Developing Environmental Awareness

Beyond Limits believes we all have a part to play in safeguarding the future of our planet. We have produced a policy full of ideas to help us protect the environment, we hope this will help you develop environmental awareness.

We believe that we can all make a difference and a good start is by following the five R’s below…

• REDUCE the materials we use and waste we produce
• RE–USE and RECYCLE materials wherever possible
• RESTORE what is deemed to have been destroyed
• RESPECT our neighbours and our environment.

Our policy has helpful information on energy, paper, plastic, transport, re-use and re-cycling. Check out the handy guide to re-cycling symbols below:

Caroline’s lovely trip

Caroline had a lovely trip away recently which started with a stopover in Wolverhampton whilst heading to the main event which was NEC at Birmingham to see Crufts. She had a lovely evening in Wolverhampton, had dinner in the hotel and then relaxed with some TV before an early night beckoned to make sure she was fresh for an early start the next day.

Caroline and team were up and at it the next day, with breakfast had and the car packed up they got on the road and headed to Birmingham. It was a jam packed day with lots to see, they walked around all the arenas, watched loads of competitions, including the dancing pups and they even managed to talk there way into the VIP area. Caroline saw lots of dogs from all over the world, managed to cuddle a few and ended up with loads of dog treats and free magazines.

As the day came to end the team packed up and started making their way back North. A night over in Blackpool was next on the list and a chance to visit the beach and do some shopping. Once back home, a chance to reflect on the trip and everyone agreed what a great time they all had.

Who knows where Caroline will visit next time, although we have heard it might involve a passport and an airplane!

People at the Centre

We were delighted to be approached recently by Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland to do a story for their “Humans of Scotland” campaign.

Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland work as an intermediary for a range of health and social care organisations and their strapline is ‘People at the Centre’. Needless to say we were more than happy to help and knew just the person to put them in touch with.

Our special thanks to Doreen for sharing such an inspirational story which you can read on the Alliance Scotland website.

Elizabeth’s big birthday bash

Elizabeth had a star studded weekend to celebrate her 70^th birthday and she partied in style with her staff team and friends and family.

To kick it all off she started with a party at her house, everyone got their best outfits on and shared a glass or two and canapés were handed around. Elizabeth had everyone organised with times and outfits and the star event to celebrate her birthday was a black tie affair which she spent with her family and friends.

She has had a truly splendid time and everyone involved enjoyed spending time together to help her celebrate. See more photos from Elizabeth’s birthday bash below.

Its good to get away

Its always good to get away and Elizabeth and June visited Gatehouse of Fleet for 3 nights recently.

They picked a lovely little boutique hotel called The Ship Inn which is in Gatehouse and where the novelist Dorothy Sayers wrote her book, ‘Five Red Herrings’ which was a typical Scottish murder mystery.

They enjoyed some walking and paid a visit to Cream of Galloway where they made their own chocolate and ice-cream. Elizabeth said they had a super time and it certainly looks like they had some lovely food.

The Cream of Galloway website

Caroline’s favourite places

Caroline could not wait to get back to one of her favourite places when the restrictions were lifted.

She visited Southerness with Clare, her support worker and they had a great time. They stayed overnight in a caravan at Southerness Holiday Park and then spent their day walking on the huge beach. It is a great opportunity for Caroline and Clare to spend some time together away from home and a great chance for Caroline’s mum and dad to have a bit of respite.

Looks like a great time was had and Caroline is looking forward to more nights away in the Summer.

The Bake Off competition

Lockdown has certainly made people think about how they can fill their days.

Our Service Leader Pat Burnett introduced the idea of a “Bake-Off” competition to keep people busy and focused. This has been important as a lot of the usual activities  people would be involved in have been closed.

It has really taken off and runs every month and the categories are for best tasting, best presentation and best overall with a prize awarded for each. There are professional judges, this usually involves a local neighbour or friend and as you can imagine we are not short of judges, especially for the best tasting category!

Click on the gallery below to view as a slideshow…

Although we have a handful of entries, it is slowly taking off and as you can see from the pictures, the results are really very good. Everyone usually wins a small prize, maybe a little thing for the house or garden, one person opted for a set of cookie cutters for a more professional look, how is that for competitiveness. The person who wins overall gets to chose what the next bake will be and everyone loves getting organised for it, shopping for ingredients and hunting out recipes.

 Keep baking everyone!

Photography walks – thinking out of the box in difficult times

Most of us have missed getting out and about recently and taking part in our usual activities. For some of this means we have put on a pounds as well!

Tony loves to walk and he has really missed his regular walking group but along with his support worker Ainslie, they came up with a great idea of doing “photography walks”. These are just a few of the places that they have visited recently and Tony has lots more on his list that he wants find and take a photograph of.

Ainslie has decided to test Tony’s knowledge of all the places they have visited. She is working on a quiz that they can do together, using the places they have visited. Nothing like keeping you on your toes eh?

Thinking out of the box in difficult times is a huge part of the job and we are very lucky to have some brilliant support workers, well done Ainslie and Tony, now get revising for that quiz!

Beyond Limits launches a Newspaper for the new decade

As part of our celebration of the great work our staff do, the people we support and their friends and families we have produced a printed newspaper.

There are stories from our support workers, trainers and people connected to Beyond Limits plus information about new staff benefits. Our aim is to produce two or three editions a year so we have started collecting stories for the next edition already! If you would like to share a story or recommend somewhere to visit we’d love to hear from you.

Contents of edition 1

• Chantelle at college / MacMillan fundraiser
• Recommend a Friend scheme is changing / Health & Social Care Diploma
• BILD Training for Hamish and Georgia / Ian’s holiday
• Welcome Austin / Southwest Wordsearch / Useful information
• James attends the End of Season Cricket dinner / Plymouth’s new cineworld
• New places to visit / A simple soup
• Kayleigh’s three day advednture
• Planning days / Ricky has found a new love, his tandem
• Job Fairs around the South West
• Talking shop – training staff / Team working with Lou Close
• New Employee Assistance Programme / Work for Beyond Limits

On page 5 we have a Wordsearch, if you’d like the answers please click here.

Below is a link to a PDF of the whole newspaper. If you’d like a printed copy please contact the Beyond Limits office.

Staying safe and Staying healthy

We have added a new section to our website called Useful information.

We think part of providing good support is giving the people we support information to help them stay safe and stay healthy.  We have started the Useful information by adding some pages about bad people who pretend to be friends. Soon we will be having pages about health checks, healthy food with recipes and activities to keep you fit.

Follow this link to visit Useful information

Our first pages are:

Keeping safe from loan sharks

Mate crime – how to spot it

Information about Cuckooing and County Lines

How to deal with cold callers

What to tell the police when calling 101 or 999