My Voice - Join the Youth Advisory Panel

Are you, or do you know, a young person with Down Syndrome who wants to take up this exciting opportunity?

As part of the My Voice volunteering programme, Hertfordshire Libraries is looking to create an inclusive and diverse panel of young people aged between 14 -24 years old, to empower Youth Voice and to advise on services and activities for their peers.

A key focus for the Youth Advisory Panel initially will be to shape the exciting new project My Voice, a youth volunteering offer, generously supported by Arts Council England, in partnership with DS Achieve, Herts Sports Partnership and The OLLIE Foundation.

You don’t have to be passionate about reading or even a library user, but you do need to be passionate about representing young people’s views, pushing for change and better opportunities in libraries for young people.

This is a voluntary role but any reasonable travel and/or expenses incurred will be covered by Hertfordshire Libraries.

What’s in it for me?

• Ensure young people’s voices are at the heart of Hertfordshire Libraries services

• Be part of creating recruitment campaigns to encourage young people to become My Voice Volunteers at their local library and develop youth-led events and activities

• Get involved in opportunities to meet other young people and work together on the exciting and innovative My Voice, the new youth volunteering project for which DS Achieve is a partner

What will I have to do?

You need to be a Hertfordshire resident aged 14-24 years old who can commit to the Youth Advisory Panel for approximately 12 months.. 

Hertfordshire Libraries will support reasonable adjustments for anyone who attends the panel who has Down Syndrome.

As a Youth Advisory Panel member, with support from the My Voice Project Officer/Senior Leadership Team mentor, you will need to:

• read any information provided to you before Youth Advisory Panel meetings

• attend a monthly meeting (either in person or online via Teams)

• work together with other Youth Advisory Panel members during meetings or via email

• support the development of the My Voice youth volunteering project

• advise on the direction of the work of Hertfordshire Libraries and how to best engage with young people

• work with with library staff to improve services for young people

• give support to Hertfordshire Libraries, acting as Ambassadors for the Service

• showcase work achieved by the Advisory Panel and My Voice Volunteers internally and via established communication platforms, e.g., social media

The next Youth Advisory Panel meeting will be held on:

• DATE: Thursday 23 February 2023, 5pm - 6.30pm

• VENUE: Performing Arts/Central Stocks Unit, Hertfordshire Libraries, Centrapark, Bessemer Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, AL7 1HT

To find out more and to express your interest in joining the panel please contact Hannah Pegg at Hannah.Pegg@hertfordshire.gov.uk.

Thank you for all your support in 2022. We couldn't have done it without you!

We are so grateful to all our supporters - the families we work with, our grant funders, our social media fans, and HUGE thanks to our employee team, our trustees, our Advisory Teachers and our volunteers - you are all WONDERFUL!

A quick summary of DS Achieve’s achievements in 2022:

• our Little Achievers pre-school programme, funded by The National Lottery and delivered by Hannah, Sandra, Rachael and our volunteer Fin (who left in autumn), supported 17 families over the year.

• our Young Achievers programme for school-age children and young people, funded by Children in Need and delivered by Avril (now on mat leave), Jo, Zohra (who left in July), Charlotte N and Charlotte L plus a sizeable volunteer team, have worked with 29 different children with most children returning each term.

• 98 bookings onto our training events during 2022, which included Number Sense, DSEI Reading and Language Intervention,, Transition to Special School & Transport, Supporting Children with Down Syndrome in Education and Visual Development. Thank you to Helen Long, Gillian W-T, Anne Gullick and Dr Maggie Woodhouse in delivering these courses on our behalf.

• our new service, Resource Packs into School, supported 14 different children in 2022! This combines bespoke Specialist Down Syndrome Advisory Teacher advice to schools and nurseries combined with the delivery of a practical resource to help teachers better support individual children with Down Syndrome specific aspects of their learning.

• our Empowerment Group combined two social events (Pots of Art and an ‘Ultimate Night-in’ fashion evening) which were attended by 19 parents, with a programme of Facebook Lives which were viewed approx. 400 times over the year.

• We rounded off all things social with a fantastic pre-Christmas party for the whole family and had 20 families attend.

• In addition to events, we have had great success with raising awareness, sharing knowledge, information and positivity throughout the year.  We’ve issued 12 newsletters to 194 parents and professionals, kept busy on social media and now have 588 followers of our Facebook page, 201 parent carers in our Facebook community group, and kept the website up to date which is now receiving an average of 470 unique visitors each month. We’ve also attended some community events to spread the word about DS Achieve and all the services we provide, increasing awareness and building relationships locally.

• At the end of the year, we launched our partnership with Hertfordshire Libraries to create volunteering opportunities for young people with Down Syndrome. Watch this space for more info as this project develops!

THANK YOU all for your support, hard work, funding, cheerleading, Facebook ‘likes’ and general love. We are very grateful and we are looking forward to carrying on delivering these services to you in 2023.

St Albans Bach Choir chooses DS Achieve as Christmas Carol Concert charity

On Saturday 10th December, we were delighted to attend the St Albans Bach Choir Christmas Carol Concert, as the choir’s chosen charity. The choir performs regularly in the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, often supported by professional musicians, and Saturday’s concert was a sell out event! Representing DS Achieve was Michelle Bolton (Head of Ops), Gillian Warwick-Thompson (Chair of Trustees) and Abbie Hollick (Trustee - and SABC choir member).

Among the beautiful songs performed by the choir, Michelle took to the stage, armed with a microphone, to tell the audience a bit about DS Achieve - who we are, what we’re about, and what we deliver for the DS community, and why. Admittedly, she was a bit nervous, but thankfully it seemed to go ok!

