A charity, dedicated to supporting the most vulnerable in society, has planted a new sensory garden in the heart of Leeds, close to where it was founded in 1971.

St Anne’s Community Services (St Anne’s) which this year is celebrating its golden anniversary, has a proud heritage of supporting homeless people, those with learning disabilities, people requiring substance rehabilitation and aiding people with mental health needs.

Working with Leeds City Council’s Parks Team, staff and clients at St Anne’s planted the unique sensory garden with plants which support; taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound, in Queen’s Square, Leeds (by the Merrion Centre).

Clients from some of St Anne’s Leeds services, planted the garden last week, whilst a commemorative plaque and bench were installed. The garden was formally unveiled on Friday the 13^th August by St Anne’s Deputy CEO and Director of Operations, Shona Beaton.

Jacqueline Carver, Learning and Development Co-ordinator from St Anne’s, who has led on the project, said:

“St Anne’s is dedicated to inclusion, we wanted to create an accessible space everyone can enjoy. It was wonderful to see some of the people we support enjoy planting and taking part in the unveiling”.

Azra Kirkby, Chief Executive Officer for St Anne’s said:

“Queens Square is a stone throw from where the St Anne’s journey began back in 1971, where we were set up to support homeless people. The last 50 years has been a journey of developing new services to enable people to have better life outcomes.

“We hope the garden will be enjoyed by everyone, and we are committed to keeping accessible and colourful for the local community to enjoy.”

Pictured; Paul and Melanie (L to R), two of the people St Anne’s supports.

A life without limits.

We have great pride in sharing with you our new five-year strategic plan, “A life without limits”.

“A life without limits”, showcases our future direction which puts the people we support and our staff at the heart of everything we do. Our strategy is a roadmap as to how we will make our new vision, real.

As we celebrate our 50th year in 2021, we reassert our commitment to ‘making a difference’ by empowering our staff to work creatively and collaboratively, developing new partnerships and ways of working that will enable the people we support to lead fulfilled lives.

Our new strategy, developed with our greatest asset – our staff, will ensure St Anne’s is a great place to work. It details how all our staff will be supported and nurtured through our values framework, it showcases our commitment to digital transformation, housing and delivering homes to be proud of, and how we will become more sustainable and grow through investment and the development of
new and existing partnerships.

Our message is simple, we want everyone St Anne’s supports now and in the future to have the opportunity to live their best life, and we invite you to join us on this journey.

Strategic Plan 2021_26 A life without limits

Our staff from Heatherstones did a wonderful walk on the canal towpath which runs from Copley to Sowerby Bridge. There were six of our clients and seven members of staff on the outing. This had to be carefully planned as Calderdale is very hilly and it can be difficult to support our clients in their wheelchairs outdoors. But we do all we can to ensure they have safe access to the local community and are able to get the most from spending time in green open spaces.

All of us are becoming aware of the benefits of nature. But often take access for granted and assume if there are paths or pavements these will be accessible to all. For many of our clients with larger wheelchairs this is not the case, the camber of the surface can cause the chair to lean to the left or right making it difficult to push adapted wheelchairs, curbs are often too high to manoeuvre the wheelchair from curb to road or road to curb, many surfaces are uneven, cobbled or hazardous in other ways and steep hills or even gentle slopes can present a significant challenge.

The journey from Heatherstones to the canal involves a very steep hill as we’re located at the top of the valley and the canal is in the valley bottom; pushing chairs downhill can be difficult as the chairs start to pick up momentum and need to be held back. If we had individually driven all our clients to the canal that would have involved six separate journeys’ there and back; they would have also missed out on a significant part of the whole experience and sense of adventure.

We believe it’s important for our clients to experience different sensations and terrains in a safe way as it’s all too easy to shelter people with profound and multiple learning disabilities from certain aspects of life because the potential challenges appear too difficult. There are so many sensory and other opportunities outdoors that we feel our clients would miss out without making the effort to support these experiences. The canal is a haven for wildlife and we saw a crane and many other water birds. For people with profound and multiple learning disabilities the physical sensation of sunlight reflected on the water and passing through the leaves of overhanging trees, the smells of wildflowers and the sound of birdsong offer immediate benefits and reward to spending time outdoors.

