Green Corridor is running a questionnaire to establish potential interest in the use of a proposed new community kitchen at their Learning & Development Site, located on Stanwell Moor Road, TW19 6BS near Heathrow T5.
The questionnaire shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to complete and all personal information will be kept confidential. The deadline for the questionnaire to be completed is the 30th November 2016.
The proposed community kitchen will be a state of the art facility used to deliver training and development programmes for their disadvantaged young people with special educational needs and learning differences.
Green Corridor grow lots of vegetables in their polytunnel and growing plots on site which they currently have to give away! However their young people have expressed a real desire to learn how to pick, cook and serve the produce they have so lovingly grown in order to learn new life skills and to consider future employment in the field of catering and hospitality.
This is the basis of their bid to the Big Lottery Fund to create a new community kitchen that they are also keen to make available for use by local groups in the area.
Use of the community kitchen will be free for groups located in the 20% most deprived areas of West London and for all others there will be a nominal fee per session. They do have a minibus that can be available for pick up and drop off back to your local area.
The community kitchen will have 4 work-stations with space for up to 8-10 people and will be fully equipped with appliances and utensils, a full kitchen guide, including instructions, health & safety and standards of hygiene.
Their horticulture tutors can also give you friendly advice on how to grow your own food in your gardens, allotments, patios, window boxes and community spaces.
Although you will be required to bring along your own ingredients you can make use of the seasonal produce they grow on site. From April next year this will also include harvesting of locally grown oyster and shiitake mushrooms from a social enterprise they are starting up on site.
To complete the survey click here

Going to court alone can be terrifying. The Personal Support Unit (PSU) is there so that people donÂ’t have to. Their trained volunteers give practical and emotional support to people who are going through civil and family court proceedings without a lawyer. This new service is open at West London Family Court, Feltham.
Overview:
The charity began 15 years ago, with just three volunteers in one court in London. Now more than 550 volunteers help people in 19 courts across England and Wales. In the last year, the PSU has helped people more than 44,000 times.
At the start of 2013, the PSU was helping people 1,000 times a month across the country. Since then this figure has quadrupled, as more people find themselves in court and unable to afford a lawyer. Legal aid for civil and family cases, involving divorce, arrangements for children, housing and employment, is now largely unavailable. Without a lawyer, most people are confused by the court system and feel at an automatic disadvantage.
That is where the PSU comes in. The volunteers are there to give one-to-one assistance, helping each person to represent themselves to the best of their ability.
There is a real need for PSU volunteers at the West London Family Court, where approximately 70% of all private law children act cases involve at least one parent who does not have the benefit of any legal advice. Volunteers can help people without an appointment, free of charge, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30am to 4.30pm in the West London Family Court, Feltham. The volunteers help in many ways without giving legal advice: describing what might happen in court, helping to complete (or find the right) forms, sorting through paperwork and supporting clients to prepare it for a trained legal eye, guiding people around unfamiliar court buildings and sitting next to them in court to steady their nerves.
District Judge Middleton-Roy, is very supportive of the service and said “Having a PSU volunteer in Court hugely assists in aiding the understanding of vulnerable Court users of the complex legal system and its processes, empowering them, helping them to feel less disadvantaged, reducing the prospects of disrupting the process and assisting in facilitating that party in engaging effectively in the dispute.” 
The PSU is the only organisation providing this service in the civil and family courts on a daily basis. It opened its doors in West London on 18^th October, helping four people on that day alone, including accompanying an individual to his very first hearing.
The PSU Manager in West London is Klara Slater and she can be contacted to arrange appointments, discuss volunteering opportunities or for general enquiries on 020 8831 3573 or wlfc@thepsu.org.uk Website: www.thepsu.org.uk
 
 

With funding becoming ever harder to obtain it is important for organisations to be able to demonstrate the value of their services.  This workshop will show you how to implement monitoring systems that will enable you to provide evidence to potential funders and utilise existing resources more effectively and efficiently.
Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate that your organisation delivers services with added value
• Identify the best monitoring and measurement techniques for your organisation
• To develop a range of output and outcome indicators
• Reduce the administrative burden of data collection

When: Tuesday, 13 September 2016 at 13:00 (BST) 
Where: Can Mezzanine – Treaty Centre Hounslow, TW3 1ES – View Map
To register for this workshop click here

A new charitable scheme launched in Hounslow in May, providing a discount card to people that volunteer 100 hours or more for a charity, hospital, school or not for profit library or park service in the Borough. ValueYou was originally setup in Ealing by a junior Doctor as a way of saying thank to hospital volunteers and was already running in 6 Boroughs. Hounslow Council provided some start-up funding to bring the scheme to our residents.
Volunteer Hounslow will be working with ValueYou to administer the scheme and also providing a certificate of recognition for the volunteers.
The cards can be used at over 350 independent businesses across London including cafes, restaurants, butchers, bakers, florists, launderettes and more. The card is completely free-there are no charges or fees of any kind. Each volunteer can also choose a gift voucher donated by an independent business. Visit www.valueyou.org to find out more. You can register with the scheme either online through the website or with a paper application form. Volunteer managers can email contactus@valueyou.org to receive guide on how to support volunteers to access and make use of the scheme.
 

Speak Out in Hounslow is a local charity that supports adults with learning disabilities.
As you can see above, the logo could be improved upon and the charity is (finally) looking for a fresh new logo.
The competition is open to Speak Out members, the general public and professionals. A small prize of £50 is being offered as well as heart-felt gratitude and the winning idea will be used by Speak Out in all their branding.
The top five ideas will be on display on the Speak Out stall at the Brentford Festival on Sunday 4th September. Members and the public will be asked to choose their favourite idea.
To Enter: The competition is open to everyone.
By Post: Send your idea on A4 with name, address and telephone number on the back and post it to: Logo Competition, Speak Out in Hounslow, 2-03 Qwest, 1110 Great West Road, Brentford TW8 0GP.
By Computer: Send your idea as A4 in .pdf or .ai (Adobe Illustrator) or .ppt (Powerpoint) tonick@speakoutinhounslow.org Put “SOH Logo Competition” as the subject and give your name, address and telephone number.
The closing date for ALL entries is Monday 15th August 2016.
Tips:
Visit speakoutinhounslow.org to get an idea of what Speak Out does and try to reflect it in your ideas. You can view the latest edition of Speak Out in Hounslow News which is full of news and pages of activities for people with learning disabilities in Hounslow.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated logo. Often simple is best.
Your idea will be used to create a final logo that will be used on all Speak Out in Hounslow branding. It will be used on big posters and on headed paper. Please make sure it is clear, sharp and stands out at all sizes.