Dear Members,
We are delighted to welcome you to our first newsletter of 2022!! (Bear with us as it is a long one!!)
We have lots of events and activities planned for you this year, and we would welcome your feedback on them so that we can tailor our activities to your wishes and needs.
Best wishes
Aisling and Rebecca
NEWS
Annual Member Survey – As you know we regularly survey our members. Please follow this link to have your say! https://forms.gle/9o9gc8oSqYS26bjZ9
AGM – Our Annual General Meeting is at 8pm on Wednesday 27th April. We hope to have this in person. More details to follow.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services scandal – You will have seen in the news the news regarding Kerry CAMHs service. Unfortunately this is not a surprise to us here in Wicklow Triple A Alliance. We are currently running an anonymous survey for anyone who has had experiences relating to medication with CAMHs. The link is here https://forms.gle/vjgtS3gLMqeUHXbA8
School Talks on Neurodiversity – our Chairperson Aisling recently spoke to the students of Greystones Community College on Neurodiverstiy. This was a huge success, Aisling is meeting with the students in person in February for a second talk. If you would like any support for your school, please get in touch.
Secondary School Places – Are you having difficulty securing a secondary school place for your child? We want to hear from you. Please contact us in confidence to discuss.
Tusla funded response to Covid-19 – As you will be aware, we sit on a working group with Tusla to provide supports to our community during Covid. This has been very valuable and has provided funding through Extern for our summer camps over the last two years, plus our Carers counselling. The project will be wound down this year, and Aoife from Tusla has kindly send on a report of the working group for you. We are very grateful to Aoife and her Team’s support and understanding for our community and our struggles. We look forward to working with them in the future on other projects. See attachment.
Series of Clinical Workshops – We are very excited to announce that we have been kindly granted funding from Sunbeam Trust http://www.sunbeamtrust.ie/ to help us run a badly needed round of clinical support workshops. We have enlisted the experts at Rita Honan and Associates https://honanandassociates.com/ to run 6 sessions for us in the Glenview hotel on Wednesday nights 7-8.30pm. These are commencing at the end of February, and tickets will be released in the coming week. (Save the dates!)
Charities Regulator Governance Code – We are pleased to announce that we have completed our annual filing with the Charities Regulator. We also were able to file that we are fully compliant with the regulations for our type of charity. You may be aware that the 2021 year end fillings are the first time that all charities must be in line with the regulations set out with the Regulator.
Allyship for NeuroDiversity talk in March – We were invited by the Wicklow Branch of the Social Democrats to talk about Neurodiversity, as part of their year long Allyship series of seminars. These are not political events, and are open to the entire community and are free of charge to attend. Aisling as a neurodiverse adult with a diagnosis of autism and carer will speak, Rebecca as a neurotypical parent and carer will speak, and Sean as a neurodiverse adult with a diagnosis of ADHD and Dyspraxia/DCD and experience of 3rd level and employment accommodations will speak. This will be a great piece of advocacy where we can have our voice heard. The link to attend will be posted online soon, and if you would like to attend we can send you the link.
Membership renewals – Our membership renewals will be open to renew from February to April. The membership renewal form for the year 22/23 will be sent out shortly. Note – for new members that joined from October 21, you do not need to pay again. Your subscription will be rolled over.
Admin – We are swamped with the volume of admin here between memberships, funding applications, running events, advocacy and day to day queries. To help us sift through the emails easily, could you please put the nature of your query in the subject line from now on? ie Membership, Active Kids, Coffee Morning etc. This is that we can ensure that we do not miss anyone when responding to bookings/requests for help. Thanks!
ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS
Active Kids Academy – is back running in Eire Og on Tuesdays at 3.30-4.15pm. Classes are €30 for a term of 6. Next week (1st Feb) is week 2 of 6. There are some spaces available. Suitable for ages 7-12. The link to book is here. https://forms.gle/ji5oh5uRa4wrJNQq9 For more information contact Lisa from Active Kids on activekidsacademyireland@gmail.com
Non Violent Resistance (NVR) course for carers – We are working with Tusla to provide this course for you. Please contact us if you would like a free place. This will likely be online in the mornings and will begin in March.