After so long spent shielding our clients in order to keep them safe throughout the pandemic being out in natural surroundings has had a significant positive benefit.  It’s a great opportunity to be outdoors, feel the elements and spend some time in a different environment. Mental Health Awareness Week is an opportunity to reflect on our own and our clients mental health and take opportunities to enjoy green spaces in our local community. We are aiming to plan regular accessible walks in the countryside in and around Calderdale, although it can be a challenge supporting clients in wheelchairs the benefits are well worth the effort

To celebrate and commemorate St Anne’s Community Services, 50^th Anniversary on Wednesday 15^th September, a special time capsule was buried in Temple Newsam Park, Leeds.

Organised by the St Anne’s Shared Lives Team, who support adult support placements with families, the time capsule captures life in 2021 and includes; letters from the Lord Mayor of Leeds Councillor Ashghar Khan and St Anne’s Chief Executive Officer Azra Kirkby and mementos from daily life, including photos and artwork from Shared Lives clients, coins, recordings from Shared Lives carers and a current newspaper.

Debbie Lewis, Shared Lives Lead said.

“We wanted to create a legacy from our 50^th Anniversary, something which captured the essence of St Anne’s and the Shared Lives carers and the amazing work they do. Our time capsule is a moment in time, highlighting the amazing work our carers undertake, which we hope in 2071 will be a little part of our 100^th Anniversary. We will be registering the capsule on a special website which keeps a record of all time capsules.”

Azra Kirkby, Chief Executive Officer for St Anne’s said,

“It was wonderful to meet so many of our carers, and the people we support at the time capsule burial. It is very humbling to be sending a message into the future, people I will most likely never meet, but I hope the contents of the capsule are inspiring and showcase the legacy we leave for future generations.”

Pictured above Barbara (carer), Alan Murphy (client) and Sheridan (support carer), Councilor Mohammed Rafique, Azra Kirkby (Chief Executive Officer St Anne’s)

Leading Charity Appoints New Vice-Chair and Trustees

One of the north’s leading charities, St. Anne’s Community Services (St. Anne’s), has appointed fours new Trustees including one to the position of Vice-Chair.

A not-for-profit organisation supporting over 1600 people across the north of England, St Anne’s has a leading reputation for developing and providing services for people with: complex care, learning disabilities, mental health problems, homelessness, and drug or alcohol misuse. St Anne’s also supports over 550 people in supported living and housing tenancies.

Wishing to expand its services and draw on the depth and wealth of knowledge and skills that Trustees bring from their careers, St Anne’s is very pleased to welcome; Oliver Laird, Alison Leech, Ian Currell and Anthea Sully.

Oliver Laird joins St Anne’s as a Trustee and Chair of the Audit and Risk Sub-Committee. Oliver has held variety of senior finance director roles in regulated financial services businesses. He is also an experienced Trustee having held roles within the British Council and Leeds Student Union. Oliver is eager to support the on-going development of St Anne’s.

Alison Leech is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been in the profession for over 25 years, working for Housing Associations and Local Authorities across Yorkshire in both front-line and strategic roles. With a strong belief in the importance of affordable, quality social housing and housing education, Alison joins St Anne’s as a Trustee and member of the Finance & Performance Sub-Committee.

Ian Currell has over 30-years NHS experience and has been a Director of Finance for 13 years, he has stated he is keen to support the charity sector and apply the skills and experience he has built up. Ian is to be a Trustee and member of the Audit & Risk Sub-Committee.

Joining St Anne’s as a Trustee and Vice-Chair, Anthea Sully is Chief Executive of White Ribbon UK, a charity that works to end male violence against women. In 1994 Anthea founded the ground-breaking Goldhay Arts, for artists and performers with learning disabilities. Anthea is an experienced Trustee and Chair and has worked for several charities and voluntary organisations. Anthea will also be a member of the Remuneration, Nominations & Governance Sub-Committee.

