Category Archives: News

✨ Another Fantastic Day at USW with TRAC! ✨

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Yesterday Ffion, Natalie, and Gethin attended the University of South Wales as part of the TRAC (Teaching & Resource Advisory Committee) project. TRAC gives nursing students the chance to learn through real-life scenarios, helping them build confidence, empathy, and the practical skills they’ll need in hospital settings. 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️🏥

Our members acted out different hospital scenarios brilliantly:

🗣️ Ffion played a non-verbal patient
🍺 Gethin had “fallen after a night on the pop” and sported a black eye
🤕 Natalie presented with a grazed, bleeding head

They were amazing as always, and the student nurses did a fantastic job too. ✅ The feedback was brilliant, and everyone worked together with professionalism, care, and a lot of enthusiasm. Nurses—especially Learning Disability Nurses—play a vital role in ensuring that people with learning disabilities receive safe, dignified, and person-centred care. Their understanding, communication skills, and compassion make a huge difference in every hospital environment. 💙

We are proud to support projects like TRAC, where lived experience helps shape better healthcare for the future. 🌟 Well done everyone — we loved the experience! 🙌😊

Breakfast and Belonging / Meet and Make with Multiply

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✨ What a fantastic day at Caerphilly People First! ✨ We started the morning with our Breakfast and Belonging session 🥐☕ where everyone enjoyed a warm cuppa, fruit, pastries, crumpets, and a good chat.

This was followed by our very first craft session delivered by Deb and Louise from Multiply 🎨✂️ Our Meet and Make with Multiply sessions will run for the next six weeks with two groups:

🕙 10am – 12pm
🕐 1pm – 3pm

Today everyone enrolled and introduced themselves. The theme was to pick someone in the room and draw a portrait of them! 🖼️👀

Both our morning and afternoon members did an amazing job — and there were plenty of giggles with a fun game of “Guess Who?” once we revealed the finished portraits! 😂🎭 📸 Check out our designs below and see if you can guess who’s who! A big thank you to everyone who joined us today — what a brilliant start to the project! 💛🙌

🎃 Trunk or Treat Fun with The Parent Network! 👻

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We were recently invited by the Parent Network to attend their famous Trunk or Treat event 🚗🍬 — and what an amazing day it was! The displays were brilliant 🌟 with so much effort put into designing and crafting creative sets. The children absolutely loved it — almost as much as we did! 😄 Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes 🧙‍♀️🦸‍♂️🧛‍♀️ and had loads of fun while also learning about the support networks available in the community 💬🤝

Events like this mean so much to families with children ❤️. They give everyone a chance to come together, make memories, feel part of the community, and learn about help that’s out there for them. It’s all about connection, inclusion, and fun! 🎈 A big well done to Amanda and her team 👏 for another huge success — we loved being part of it! 🥰

💙 Lived Experience Training at USW 💙

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On Thursday Ffion and Amy went to the University of South Wales 🎓 to talk to student nurses 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️. They shared their own stories about using health services 🏥 and what is important to them when seeing doctors or nurses. They said it helps when:

🗣️ People use easy words
⏰ We get longer appointments if we need them
👀 Staff talk to me, not just my carer or support worker
💡 We are told what will happen before our appointment

They also talked about:

✅ Reasonable adjustments – small changes that make things easier
❤️ Person-centred care – treating everyone as an individual and listening to what matters to them

The students asked great questions 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ and learned how to make health care fair and friendly for everyone 🌈 👏 A big thank you to Amy and Ffion for doing a brilliant job and representing Caerphilly People First! 🌟💙

🎃 Reconnect Through Music – Halloween Special 👻

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Today’s Reconnect Through Music session was a spooktacular success! 👏🕸️ The hall looked incredible — decked out with Halloween decorations that transformed the space into a fun setting. From cobwebs to skeletons, every detail added to the atmosphere. 🎃✨

Our members truly embraced the Halloween spirit — everyone looked amazing in their costumes! From witches to devils, and everything in between, the creativity on display was fantastic. 🧛🧙‍♀️🧟‍♂️

We enjoyed an incredible 29 songs today and each performance was filled with energy and enthusiasm. 🎵💫🎶 Here are just a few of the highlights:

🕺 Joshua thrilled us with “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
🌞 Hywel took us on a “Summer Holiday” with Cliff Richard
💃 Anthony impressed with “Help Yourself” by Tom Jones
🔥 Ffion and Amy rocked “Highway to Hell”
🦁 Chris delivered a powerful “Circle of Life” by Elton John
👻 Elizabeth got everyone singing along to the Ghostbusters Theme
🎸 Sean shook the room with “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley
🧙‍♀️ Nat wowed with “Babooshka” by Kate Bush

