Tag: cards

Edinburgh homeless charity appeals for local volunteers

Homeless charity Rowan Alba is appealing for local volunteers to support its CARDS befriending service which works with people across the city, providing vital support and social contact to reduce isolation.

The Community Alcohol Related Damages Service (CARDS) was set up by Rowan Alba in 2010. Those who are referred to CARDS by health care specialists, GPs, hospitals and mental health services have, for various reasons, become isolated and developed a problematic relationship with alcohol. CARDS volunteers are there to provide vital social contact and to listen without judgment.

A team of 60 volunteers deliver 1-1 befriending support to 80 clients across the city, usually meeting once a week to provide emotional support, helping clients build their social skills and confidence to engage with their local community.

Since getting support from CARDS, 69% of clients have reported improved mental health, 77% have reduced their alcohol intake and 80% said life was less chaotic. 69% said they have spent less time in hospital.

Paul McCay, a CARDS volunteer for seven years said; “The people we work with are socially isolated, many have anxiety and are disconnected from their communities.

“Just having someone who consistently shows up, without judgment, to listen, have a chat, listen to music, go for a walk or a coffee can’t be underestimated. The regular contact that volunteers provide can be both life-changing and life-saving.” 

As a crucial befriending service for older people with long term alcohol issues and at risk of crisis, CARDSis just one of a number of services delivered by Rowan Alba in supporting some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable, isolated and homeless people. The charity aims to break the cycle of homelessness for people deemed ‘un-houseable’ by other services.

Rowan Alba pioneered the home for life concept with Thorntree Street in Leith, providing permanent homes for older men with a long-term history of rough sleeping and street drinking. The charity’s second home for life property will open in Peffermill in 2022.

Rowan Alba also provides temporary supported accommodation at Stramullion in Pilton, supporting women with complex needs to move out of homelessness and into their own home.

The charity has years of expertise working with older people with alcohol issues; these issues may stem from years of health inequality, trauma, homelessness, family breakdown, mental health issues time spent in prison or abuse. Many have developed Alcohol Related Brain Damage (ARBD), which has left them physically and emotionally damaged and socially isolated.

Tracey Stewart, Volunteer Service Manager at Rowan Alba said;  “We have all faced periods of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic but for those who are referred to CARDS, social isolation is something many have lived with for years.

“The 1-1 befriending service provided by our volunteers provides vital emotional support, helping clients to re-learn how to manage a trusting relationship with another person.

“CARDS urgently needs more volunteers to support our clients across Edinburgh, so we are looking for people who can provide compassionate support for individuals who have had a difficult relationship with alcohol now or in the past.

“Ideally you will have had experience in a role where managing relationships is key. Being able to listen without judgment and understand the benefit of human contact is vital.

“Our best volunteers are the kind of people whom you end up chatting to at a bus stop and go away being moved by the interaction.  It’s as simple as that. We provide all the support, training and guidance that you need. 

“Half of our staff started as volunteers and 85% of people who were looking to get in to social care as a career find themselves within employment within the first year after volunteering  Those who come for the experience hang around for much longer.  It’s a community in itself.”

Comprehensive training and support are provided and volunteers are asked to make a time commitment of at least 1 year.

Full details of the application process are available at: 

https://rowanalba.org/volunteering-for-cards/.

Binmen are tops in new key workers game

The unsung heroes and heroines of the Covid-19 pandemic are bin men and women, alongside couriers, shop workers, journalists and of course, doctors and nurses.

A brand new edition of Top Trumps, honouring Covid 19 key and essential workers, has hit shops … with profits being donated to the NHS.

The game lauds and applauds those key and essential workers who have saved Britain during the Pandemic : from doctors and nurses to less high-profile professions such as pest controllers, midwives and sea merchants.

Politicians, who are depicted on the Top Trumps card by Boris Johnson, and journalists are included too.

One of the four scoring sections in the new game is ‘Unsung Heroes’, and in that category it is the partners of key workers who come out top – they get a maximum 10 out of 10. Binmen and binwomen scored a point lower at nine out of ten. Less unsung heroes like doctors (8), nurses (8) and police (7) fare lower.

In its card citation Top Trumps point out that being a partner of a key worker is “stressful and worrying”.

Claire Simon, from Top Trumps, says: “Every single front-line key worker is, of course, a heroine and hero and would each score 10 (or even 11) out of 10 by any reckoning if we had devised a Hero category.

“By creating an Unsung Heroes category we have ensured varying marks, in keeping with the game’s core classic and its unique and much-loved branding.

“From our research, which has been intensively conducted over the six weeks, partners of key workers came out top in this section. There are an estimated one and a half million partners of key workers in Britain so that’s a lot of Unsung Heroes and Heroines.

“Many of the public we spoke to pointed out that partners too are putting their lives on the line, albeit less directly. As well as being there physically they are providing emotional support. For that reason we listed partners as key workers.”

Other features of the pack include: 

  • Binmen and binwomen being named as the most stylish of all the key and essential workers.  That’s because of their fluorescent and neon clothing, which is all the fashion rage at the moment. They score 10 /10 on ‘Street Style and as they are also runners-up in the ‘Unsung Heroes’ section then they are very much the card not to bin during the game!  In its card citation Top Trumps point out that refuse collectors first began their profession during the 14th Century Black Death that swept across Europe and add: “In terms of facing a pandemic, refuse collectors can rightly joke that ‘we’ve bin here before’ ”.
  • Stuffy politicians score just 1/10 in the style section – with teachers not doing much better and obviously in need of extra fashion homework. They get just 2/10.  Journalists only manage 5/10.
  • Religious and spiritual workers are listed by Top Trumps as the very oldest profession of all the workers in the pack in an ‘Originated’ section. They are named as first appearing in 50,000 BC, which easily wins this category.
  • Gadgets and gizmos winner is the journalist, which isn’t surprising bearing in mind the lightening media advances with Zoom and the like – since the start of the Pandemic. The profession with the least formal gadgets and gizmos includes mental health workers.
  • One of the very best cards to hold in Top Trumps terms is the courier. That’s because it features very well in the Originated section: at 2400 BC. It also scores very highly in the Unsung Heroes category – notching up a nine out of ten. And in terms of gadgets and gizmos it is only shaded by journalists.

Claire Simon, who is Global Marketing Manager at Top Trumps, added: “We are sure that this new edition of Top Trumps can lift spirits in this very challenging and unprecedented period of time, as well as raising money for the NHS, with all net proceeds going direct to the NHS.”

In this version of the celebrated card game 30 different professions are listed, each marked in typical Top Trumps style across four separate scoring categories:

  1. Unsung Heroes: In the pack Top Trumps explains: “All our key workers are heroes, but some jobs are often less praised. We want to make sure key workers are given the praise they deserve”.
  1. Street Style:  Top Trumps explains: “Neon is in! This section assesses the gear and garb a key and essential worker wears”.
  1. Gadgets & Gizmos:  “What equipment the worker uses and carries to do their job.”
  1. Originated:  “The year in which profession was established (or in the case of religious and spiritual workers the estimated year: 50,000 BC!).

Top Trumps Britain at its Best: Key Workers is available priced £5 exclusively at: winningmoves.co.uk and comes in a twin deck (the other pack being Britain at its Best: Hospitals.