On Friday our members cooked up a delicious cottage pie 😋🥔 and prepared fresh leeks, broccoli, and cauliflower 🥦🥬🌿. Everyone worked together brilliantly and the kitchen smelled amazing!
A HUGE thank you to all our lovely volunteers for helping in the kitchen ❤️, and to our fantastic support staff for running the quiz and bingo 🎉🧩. And a special shout-out to Peter for setting everything up — we appreciate you! 🙌 It was definitely a session to remember 💛
See you all tomorrow for Reconnect Through Music 🎶 and Friday for our Silent Disco Christmas Party 🎧🎄
Yesterday our members enjoyed another brilliant Christmas craft session with Louise and the team from Multiply! 🎅🧶 They made the cutest Christmas gonks out of wool, and everyone did an amazing job. ❤️
We all enjoyed a lovely cuppa ☕ and some tasty pastries 🥐 while chatting and socialising together. It was a warm, festive morning filled with fun and creativity! ⭐💬 Don’t forget — our last craft session is next Tuesday! 🎁✨
Yesterday we visited the University of South Wales for another brilliant session with the TRAC team.
🎭 Hannah took on the role of Geraldine, who is non-verbal, has a learning disability and Williams syndrome. 🧡 Christy played the role of Geraldine’s support staff. 💥 Nat played a patient who had a fit and knocked herself out, bruising and cutting her head.
The students were amazing! 👏 They asked thoughtful questions about the best ways to communicate with someone who is non-verbal and explored what medical checks and support Geraldine would need for her constipation. They also worked brilliantly as a team supporting Nat’s scenario. The feedback was fantastic — it’s wonderful that TRAC students get the chance to teach, share real-life experiences, and help future nurses learn in such a meaningful way. 🌟 Well done everyone! 🌟
✨ 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! 💛🙌
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.
Today’s Reconnect Through Music group was full of energy, laughter, and incredible talent. In total, our members performed an amazing 28 songs 🎤✨, and each performance brought its own magic to the room. 🌟
Matilda shone with her powerful rendition of Believe by Cher 🌈, while Ffion and Amy teamed up for a lively performance of Rehab by Amy Winehouse 🍷. Sean had everyone smiling and moving along to My Boy Lollipop by Bad Manners 🍭, and Ellysia wowed us with her version of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley 🤯. Natalie brought a touch of pop sunshine with Flowers by Miley Cyrus 🌸, and Jackie gave a heartfelt performance of Back for Good by Take That 🎶.
As the performances flowed, everyone gathered together to enjoy a delicious hot dog lunch 🌭 lovingly prepared by Christy, Cheryl, and Helen 👩🍳👩🍳👩🍳. This provided a lovely opportunity to relax and chat with friends. We’re grateful to Sharon and Libby 📝 for helping with the paperwork, and to Pete the caretaker 🛠️ who made sure everything was set up and ready before we even arrived.
The feedback we received today really shows how much the group means to people. One member shared, “I made more friends” 🤝, while another said, “I love singing and seeing friends” 🎵. We also heard, “I wish it was every week” 📅, and perhaps the best compliment of all: “You can’t improve this session – I love it” 💖.
Overall, today was a truly joyful session filled with music, friendship, and community. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making it such a success! 🎉
✨ A huge thank you to Noah for delivering the online hate crime training today ✨
Our members really enjoyed the session and gave some great feedback on what they learned:
Andrew – learned how to make accounts private and how to report hate crime. Ffion – learned the same and found it very useful. Theresa – found it helpful, especially learning not to answer phone scams. Morgan – enjoyed everything and learned more about staying safe and interacting with people. Mark – said he liked it all. Amy – found all the information helpful, learned more about staying safe, and said it was fab! Gethin – said it was great for information. Olivia – found it very interesting and learned about safe settings. Christy – said the training was very detailed, delivered in an easy way to understand, with a fun ice breaker and interesting conversation throughout. Stu – said the information was easy to put into practice, very friendly and accessible.
💡 Members also learned that hate crime can be reported to Victim Support, as well as through social media platforms if abuse happens online.
👏 Overall, members said the training was informative, enjoyable, and easy to understand. Thank you again Noah for supporting our members to feel safer online.
On Friday our members prepared lots of fresh vegetables 🥦🥕🌽🥬 – we had cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, peas, and carrots to go with our delicious cottage pie 🥧. We made it using 5% lean mince 🥩 and topped some with cheese 🧀 (and left some plain for those who prefer it that way!). Best of all – zero waste 🙌👏. Everyone enjoyed the meal ❤️ and feedback is always fantastic! Huge thanks to everyone who helped out in the kitchen 👏, to Nat for sorting bingo & the quiz 🎶🎲, and to Peter the caretaker for setting up the hall 🙏.
💚 Why Healthy Eating Matters 💚 Eating fresh vegetables and balanced meals helps boost energy ⚡, improves mood 😊, supports overall health 🩺, and gives our members the confidence to try new foods 🍴. These sessions make a huge difference by: ✨ Reducing isolation & loneliness 🤝 ✨ Building independence and life skills 🥄 ✨ Encouraging teamwork & confidence 💪 ✨ Bringing joy and friendship to our members 💛 📌 Our next Cookery session: sausage dinner with vegetables and onion gravy 🌭🥔🧅. 🎵 On Wednesday we’ll be back together for Reconnect through Music 🎤🎶. Thank you all for another lovely day 💛
Today at TARAGGAN Educational Gardens we planted garlic 🧄 and onions 🧅! It was lovely to see Kyle and Sam, and a big thank you for teaching us and sharing your knowledge. 💚
Gardening has so many benefits – it helps us learn new skills, enjoy the fresh air, keep active, and connect with nature 🌿☀️. Most of all, it brings people together and makes us feel part of something special. 🌸 Thanks again to Kyle and Sam – we can’t wait to watch everything grow! 🌱👩🌾👨🌾
