Trail-Blazers at HMP Littlehey

Trail-Blazers is a charity which began in September 1998 whose purpose is to recruit and train volunteer mentors from all walks of life to work with young offenders between the ages of 18 – 21. Its aims are: to work with young offenders to increase their self-awareness and self-esteem and to achieve changes in thinking, attitude and behaviour – ultimately leading to reducing the risk of re-offending.

Trail-Blazers are looking for looking for more volunteers to become mentors. Recruitment and induction sessions are held 2-3 times a year and the next is expected in January 2012. To find more about the project, download the brochure here.

"The mentoring isn’t difficult. The very fact that an adult turns up each week, is for most mentees the first time a person has done that.. We are not there writing reports, highlighting the negative but supporting often very ordinary goals. It’s a special relationship and both parties gain from it."

Enterprise Pathways Director Gordon Thorpe was awarded the Eynesbury Village Association Community Champion Award for 2011 at their recent Christmas Fayre. The award is for Gordon’s dedication and achievements in promoting charities and community involvement over the past two years.

"I am both delighted and humbled to be given this Award", said Gordon; "it means much to me as it is given by the community and I will always treasure it. This Award encourages me to continue with my work for the young people of St. Neots.

Parental Wellbeing Days

Cambridge parents enjoyed the Pinpoint-CCC wellbeing workshop this autumn.

The Cafe was delighted to help Pinpoint shape and deliver their first ever Wellbeing workshop series for parents at Fawcett Children’s Centre in Trumpington this autumn. Most were parents of children with special needs taking rare time out to relax, and to learn more about:

• Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Reflexology run by our own volunteer Cafe Listener Lorraine Williamson
• Head, neck & shoulder self-massage run by therapist Elizabeth Hughes of timetounwind.co.uk (pictured)
• Alexander technique – the effect of body posture on health run by therapist Jo Fisher
• Reiki techniques for relaxation run by our own Gordon Thorpe
• "4 ways to fake confidence!" and "Boost Your Emotional Intelligence" run by Christine.

ParentZone has moved!

Meet other parents & relax with a free cuppa
Share your knowledge & experience to help others
Chat to our Café Listeners on any confidential issues

ParentZone now meets in the Cornerstone Cafe, at the corner of Cambridge Street and Huntingdon Street, St Neots, on the second Monday of the month. Meetings coming up are:

• Monday 19th and 26th September, 1.30-3: Want to be more confident at SEN assessments & reviews? Join our FREE Parental Confidence course run by the Parent Partnership Service. (Places limited to 10 each) More details here

We're launching our Youth Club!

Opening day will be Thursday 6th October, with a group for 7-11s running from 4.30-6pm, and another for 11-14s from 7-9pm at the Cornerstone Cafe.
Come and meet other youngsters
Show what you can do on the dancemats!
Chat to our Café Listeners on any confidential issues

Another course for volunteers will be run in November - watch this space!

I have attended two of the Mentoring training courses and found them enlightening and very useful, even in every day life. I would certainly encourage anyone considering Mentoring to attend as it answers many of the questions you may be afraid to ask and is all done in a relaxed and friendly manner
- Gordon Thorpe, Mayor of St Neots.

Creating the youth mentoring forum the young people of St Neots have asked for is one step closer...

The Break the Cycle action resarch project working with 6 groups of teenagers, commissioned by SNAP the abuse helpline, looking into the impact of violence in the lives of our young people, gave them and me a number of challenges:

• to create a free, safe independent drop-in space for them to go to (ie. not run by a local authority but by the community) to have time out to reflect, or to socialise with others.
• A place offering mentoring, training and development opportunities - free, as they are mostly not in employment.
• To give them a voice so that local service providers understand their needs when life at home becomes too difficult.
• To provide similar for their parents and other family members needing practical or emotional support.

Many thanks to the Royal Society of St George!

Thanks to the generosity of the St Neots branch of the Royal Society of St George who have donated £200 towards the cost of consulting and meeting with young residents from the town and the villages, we will running a public debate for young people to help us plan the perfect mentoring centre and create the steering group to help fundraise and develop it. The debate will take place at the Cornerstone Cafe & bookshop on the first day of the summer holidays on Monday July 18th from 3.30 to 5pm.

Further details from Christine.

Annual Report

It's been just over a year since the Cafe was established and May's Blog is a quick look back at what's happened up to now.

Read the full end-of-year report here.