In the middle of the session, we got everyone up to dance — and what a sight it was! The floor was full of movement, laughter, and fun. 🕺💃 🎂 We also celebrated Andrew’s 30th birthday 🎉 with a delicious cake and a singalong of “Happy Birthday” 🥳 and everyone joined in to make his day extra special. To top it all off, we enjoyed a lunch of hot dogs, prepared by Christy and Cheryl — thank you both! 🌭💖 A huge thank you to everyone who helped make today’s Halloween-themed session such a memorable, musical, and magical day. 🎶🧡👻

Reconnect Through Cookery Update! 🍝🎃

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On Friday we enjoyed a yummy homemade lasagna with lots of fresh vegetables prepared by our wonderful members! 🥕🥦🍅 A big thank you to Nat for doing the quiz 🧠🎤 and Sarah for running bingo! 🎉👏 And of course, a huge thank you to all our amazing volunteers who worked so hard today — you’re the best! 💪💚

It was lovely to see some new faces joining us — we welcomed three new members who really enjoyed today’s session! 🥰🙌 We can’t wait to see everyone again on Wednesday for our Halloween-themed Reconnect through Music session! 👻🎶 Don’t forget to dress up and choose a spooktacular song to sing! 🎤🧛‍♀️🕸️ We’ll be serving hotdogs and cakes too! 🌭🧁

🎶 Reconnect Through Music 🎤🍕

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What a fantastic day we had at today’s Reconnect Through Music session! Over 40 people joined us to enjoy great singing, friendship, and a delicious pizza lunch. 💃🕺🍕 The room was filled with music and smiles from start to finish.

✨ Ellysia set the festive mood by singing the first Christmas songs of the year – it might be early, but we all loved it! 🎄
💋 Natalie rocked the room with her version of Leader of the Pack by The Shangri-Las.
👑 Elizabeth got everyone singing along and swaying to Dancing Queen by ABBA.
🎭 Matilda brought Broadway energy with a song from Hairspray the Musical.
💞 Anthony melted hearts with a beautiful rendition of Perfect by Ed Sheeran.
🚗 Sean made us all smile with Driving in My Car by Madness.
🎤 Finally, Ffion and Amy closed the performances perfectly with Stuck on You by Lionel Richie – a lovely duet to end on!

While we enjoyed the performances, we tucked into a tasty pizza lunch, prepared by Christy and Helen – thank you both for the delicious food! 👩‍🍳👏 A huge shoutout also goes to Pete the caretaker for setting everything up so smoothly 🛠️, and to Sharon for keeping track of the paperwork 📋.

The feedback from today’s session was full of warmth and positivity:

💖 “It was fun!”
😊 “I love seeing my friends.”
🤝 “I like meeting new people.”
🌈 “Everyone is friendly.”
⭐ “All staff are amazing.”
“I liked dancing in my chair.”
💪 “It builds my confidence.”
🏠 “I always love it here.”

Today’s session was filled with laughter, great music, and friendship. 🎶 Thank you to everyone who joined in and helped make it such a happy, confidence-building day. We can’t wait to see you all again next time! 💕🎤🍕

Today’s Session Update! 🌟

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Today we were joined by Emma and her team from the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities team to learn all about the Community Advocacy Service. 💬 We had an informative presentation about advocacy — what it is, how it helps, and what it means to us. 🧠💚 We also learned about the amazing support that Dewis Advocacy provides, including:

✅ Helping people have their voice heard
✅ Supporting individuals to make their own choices
✅ Standing up for people’s rights
✅ Providing independent advocacy for adults with learning disabilities and those experiencing mental health challenges

A huge thank you to Emma and her team for such a great, engaging session! 🙌💙 Everyone really enjoyed learning more about advocacy and the important work Dewis CIL do in our communities. 💪🌈

Reconnect Through Cookery

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On Friday our members made a classic sausage & mash with fresh vegetables and onion gravy. Everyone worked together to prepare cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots — it smelled amazing!

A big thank you to Theresa and Judith for running the quiz and to Sian for hosting bingo – you all made the session full of fun, laughter, and teamwork. The dinner was delicious, and all the feedback from our members was positive — everyone LOVES our Friday Cookery sessions!

Safeguarding Level 3 Training

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Last week Christy and Ffion joined Jackie Hughes from Person to Person Advocacy and Citizen Advocates from across the Caerphilly Borough to take part in Safeguarding Level 3 training with our trainer Gareth. Gareth was very kind and detailed, listened to everyone’s stories and experiences, and made sure we all understood. There were lots of good conversations, lots learned, and new friendships made.

What is Safeguarding Level 3? Safeguarding means keeping people safe from harm, abuse, or neglect. Level 3 training helps you:

Spot signs of abuse or neglect
Know what to do and who to tell
Work with others to keep people safe
Understand your role and responsibilities

This training is for people who may need to report concerns or support others when something doesn’t feel right.