Anthea Sully said:

“I am tremendously excited to be joining St Anne’s at this time. I am committed to ensuring people have the support and housing they need to live their best life, and as Vice Chair I want to ensure that I play my part in enabling St Anne’s to do just that. As we emerge from the pandemic, and the challenges that everyone has faced, I am looking forward to meeting the people we support and our staff to find out their aspirations for the future.”

Chief Officer of St Anne’s Azra Kirkby said:

“I wholeheartedly welcome our new Trustees to St Anne’s, who I am sure will bring their expertise and knowledge in abundance as we continue to lead the way in person-centred care.

“It is important for charity organisations to continually refresh as society and care needs change. Reaching out for new Trustees ensures St Anne’s continues to evolve and build on the collective wealth of experience our new Trustees bring.”

Notes to Editors:

St. Anne’s Community Services (St. Anne’s) is a not-for-profit organisation which has been developing and providing services for people with learning disabilities, people with mental health problems, homeless people, and people with drug or alcohol misuse since 1971.

St. Anne’s believes in making a difference, to provided quality care and support to enable people to lead fulfilled lives.

Ends

For further information please email:

Antony.Rider@st-annes.org.uk

We are proud to announce in our 50^th Year we are opening a new supported living scheme in Hull later this year.

Bridlington House is an exciting development designed in collaboration with a specialist housing developer, the local commissioning team, St Anne’s and most importantly its new tenants.  The scheme will enable people with complex mental health needs to achieve greater independence and live in a home that they can make and call their own.

Based in the north side of the city centre, close to Liddle Street Park, Bridlington House will contain nine high specification self-contained apartments offering superb facilities for residents.

As part of the establishment of this scheme, we are looking to recruit local high-quality support workers to deliver high quality active support that St Anne’s is known for. We believe support workers are a special kind of people, with unique skills and qualities which we highly value. To support this, we offer:

• An excellent remuneration package with pay at or above the Real Living Wage Foundation rate
• First rate training,
• 24-hour employee assistance programme,
• Employee health and wellbeing group,
• Flexible working opportunities,
• Life Assurance Cover,
• Group pension and much more.

If you want to discover more about the opportunities at Bridlington House, Hull, and working with St Anne’s please email info@st-annes.org.uk, to arrange a discussion with our Recruitment Team.

St. Anne’s Community Services (St Anne’s), one of the North’s leading person-centred charities is celebrating its 50^th Anniversary with a fund-raising, online cycle ride in support of homeless people.

Set up in 1971 to support homeless people in Leeds, St Anne’s has grown to provide multiple services supporting over 1600 people with learning disabilities, mental health needs, substance abuse support and homelessness.

The online cycle ride, which will involve interactive meetings with St Anne’s specialist services, is being undertaken by St Anne’s Service Manager Nicky Lyall. Nicky will be covering an amazing 50 services and over 500 miles on her exercise bike at home, which will be virtually tracked on a map covering geographically the services she visits.

A dedicated cyclist, Nicky has suffered from recent health issues, including most recently arthritis in her knees. Despite this she remains keen and dedicated to completing her ride and helping raise funds for and spread awareness of homelessness in Leeds.

Nicky said:

“I feel passion toward towards supporting the homeless and ensuring they have opportunities to have great life opportunities. I am doing this fund raising as a way of joining this passion with my other passion of cycling.

“Although my arthritis stops me from doing things like running, cycling is non weight bearing, so it is great for fitness and I hope will inspire the people we support in our services to take part too.”

As part of the ride, Nicky will undertake blogs, videos and have online calls to some of the people St Anne’s supports, encouraging them to undertake activities to promote health, fitness, and wellbeing

Nicky continued:

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter what fitness you do as long as you do something”.

Azra Kirkby, Chief Executive of St Anne’s said:

“We are so proud of Nicky, to undertake this with her arthritis really shows her amazing commitment to the people we support and to St Anne’s.

“We would love to encourage people to see our social media over the coming months, message Nicky and of course donate to supporting the homeless in Leeds.

“The pandemic has made celebrating our 50^th year in a more distanced way, but we are still determined to make a difference to the lives of the people we support to ensure they have a life without limits. Nicky is a credit to us”.

To donate to support the homeless in Leeds and Nicky, please visit:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/StAnnesResourceCentre