Make a nomination for Wiltshire's health improvement awards

Nominations are now open for Wiltshire’s fourth annual Health Improvement Partnership Awards which celebrate the work of every individual, group, organization and business involved in improving the health and wellbeing of our local communities. 

You can also take part either by nominating work you are directly involved in or by nominating other groups, individual, clubs or organizations whose work you know of.  It’s quick and easy and is a great way of recognizing the work being done in our communities. 

To find out more and to nominate, visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/healthawards2012

Last year over 170 people from over 70 different organisations and projects attended the awards ceremony at Salisbury’s City Hall.  This year’s ceremony will take place at Warminster Civic Centre on 23^rd February 2012.

There are nine award categories:

Physical activity award

Healthy eating award

Sexual health award

The Sanofi Pasteur MSD Innovation award

Mental health and wellbeing award

Health inequalities award

Smoking, alcohol and drug abuse prevention award

Workplace Health and Wellbeing Award award

The Liquid Media Public award for outstanding contribution to improving health and wellbeing

The deadlines for nominations are 14^th December 2011 if you want to nominate another organisation, group or individual; and 21^st December if you want to nominate your own organisation’s work.

Are you interested in film? Looking to volunteer?

The Screen Me project is a community led film festival, we are looking for volunteers to help to develop and run the festival next year. The festival will present an exciting mix of films from around the world, we want to work with community groups to select films and deliver exciting opportunities to learn about film making and explore what films mean in the world today. Are films just entertainment or do they tell us something deeper about the stories that we tell ourselves and the world that we live in.

We want volunteers to help to programme films for the festival, to host events and get involved in marketing. We want volunteers to learn how to use the new digital projectors and help us to show films. And most excitingly we want to recruit volunteers to go to other film festivals in the UK to see new and world cinema films so that we can put together a really exciting programme in March 2012.

If you are interested in the Screen Me film festival or would like more information about how to become a volunteer, please e-mail arts@wiltshire.gov.uk

Community Toolkit - Guide to running small local events

This website gives you some guidance to inspire you and, most importantly, provide you with some information you may need to get started. It includes guidance on some legal, health and safety, insurance and planning issues. There is also a useful tool that creates a free Community Toolkit Pack adapted to the kind of activities you want to carry out with handy information sheets.

You can use it for a one-off event like a fundraising bingo night or it could be something regular like taking elderly neighbours shopping once a week. That’s the great thing about Community Toolkit – it’s helpful across a wide range of activities.

To give you examples of what’s possible with the help of Community Toolkit, here are some types of activities that you may consider:

                         

·         Befriending the elderly

·         Fundraising activities

·         Shopping and prescription collections

·         Garden and grounds maintenance schemes

·         Arts and creative community projects Heritage and environmental projects

·         Community groups Litter picking

To access the toolkit please visit: http://www.communitytoolkit.co.uk/

Sign up now for public Safe Drive show

 

A special public showing of the Safe Drive, Stay Alive roadshow is being held on Wednesday 23 November as part of National Road Safety Week.

Anyone is welcome to attend the free show, as long as they are aged 15 or above. The presentation is being hosted by Wiltshire & Swindon Road Safety Partnership, and it will be held at Neeld Hall in Chippenham, starting at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm, no admittance after 7.25pm).

Ian Hopkins, road safety development manager at Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service, said: “Thousands of Year 11 students have seen the Safe Drive, Stay Alive roadshow over recent years, and this is an opportunity for other people to experience this powerful presentation. We use a combination of dramatic video footage and powerful personal testimony to get the message across – it is hard hitting, but it does work, and it’s relevant to all drivers of all ages.”

To book a place, call 01380 732970 or email enquiries@wiltsfire.gov.uk

Activities to mark the International Day for Disabled People, 3 December 2011

Once again Wiltshire Council together with the Wiltshire and Swindon Users’ Network (WSUN) is promoting a no barriers week.  This year the suggested dates are 3 – 10 December.

The United Nations (UN) theme for 3 December 2011 is “Together for a better world for all: including persons with disabilities in development”. You can find out more about the UN international day by looking on their website, www.un.org .

If you, your organisation or someone you know, is/are taking this opportunity to celebrate achievements or highlight ‘barriers’, please let us know so we can help to promote and coordinate events. In this way we can help organisations work together to make more of no barriers week

If you would like to promote an event or find out what is happening in your area please refer to the following:

1.     Wilts and Swindon User’s Network phone 01380 871800, or for text only 0756 370 7672.  The website will be advertising events from November onwards.

2.     Wiltshire Council “What’s On” pages – if you are advertising an event you should make sure that the event name includes ‘no barriers’ so that it can be easily identified using the search options, by those looking for events.

3.     Email equalities@wiltshire.gov.uk

4.     Tell (or ask) at your local Library

I have attached the green and the violet logos for you to design your own promotional material and maintain the collective ‘branding’.

There is also a page on the council website: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/equalityanddiversity/equalityevents/disabilityequalityevents.htm

Screen Me Film Festival inspiring communities in Wiltshire

The new Screen Me Film Festival project is presented by White Horse Pictures, a project bringing new release film to rural Wiltshire. Screen Me aims to involve communities from across Wiltshire in the programming of films that tell stories. Stories are revealing; they come out of community history and they express the culture of communities. This project has been granted the Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme as it offers communities the opportunity to explore the culture of other nations through the films that they make and the stories that they tell.

 

The London 2012 Inspire programme recognises innovative and exceptional projects that are directly inspired by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Screen Me will present a series of films in venues across Wiltshire that explore themes of journeys and the ways that different cultures tell stories in cinema. The films will come from around the world and tell stories from different cultures and unusual perspectives.

There will be opportunities for groups and individuals to take part in discussions and activities that explore the journeys and storytelling in films as well as viewing the screenings of these inspirational films. 

We are looking for volunteers to get involved in selecting and programming films that tell stories of significance to their community. These ‘programme champions’ will have the opportunity to visit other regional film festivals to find new films and speakers to come back to Wiltshire and be part of the Screen Me film festival.

Screen Me will culminate in March 2012 with a run of films, entirely chosen by the ‘programming champions’. We hope that this mini-festival will include film reviews and interviews as well as trailers for forthcoming presentations and connections with other projects on-going within Wiltshire that explore similar themes.

To launch the festival we are screening Amreeka at the Melksham Assembly Hall on Friday 4^th November at 7pm. Amreeka is the story of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle. We’d love you to join us.

If you are interested in volunteering to get involved in this exciting project or would like to book a free ticket to this screening then please get in touch with us at arts@wiltshire.gov.uk or call 01249 705545.