We were grateful for the opportunity to share our messages on the huge potential of people with Down Syndrome and hopefully also bust a few myths, and the cherry on top was the £310 donated by the concert audience. Every penny will go into the services we deliver and will make a difference.

A huge thank you to St Albans Bach Choir - and to Abbie and fellow choir member, Rebecca Turner (mum to one of our Young Achievers, Alice), for nominating us.

Family fun at the DS Achieve festive party!

We had an absolute blast on Sunday at our family get together!

Thank you to everyone who joined - it was great to catch up with so many of the families we work with and to be able to bring everyone together for some festive cheer.

The Hilltop Community Centre thankfully offers a great space, so we were able to pack in lots for everyone to enjoy:

• soft play and a sensory area

• a crafts area to make reindeer food and decorate gingerbread men

• an activity area with giant Connect 4, Ball in the Bucket, Ring the Bull and Splat the Rat games

• a ‘selfie’ area with Instagram frame and lots of props

• the dance floor, complete with disco ball and festive pop playlist, played at a low sound level

• the refreshments station with squash and treats, where members of our team served tea, coffee and hot choc (with marshmallows!) to parents

We were incredibly lucky to have professional photographer, Stephanie Belton, capturing the fun and special family moments. Check out her brilliant photos of the event to see what we got up to.

We’d like to say a HUGE thanks to the team that made it happen:

• the brilliant volunteer team on the day: Ariella, Charlotte N, Teresa, Jake, Charlotte B and Max

• and an even more ENORMOUS thanks to Jo Walker, our wonder Events Coordinator, for planning, organising, project managing and delivering the event. It wouldn’t have happened without Jo, and we are now worried about how high she has raised our standards for social events. You can never leave now, Jo!

We want to acknowledge and thank Hertfordshire County Council for their funding contribution towards the event. It was very much appreciated.

If there is anyone we don’t see beforehand, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

We are looking for volunteers to work directly with children and young people

We are looking for volunteers for two of our programmes, working directly with babies, children and young people with Down Syndrome.

Both programmes involve weekly sessions, during term time only. You don’t need to be there every week - just let us know what works for you.

No experience required - just enthusiasm and enjoyment from working with children.

Training and support will be given.

Exciting new DS Achieve partnership with Hertfordshire Libraries

DS Achieve is delighted to be one of three organisations partnering with Hertfordshire Libraries to deliver their brand new Youth Volunteer programme 'My Voice'.

'My Voice' is a two-year project, generously funded by Arts Council England, which will provide opportunities for young people aged 14-24 years old to join the Hertfordshire Libraries youth volunteer network in libraries across the county. The three partner organisations are The OLLIE Foundation, Herts Sports Partnership and DS Achieve.

The DS Achieve partnership with Hertfordshire Libraries means that library staff will receive specialist training from DS Achieve's expert Down Syndrome advisors to support young people with Down Syndrome to volunteer and gain valuable learning and development opportunities, including life skills and work experience.

Specialist DS training for library staff is commencing this term, with volunteer opportunities for young people with Down Syndrome to start from spring 2023.

Seeking a new Treasurer

DS Achieve is looking for a new volunteer Treasurer to join our existing Board of five Trustees. Our ideal new Treasurer will have a background in finance with a relevant accountancy qualification. We are a small local charity that prides ourselves on good governance and maintaining robust financial procedures and the Treasurer will take a lead on financial issues for the team. If you enjoy being part of a small, friendly team and want to volunteer some of your time and skills to a great charity this is the role for you.

For full details click here

To apply please send a relevant CV to info@dsachieve.org . For further information or to discuss any aspects of the role please contact Gillian Warwick-Thompson, Chair of Trustees either by email as above or by phone 07826 086511.

We are recruiting!

We are looking for a fantastic new Assistant Leader for our Young Achievers programme. The role is supporting our Young Achievers Group Leader and the majority of the role (3.5hrs) is on Saturday afternoons (with another 1 hour to be worked flexibly during the week).

Have a look at the role profile HERE and if you think you might be the perfect candidate, please get in touch! Send us your CV to info@dsachieve.org with a covering email to say why you are interested in the role.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Welcome to our new Trustee Selena Chapman

Welcome to Selena Chapman who is our newest appointment on the Board of Trustees.

Selena and her husband Neil have two children – Isobel (who was born in 2014 and has Down Syndrome) and George who is a couple of years older.

Before children, Selena headed up the Marketing and Communications teams of non-profit organisations including Marie Curie and Southbank Centre; held Trustee positions; provided voluntary consultancy to small enterprises and gained an MBA from Cranfield.

Currently she works part time heading up the communications and marketing team for CDP, a global non-profit that drives companies, cities and governments to reduce their environmental impact.

Selena would like to use her skills to support DS Achieve’s Marketing and Communication strategy going forward.

Oh what a night... Empowerment Group night out for mums was so much fun!

On Friday evening, we hosted out 'Ultimate Mum's Night In' for our DS Achieve mums in a cosy lounge at the beautiful Torrington Hall in St Albans. It was all about putting mums first and helping them to feel great about themselves.

Let's face it, mums are usually bottom of the list when it comes to being a priority and this can be even more the case when you're the mum of a children/children with additional needs. Our Empowerment Group aims to help parents build their confidence and resilience and look after themselves, so they can better support their families.

So on Friday, the amazing Lisa Wisdom from Style with Wisdom delivered a Style Party for a group of mums which involved fizz, fashion, and lots of fun.

Check out the photos to see what the ladies got up to....

Thank you so much to the organisations that supported and especially to @Sadna Akhal for donating the beautiful balloons!