HopeFM & The Bizhear Podcast
Hope FM Best Bits - CAN (June 2024)
You're listening to Community Now on Hope FM with Keith Jones Bookshop. Serving the community for over 50 years, visit kefjones.co.uk Well as you heard me say, my first special guest today, although really she's not a special guest, she's like part of the furniture and so little bit of Hannah who's the lead engagement officer from Can That's the Community Action Network just in case you didn't know about that. So welcome Hannah. It's lovely to be back. Yeah it seems ages since we've because we've been pre-recorded haven't we? The wonders of technology. Anyway, you're very welcome and I'm pleased to see you and I believe you had a little break a little holiday but not such good weather. Oh no it was it was fine it was um Meyorka it was lovely just very relaxing. Just to get away actually is wonderful absolutely. Anyway later on you're going to be announcing the winner of the community here of the spot. I'm very excited today particularly with Cara's week coming up or volunteers week and all of that. Anyway you've got money. Now how much have you brought with me? You know I as you probably know we've been making an appeal for Hope FM and when I heard that can have come into a bit of money I thought to myself that Hannah would be bringing me a check now. Have you got it? You're barking at the wrong tree I'm afraid it's for a very special project. What's it for? We've just received three years worth of National Lottery funding. Oh congratulations. Thank you for a project called I Ethnically Diverse Communities. A wonderful team of three new Can staff members I'm going to give them a shout out. Ma you catch your entama. Really welcome to Can. So community action network are a charity that supports not-for-profit groups across the whole of Dorset County, BCP area. We offer support with finding finances, governing your charity or not-for-profit properly, volunteering and we also this new project is to help groups that are led by ethnically diverse communities to get the support they need so they can be strong, they can run sufficiently, they can have strong leaders, they can apply for funding in all the right ways so that they can be as successful as possible. I know that some people think that when you pick on ethically different groups and the whole subject of equality some people go a bit overboard and say you're always talking about people like that but of course the reality is that certainly we find it here and hope with them that very often the people who don't have a voice are the people who should have a voice so will this new team be working to ensure that they do have that voice? 100% we are now tending to talk about equity rather than equality. So explain the difference. Equality means everybody in the room gets the same. Yes. Fairness, fair play. Fair play and you know that's something to strive for. Equity means that groups or organisations or people get something that will help them to have the same as everybody else so traditionally it might have felt for ethnically diverse led groups that they weren't welcome, they weren't as valid or as valued as other groups which is totally incorrect and it comes down to lack of trust, lack of relationships and lack of communications. So the three wonderful women I mentioned earlier, their sole purpose is to develop relationships, find out what the groups are already doing brilliantly, shout about it so that more people know, more people join and they get stronger in numbers so it's all about helping everybody to enjoy living endorsement and to get everything they need. You've set me a problem now because I'm thinking to myself now that there's a whole new team here at Cannes with a fantastic access to a whole new group of people, we're not going to have time on this programme to cover, we're going to have to have more radio space aren't we? Wonderful, I mean I'm hoping that my UN the team will come and meet you one day and of course bring volunteers or leaders from those groups to talk to the wonderful people of the county. I would look forward to it and certainly welcome meeting the whole Lord, you know I've met so many new people through you, I feel as if my life has been totally transformed totally. Oh bless you. My guest this morning is lovely lady that you're brought with you, well we've never met before but I feel at some higher I've known her all of my life. We'll let that be the judge at the end of the interview she might be saying oh no! Yeah we'll let her be the judge away. Now as well as of course a new funding and that's wonderful news of course you're also working on a new information setup aren't you? So tell us about that. These information stations are for members of the public to drop in, meet can team members and they are in usually in libraries but we are beginning to spread out into food bank settings, food fridge settings, it's somewhere where you can drop in and ask somebody who knows all about the county, I've got a problem with this. Whatever. I need some support with finance information or I'm a bit, I love doing Scrabble but my Scrabble clubs close where can I go instead or it's to do with any member of your family or any of your friends it's to stop people from feeling isolated because there are so many clubs and there is so much support out there from the voluntary sector that people can join so if you I'll give a few dates if you don't mind. Go for it. So our lovely team will be at Castle Point Library on the third of June which is a Monday the 10th and 17th and 24th so every Monday that's next week isn't it? Yes and then each each Monday throughout June and probably further into July but I only looked at June there'll be there from 11 to 1 there'll be big banners, they're turquoise in colour with can in the yellow circle so if all logos go up the team will be wearing sweatshirts with the logo on and just approach them and say I'd like to find out more about X, Y or Z and I challenge you to find something that they can't help you with so if you're in the Castle Point Library area on those Mondays pop in they're going to be Christ Church Library on Tuesdays in June the 4th the 18th to 25th I might have missed one from 2 till 4 p.m so exactly the same setup go into the library and have a chat with them they're in Broadstone Library on the third of June 1 till 3 and then there's a bit different in Boscombe there's a digital hub space it's next to the Royal Arcade there and that's a really good community space so as well as having support with digital skills