Wellness for Carers with KWETB Community Education – We have partnered up with Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board to provide a fantastic free carers wellness course. We had to postpone this before Christmas due to low numbers. We need a minimum of 6 attendees to run the course. This will be online and the options are as follows: Monday evening , Wednesday morning 10 – 12 or afternoon 3-5 , Friday morning 10-12 See attachment. If you would like to attend please respond to us ASAP to register your interest.
Bi Weekly bowling – Our Teens and Tweens bowling is commencing next week. 7pm every two weeks, €5 per person payable on the night. We run two whatsapp groups to keep in touch for this. Teens is on a Monday in Bray Bowl (contact Annmarie on 0861501930) and Tweens is in Wicklow Bowl on Thursday nights. (Contact Rebecca on 087324 6161)
Easter Glenroe farm trip – We are hosting a family outing over the Easter break in Glenroe Farm. This will likely be on Saturday 16th April in the morning. Details to follow. Please get in touch with your families number and ages of children please.
Jumpzone – Next date is Friday 11th March -7pm Please contact us if you would like to attend.
Domiciliary Care Allowance Information Clinic is ran by our committee member Kasha Huse in Bray Citizens Information centre. If you would like to attend, please contact the centre at the Boulevard Centre, 2 Quinsborough Rd, Bray, Co. Wicklow, A98 F6A2, Ireland or 0818076 780.
UPCOMING EVENTS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED !
We have lots of events which we want and need your support to run. Please get in touch with Aisling on 0894576184 or email us to discuss what your availability is. You can also be added to our volunteer whatsapp group to dip in and out when you can. Any couple of hours here and there is really appreciated.
Girls social group (aged 12 plus) – We have requests every few months for a female social group. Unfortunately due to the lower numbers of diagnosis in girls, it is difficult to get this going even though it is much needed. We are hoping to do some cinema trips, days out in the coming months, and are setting up a Whats app group to link everyone in. If you would like to get involved with your young person, please contact us.
Regular Members Coffee Morning – We want to begin running a members drop in Coffee morning. We would like this to be every month and have identified a location for it. We need someone/a group of you to offer to run this for us. We will arrange the booking and refreshments. You will need to open up/close the venue , chair the event, and communicate with the committee. If you would like to help us out with this even if it is only for one or two events, please get in touch.
Men’s group – We would really like to start a men’s group for carers/fathers. This will be self led with the support of the committee. We will fund events, get togethers, seminars, socials. Whatever you decide you would like to do. This will be via a Whatsapp group. Please get in touch to join.
Archery – We are delighted to say that due to the phenomenal response to our Archery taster day we have joined forces with the might Wicklow Archers to design a package for you. This is going to take place in March and details are just being finalised. Places will be limited and will be on a first come first served basis, so if you are interested please get in touch asap.
St Patrick’s Day Parade Sub Committees – We need volunteers urgently to represent us in Bray, Greystones and Wicklow town to walk in the Parade. Funding will be given for themes, outfits, and general PaddyWhackery ! Like our previous entries we will provide assistance to participate and accommodations to those who find it difficult to attend. We are liaising with the Council on this also. Please get in touch asap if you can help/want to volunteer/walk.
Regular social events for children with complex needs – We want to run meetups for children with limited verbal ability and complex needs. Please get in touch with us if you would like to join in/help to run.
Swimming lessons – Unfortunately the swimming lessons can not go ahead due to risk and cost. We are very disappointed with this, but as always, we have a Plan B… more details to follow!
Family Fun Day – We are going to hold our 3rd family fun day at the end of June. We will need a sub-committee to help us arrange things. Please get in touch if you can help!
Autism Month – We are currently planning an event for World Autism Day in Greystones. More details to follow. That’s it for now. We just cannot wait to get meeting with you all in person again.
Please do get in touch if we can help you out in any way.
Best wishes,
Aisling and Rebecca
On behalf of the Committee
Triple A Wicklow
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