PLEASE VOTE FOR US FOR A SCAMP – SPIRIT OF SHERWOOD AWARD
Open Wings has been nominated for a SCAMP (Sherwood, Carrington and Mapperley Park) – neighbourhood watch – Spirit of Sherwood Award, and we are thrilled to bits and all of our members share in this exciting and amazing nomination. This year marks our 10 year anniversary and it would be an absolutely wonderful achievement to receive this award.
For those of you that don’t know much about Open Wings let us begin at the start of our journey 10 years ago, having worked for over 32 years within the learning disability field, and although we should have the confidence to describe ourselves as experts in the field, we never do, as there is always something new to learn. There are always new challenges to face, new concepts to grasp, new terminology and new methods. We are constantly learning and evolving and we learn something new every day. So, 10 years ago, I was a Shared Lives carer to 3 women with learning disabilities and I had an idea that it would be so nice to have a setting where they could get together to do activities, to meet each other and share in new opportunities. I also wanted to challenge them and strengthen their existing skills. So, we hired a room at Sherwood Community centre. I thought about a name and a logo. The logo being a butterfly with beautiful wings, something which also has a personal story for me, but the butterfly signified a hope to carry on, to be resilient and never give up. This is instilled within our centre every single day. When a member says “I can’t”, we say “go on, give it a go. You never know. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, you can learn from the mistake”. We encourage, we build confidence and we provide stepping stones of learning in order to enable achievement and success. We celebrate achievement.
Many of the members only go out when they come to Open Wings. It may be their one trip out to see someone else each week. Many members are lonely and isolated but many are also supported and being cared for by good families/carers and support workers. It’s a mixed bag of attendees, with our oldest member being nearly 82! We provide a safe space which is full of care and a commitment to ensure every individual leads their best life.
We provide social activities and opportunities, ranging from outings, to different events, and we are part of the amazing Open Voices choir. More recently, our blankets for warmth and shelter project has seen us making blankets for the homeless out of recycled crisp packets. We also made a great social media video to go with the project.
We integrate with the local events within the Sherwood Community Centre and help to serve teas and coffees at the Community chair Zumba class. It is a joy being involved in those classes and seeing inclusion at its best. We also help at the craft fairs and Christmas events when we often run an art and craft stall for the children.
More recently, to evidence our commitment to meeting individual needs and interests, when a member is so passionate about a particular Disney character like Mary Poppins, then we fly a UK tribute artist in for a visit. Well not literally fly her in but she visits with her umbrella and bag of tricks! You may have seen our latest social media posts. It was a great day with parents and carers and some of the wider community also involved.
So, why should you vote for us to win a SCAMP, spirit of Sherwood Award?
- We provide a service to our local community often with little recognition. In our 10th year it would be wonderful to be recognised for what we do.
- The members all feel we make an enormous difference in their lives and most certainly through Covid, when we continued our service online every day. The parents and carers still say they would not have known how they would have come through every day without the online service and support for their son or daughter or the person they cared for.
- We go above and beyond when we take on a member. We help with all their needs. This sometimes entails working and giving so much more time than what is ever received in return, but we go the extra mile.
- We give everything we have within us to ensure our members are safe and well. We support them to find the right support for their needs elsewhere within their lives, ranging from financial support to mental health support and health and well-being support.
- We live, sleep and breathe Open Wings. Everywhere we go we are always thinking of new ideas and activities. What to do next. The next outing. The next celebration. The next of everything. So, we are always moving forward.
- We work silently in the background and we have for the last 10 years within the Sherwood community. Our social media has not been our priority, but making the members in front of us on that day is always our main focus
- Receiving a SCAMP Award for our 10th year anniversary would be like 10 years of missed gifts all in one go and our members would be truly elated and it would also give us another celebration to focus on.
If you like what you have read or seen on our website, please, please do vote for us, all your votes truly will make a positive difference to everyone in our small yet often unrecognised service. Please do ask your friends to vote for us. Share and flood social media. Let’s make this happen. Where for once a small, committed and hardworking organisation gets recognised for everything they have given.
Your votes will not go unappreciated.
Use the link below to vote for us
You can vote online using the link below:
You should be able to vote without an account but on the off chance you are prompted to log in, you can do so with a Google account. If you don’t have one, here is a link to a 2 minute video showing how to create a Google account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fftRaMyFgik.
You can vote in person by coming along to see us outside the Sherwood Co – op to meet the SCAMP team, this Saturday 7th September between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon outside Sherwood Co-op.
Voting closes at midnight on Sunday 8th September!