one of our information station team will be there and they're also going to be there on Tuesdays in June from 2 till 4 and again you can pop in anyone is welcome from the members of the public to drop in and find out what's available for you to help you live a happy and healthy life well that sounds fabulous because it oftentimes when people have a difficulty they wonder that there's so many options open to people these days so this signposting server sounds fabulous because it's a way in which people can say what I really need is and of course your team will be signposting them to probably more than one yes yeah plus yeah fantastic that's really really good thank you now the final thing of course that we need to talk about is is volunteering now of course you heard me saying 17 years can you believe 17 years of 24/7 hope FM and you know before that you went around Hannah we did 14 years before 2007 with temporary broadcasts I've lost count actually of the number of people that have been through the studio doors not of course here but at the YMCA where it all started and so on but all of those people and our entire work was then and continues to be made possible by volunteers now you're passionate as well as I am aren't you why why well I don't know whether to say happy birthday or happy anniversary I think it's probably happy anniversary to you that's that's tremendous it's volunteering provides such a lovely opportunity for the individual to do something that they can feel proud of and have a sense of achievement it's also really practically great I mean it can help people to bump up their CV if they're looking for work quite often we've heard that people who I was talking to I was at the cherries yesterday I was at cherries together come on you cherries he would be very jealous I got to go and the dugout and in the changing room if Dan was here he would definitely be very very jealous well I'll let him know when the next one's on yeah so that brought community groups together and they were saying that they've had young people go in as volunteers to help I don't know with the admin or the training and ended up getting an apprenticeship with the cherries and then ended up having a job with the cherry so it doesn't always lead that way and it's not always the purpose for people to do that but it's just a way to develop skills use your skills and help other people well of course one of the things that covid did in a positive way was to help people to volunteer because people otherwise would have been sat at home thinking all sorts of negative stuff and now I know that you can we're incredibly active during that time and you had thousands of volunteers in fact you had more volunteers that you could go with didn't you and to some degree that has continued maybe not at the same level but it's continued hasn't it there were 2000 or so regular volunteers at the vaccination sites lots and lots of them carried on being volunteers some had to go back to full-time work or whatever happened with their families but we did have an event last week called the day of action in bournemouth town center it's been in the echo I saw that I saw it yeah the police were there talking about knife knife crime and can were there with 60 plus volunteers all in our hive is jackets picking up litter and getting rid of graffiti and brambles from bournemouth town center and what a difference that stay is made honestly there were bin bags full it was mostly cigarette butts which I think often people don't consider to be litter but we were picking them up with pinchy with gloves on and of course the other bad thing which we'd need especially this treatment is is chewing them wait do you know I didn't personally I did an hour stint I came across a few bottles and a few ice cream wrappers but mostly it was picking up these really fiddly little cigarette butts with these litter pickers which obviously didn't make any difference to the bin bags full really but it was they just don't go away they they swell up they get stuck in animals throats they just grow so my little plea from last week's fantastic event is put your cigarette butts in the bin please we were picking cigarette butts that had been stubbed out on a bin and then dropped on the floor yeah so it's probably because people don't don't think about it you know so folks know that Hannah's made you aware of it by all means enjoy your cigarette but when you're finished enjoying it then make sure you put it out thank you Blair and that you put it in a bin thank you Blair but that was great to see there were all these hives people with gloves on wandering around Bournemouth for the most of last Thursday making a real impact and we got thanked we got thanked as we were doing it which is always nice to hear one other thing I want to mention with volunteering and I don't know whether you've come across this problem but I have a real problem with some volunteers doing too much so for example I just had a conversation in fact you saw me talking to a gentleman in the car park now he's a volunteer he started with hope of him right way back in the early days when we were doing these temporary broadcasts he did film reviews and so on and he's now retraining to come back to probably anchor one of our major programs but I said to him I said John be careful I said because radio is very infectious and if you're not careful it will take over your life I guess you could pretty much say the same thing about all forms of volunteering because when people get involved they do get heart and soul very involved and there can be an over commitment can't they I think it's it does release happy hormones when you've done something good it does it's not always you know it's it's good for so many reasons helping the person that you're helping or the group that you're helping we've got many volunteer stories that we've been gathering to get case studies of who who different people are how they've got into volunteering people come into it for lots of different reasons and I really do think if you look on our website www.can100.org there's a big section there on volunteering and there is there was a role for anything you can imagine there will somebody will want to volunteer for it so you know they really are some obscure things on there animal is very very popular and we did talk a few months ago didn't we with guide dogs and about how being a foster parent for a guide dog that's an incredibly time consuming a very yeah I would imagine that would be heartbreaking but there are things I mean I volunteer