HELPP – Some Updates

A few updates on HELPP:

Website: Our new YouTube channel will be launching on May 13th with the DVD Who Cares… prepared by the WHO Group in Gorebridge. We’re also launching a Bebo page soon and we’re planning regular podcasts. This should begin with a young people’s focus group being set up by our Community Education student Emma. The Grandparents Parenting Again and Kinship Carers website is continuing to grow and we now have a discussion board/forum that is open to anyone who needs advice, support or information. We’re also working with Catherine Evans, Midlothian Community Health Partnership’s Patient Involvement Worker, to create a website that will provide health centres with information on what is available to patients in their area. The pilot site will launch in the Danderhall area soon.

Glencorse: The Glencorse Healthy Living Group kicks off on Thursday 15th May. The six week course includes yoga, excercise, healthy eating and much more.

Grandparent’s Parenting Again and Kinship Carers: The group continues to develop: they are playing an active role in the creation of a national kinship carers network with a major announcement expected in the next few month. Plans are well underway for the group’s summer programme which this year will hopefully include a sports day for the children.

Ladywood Centre: The community cafe will open in June. Already Susan, the cafe worker, and the volunteers are working hard to get things up and running. Keep your eyes peeled for more info in the local press and menus and more information will be available here soon.

An Independent HELPP: Our community reps are continuing to work hard as we move towards independence. We now have an interim board and we’re hopeful that we will be able to announce a date for independence soon. We’ll keep you posted.

So it is busy time for everyone at HELPP. But we’ll keep you informed through the blog and the main website as things develop and HELPP gets stronger and stronger.

Some Updates on HELPP

The HELPP website has some new features that you might like to investigate:

The What’s On Page now has all the information you need about HELPP’s groups in Midlothian but there is also a new calendar allowing you to find out quickly and easily what’s on throughout Midlothian.

The Publications Page has new posters and fliers for the Grandparents Parenting Again and Kinship Carers Group and the Woodburn Women’s Health and Motivation Group (WWHAM) that can be downloaded in PDF format.

Coming soon you’ll be able to find leaflets and posters about the Women’s Health Organisation (The WHO Group), our new healthy living course in Mayfield and our other groups throughout Midlothian.

The meeting room at HELPP’s office in Dalkeith is now almost complete after being decorated – keep checking the blog for pictures and information on how to book for meetings and groups.

Breathe Easy Group Visit Parliament

Midlothian’s Breathe Easy Group enjoyed a trip to the Scottish Parliament this week. The group were the special guests of Rhona Brankin MSP and enjoyed a guided tour of the Holyrood building and the chance to chat with Rhona.

The group, which provides support for local people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meets on the first Tuesday of every month at the Old Folk’s Welfare in Dalkeith. A complete list of guest speakers for 2008 will soon be available – the first talk, on reflexology, will be held on 1st April.

HELPP is proud to host Midlothian Breathe Easy’s web pages and the HELPP website keeps you up to date with all the groups activities.

HELPP on the Web – Some Updates

The HELPP website is constantly evolving. Changes this week include:

• A new links page has been added with a list of resources and websites for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people in Midlothian. If you would like your group to be included please email me (tom@helpp.org.uk)
• The link to the volunteers section has been removed from most pages. Don’t worry though – a new volunteer section will be online shortly. At the moment the HELPP team are working hard on a new volunteer policy and to develop partnership working with other organisations in the area to promote volunteering throughout Midlothian. In the meantime please contact the office (0131 660 5055) if you would like to get involved as a volunteer.
• The list of national health events and weeks has been removed. We’ll still use the website (and this blog) to mark special events but the focus of our work is much more local – although we’ll still hold events to mark things like International Women’s Day. A PDF “Quick Guide” to the work of HELPP will be appearing shortly on the What’s On page.
• HELPP hosts the webpages for the Midlothian Breathe Easy Group – a list of forthcoming speaker is now on the Breathe Easy page. There will also be information on the group’s visit to Rhona Brankin MSP at the Scottish Parliament appearing shortly.
• And you can now find a link to this blog at the top of every section!

There will be more changes soon and I’ll keep you posted. The Grandparent’s Parenting Again and Kinship Carers pages will be completed by the end of March and, as the number of HELPP events grows, the site will continue to develop and evolve. The publications page will also be undergoing some major changes as our new advertising materials are launched and the results of our new evaluation and monitoring systems go online.

Since the website was redesigned in October the number of visitors has continued to grow and in February the site recorded its highest number of unique visitors since the relaunch. Our online marketing plan is also showing signs of success as the number of visitors being referred to from other sites grows by the week.

Please continue to visit the site and let us know what we can do to improve it. You can leave comments about the site on this blog or you can email me directly with your ideas, suggestions and complaints!

All the best

Tom