nature of the care provision, along with the ranges of issues and behaviours which can be presented, necessitates great flexibility, resourcefulness and personal resilience on the part of team members. Efficient team working is the other component which ensures that this service functions effectively. As with all of Aberdeen Cyrenians services; the team at Margaret House will always ‘go the extra mile’ to support service users and resolve issues. Pictures by Julie Small [email protected]

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[email protected]