once a month for win on waste which is recycling hard to recycle goods you doesn't have to take over your life but still you can still find something to suit we're coming to the most important part of today it was introducing the community hero of the month of June actually now tell us what the theme was at this time round carers support carers week is the 10th to the 16th of June there are lots of people who have unpaid caring responsibilities there are lots of people who don't realize that they are a carer and therefore don't get the help that is available to them so we wanted to highlight a fabulous organization so they can help people with that and once again I guess that so many organizations involved with caring and so on and of course there's many many people who care aren't on anybody's radar you know so I'm looking forward to talking to the person that you will be introducing but before we do that shall we do the include a lot so the community hero for the month of June is and it is carers support dorset carers support dorset and who is this lovely lady that you've brought into the studio with you today? Poppy has volunteered to come along and be on the radio and I know she's going to be fabulous well Poppy welcome to hope I've had and I think to your first ever radio interview is that right it very much is so you'll have to go easy on me today I will go very easy on you when you go easy on me I'll try because sometimes the guests give me a hard time you know anyway what was it that got you into to all things caring so I well so I think it's a really difficult question to answer really I think growing up I've always been very family orientated I'm really lucky to have the family and friends that do around me and what I would say about caring is that often what I would say carers kind of fall into a caring role it's not something you necessarily you know prepare as a sort of natural thing isn't it it is very much so and I'm going back some years now but at the time I became really a carer for a partner at Timex partner now who had quite significant mental health issues so supporting him to go through cams which is children adolescent mental health services and being on the receiving end of so many services that are there and designed to support them actually I felt that I wanted to be able to give back and support other people that are seeing others go through those challenges themselves actually I think I lost myself along the way a little bit when I was providing so much caring support to them that actually I wanted to to shame more appreciation and provide more support to your carers themselves but I suppose that having walked through some very difficult and challenging times yourself would have given you a greater understanding in the field that you're now operating of course you are the operations manager aren't you for carers support dorset it's a big responsibility but I guess that that your passion which you clearly have and your experience painful though some of it was not all of it some of it would have actually made you in the ideal candidate for the job is that a fair assessment yeah I'd say so I mean it's sadly spurred on my interest so I went I was born and dorset and I think we're really really lucky to live where we live such a beautiful county but I studied and moved away for West Sussex for a short period of time and I qualified as a social worker at the time and then when I came back carers support dorset just so happened to be launching so we'd be five years old so you're right from the beginning and it's been a real pleasure to sit develop and grow well tell us something wee bit about the organization what's your resume debtor what if you had to sum it up I mean I've gonna all the stuff that you give to can it's fabulous you know but in but in your own words if you had to summarize the essence of what carer support dorset does how would you do it was it be difficult because you do so much we do we really do and I would describe it as essentially we're an organization we're a charity that supports unpaid family carers that might be that you know your parent came for an autistic child a spouse you know if your life changes overnight because they've got a stroke or had a stroke or might be that you're caring for a parent with dementia the idea of our service is that we want to be a space there's no wrong door so at any point in your caring journey you can come through to our service and we can give you the information advice and guidance that they need to be able to continue caring and more importantly actually make sure that they are taking the care that they need for themselves do you think and maybe you know when you when you're in a very real sense caring for your your previous husband that that people actually sometimes just do things because of love or whatever because they just need to do it they maybe don't even think of themselves as carers now i've got a figure here of 35 000 plus people that you have identified in in the county who are actually doing on-pad caring it's a lot more than that isn't it it really is so that 35 000 was counted from the last census in 2021 but we know that that number is massively underrepresented so there's this little thing called hidden carers how on earth do you reach them oh it's it is really really tricky and i think it's because there's a lot of barriers to identifying yourself as a carer and partly it's just the word carer it's a label that not many people necessarily identify themselves with and that's because you know they're doing it because they they love the person that they're caring for it's because you know they're their mum wife daughter son whatever it may be actually they don't and especially with disabilities realnesses that are progressing over time actually their caring responsibilities might increase and they don't necessarily one day have the label given to them as a carer but actually it doesn't need to be a barrier so we work an awfully hard to work with various organizations gps whoever will listen to us really across the county to make sure that those in local communities do know what a carer it is and how to support them so in a very real sense you and your colleagues are champions for carers you're sun blowing the whistle you're carrying the flag at every and here you are on the radio doing exactly the same thing are people listening the people who's attention you're trying to get the people particularly who have the money and the resources that you guys need to do your work I certainly hope so I mean my one of the joys of my role is that I do work with such a dedicated and fantastic team we really really do all care about what we do and part of being the lead carer support service across Dorset is that we we work with other providers organizations we work with we're commissioned by Dorset council so the idea is we want to bring everyone together to make sure that we are delivering the best possible service that's going to respond to what carers feel that they need now what sort of age range does the caring cover so we're in all age service so we support carers as young as five years old so um carers as young as five yeah under the legal definition it is a young carer can be as young as five so that might just be some emotional support um you know caring looks different for everyone and every person's situation is unique right up into an all age service so there's no cut off uh wrap until uh when when you're carrying roll-ins now of course many of us have heard about young carers and and the word that they do and I know there's a number of organizations that offer support but again you know young people in fact you mentioned five years old as young as that is there not a very real risk to them in their caring that because I am the father of a special needs son uh he's 39 now but since he was five he had all levels of spiritual or special need uh which in fact was a was an unveiling really from having seizures epilepsy then we realized he was on the spectrum you know the sort of progression of these sorts of things one of the things that I've come to know and for a while I was on bone with barakine so I had responsibility for adult social care and I've always felt that carers are the salt of the earth there is no words to describe the self-sacrifice that they make but also the fact that um people get guilty about asking for help uh that they don't know would it help this is true isn't it yeah they certainly do I think there's an awful lot of guilt particularly where you know their caring roles grown and grown um perhaps the person that they're looking after doesn't want to accept you know accept outside help and sometimes the carer it's really difficult to actually feel that you can express that need so I need to take a step back and I need to take care of myself um it can be really really challenging and of course the the price of not taking care of yourself or even recognizing that you need support and help will ultimately affect your your own health won't it yeah and I think that's sometimes just picking up the phone because you know no one knows what they don't know and I think even just picking up the phone sometimes to go gosh things are really challenging at the moment but I don't even know where to start what is out there that's exactly what care sportdors are here to do just kind of navigate that journey with them just to say that of course my very special guest guest today is Poppy Collins she's the operations manager with carer support dorset and we while ago about ten minutes ago you heard that wonderful song lean on me and of course that's exactly what Poppy is inviting you to do if you're involved with caring of any kind particularly if you're five plus now how do they do that Poppy how do they make contact with you yes the best way to get in contact with us is give us a call on our free phone advice line so that's I hope you got your pens at the ready it's 0800 3688349 otherwise you can go to our website so that's www.carersupportdorset.co.uk and we do have an email as well and then you'll get through to a member of our friendly team fantastic so if I was to dial out number 080 and then it was 0368 and then 8349 yes so I've fallen up what will happen yeah so once you get through to a member of our team if you're not already known to us what we will do is we will offer for the character register with us and what that means is we'll take some basic information I promise you we won't take much of your time up you know you're incredibly busy but the idea is once you've registered with us it means you can contact us at any time on your caring journey whenever and you won't have to retell your story you won't have to go through what's going on for you in your life right now what your caring role is looking like we'll be able to pick it right up where we left off and I know that that's really important absolutely so this is a lifeline to you and what's more folks it's a free lifeline to you how do you get the funding to keep your wheels turning so we are commissioned service so does council some time ago recognize that they could be providing better and improve support services for carers because ultimately they they prop up adult social care you know without carers the social care system would collapse in my point of view so that's why we are here and we offer a real wealth of information advice tailored to our needs it's not just your point of view because I was the portfolio holder for seven years and I can tell you that both adults and children's social care are the biggest budget on any council's agenda and you have to do it it's you don't have to do parks and gardens you don't have to do leisure you do have to do adult and children's services so I'm so glad that your work is being supported and of course so many people have been helped now you've got a fabulous week coming up of celebration so that's the carers week which is June the 10th to the 16th tell us what will you be doing what sort of events are you organizing yeah for sure so um this year for carers week the national theme the campaign theme that's going on is called it's titled putting carers on the map and what that means is we really want carers to feel valued and recognized in communities so not just ourselves but lots of organizations across the county put on several events so there's hopefully one going on on your doorstep to access a wealth of information it invites you to take up crafts activities take a bit of time for yourself just really kind of bring home actually how much is out there for them to to access support wise so that's an addition to our regular events and drop-ins and bits of pieces and there's all the information for those events on your website it absolutely is so our main event this year we do move around the county each year but this year it's taking place at the barrington center over and fern down and that's one till four p.m. on monday the 10th of June so give us that website address again yeah of course it's www.carersupportdorset.co.uk and the telephone number it's 0800 368 83 4 9