Flashpoint Centre in Cornwall have produced a promotional film which you can watch here.

Donna Potts has been appointed as the new Gloucestershire SkillZONE Centre Manager. Donna comes from a varied career background and will be using her experience as a primary school teacher to develop and shape SkillZONE into a fun, stimulating and educational experience for all visitors.

Donna has been working with colleagues to develop the storyboards that will be played out in the scenarios, while also showing schools, community groups and potential sponsors what SkillZONE has to offer. She can be contacted on 01452 753333 and donna.potts@glosfire.gov.uk.

The Alliance are delighted to hear that Andy Townsend, our colleague and the manager of Bristol's Lifeskills Centre, will be a torchbearer for the London 2012 Olynpics.

Andy, 39, who is a former Paralympic Games volleyball competitor from 1992, said he was "amazed and privileged" to have been offered a place.

Further details can be found on BBC News, This is Bristol and Metro.

A new concept in the delivery of safety and lifeskills messages could be on its way to Northern Ireland.

RADAR (Risk Avoidance & Danger Awareness Resource), which is to be located in the Greater Belfast area, will provide a broad range of highly interactive safety focused educational experiences to young people from schools and youth groups from across Northern Ireland.

Representatives from a number of Northern Ireland government departments, private sector service providers and voluntary sector organisations have formed the Northern Ireland Safety & Lifeskills Education Centre (NISLEC) Partnership, to develop this innovative approach to improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people across Northern Ireland.

The RADAR facility will feature a series of lifelike, interactive installations that will illustrate dangerous situations and scenarios within a controlled and risk free environment, giving participants the opportunity to learn how to prevent, avoid or manage everyday hazards safely.

Speaking about the Project at the start of Road Safety week, Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable, Matt Baggott said: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland is pleased to support this latest safety initiative aimed at reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries across Northern Ireland, irrespective of the cause.

“Figures indicate that there were around 731,000 attendances at Accident and Emergency facilities in Northern Ireland last year. Many of these were as the result of avoidable or preventable incidents, costing the health service an estimated  £435 million.  During the same period, 1,666 children (5-15yr olds)  were admitted to hospital in Northern Ireland as the result of an accident in the home, costing the Health Service approx £3.8 million.

“In partnership with Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, Department of the Environment and other key government departments, the PSNI have taken a lead position in driving this very worthwhile project forward.”

Peter Craig, Chief Fire Officer, Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) added his support to the project saying: “Early intervention and education about safety issues will help the younger generation make smarter choices to keep them safe.  In NIFRS we have a number of successful initiatives working with children and young people to educate them about the dangers of fire, road traffic collisions and other types of rescue situations and we know that the lessons young people learn early in life stay with them into adulthood.

“A dedicated Safety Centre that all the Emergency Services can use will enable us to deliver valuable safety messages in a shared venue for the benefit of our community.”

Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Chief Executive Liam Mc Ivor added his support for the initiative, saying: “Much of the operational activity of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS)  involves responding to emergency calls following incidents that could have been avoided had dangers been recognized at an earlier stage.

“NIAS welcomes any initiative aimed at improving the skills of hazard recognition among the young people within our community.
Illustrating, in a safe environment, these dangers, and their potential outcomes, will, we believe, bring about a reduction in the number of incidents involving young people and improve overall safety within the community.”

For more information on the RADAR Centre, contact the Northern Ireland Safety & Lifeskills Education Centre (NISLEC) Partnership on 02890 901013

From Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service

In a review of the past year presented to the Safety Centre Alliance Annual General Meeting, Bristol Lifeskills Manager Andy Townsend reported on a successful year and several exciting new developments for the centre, which is based at the Create environment centre in Bristol.

"Our programmes for Year 6 pupils, adults with learning difficulties, special educational needs and older people are all running well with increased attendance figures year on year," said Andy, "and we are completely booked for the school year 2011-12."

Training

New developments include the option for special needs teachers, and Children's Centre staff, to be trained in centre scenarios to enable them to deliver sessions to groups themselves rather than relying on the volunteer team.

The year has not been without its disappointments however. With lottery funding for an independent living programme due to run out in December 2011, Lifeskills was hopefully of it being renewed, but a recent bid was unsuccessful.

"I am pleased that we have been able to set up a Safety Equipment Scheme in 21 Children's Centres in Bristol which will be rolled out over the coming months", added Andy.

Partnership

"We have also produced an accidental poisoning awareness scheme with campaign material which is being delivered in partnership with NHS Bristol and Avonsafe."

The centre recently hosted a Childhood Injury Symposium for child care providers, injury practitioners and academics in which 45 delegates participated.

Future plans

Despite the current financial climate, Andy and his team are continuing to make exciting plans for the future including:-

• An Initial meeting with Think Family – a partnership working to work more effectively with higher risk families
• Proposal to develop the drug scenario into Health Centre setting – to develop messages for use with other groups around access to healthcare, medication advice and much more
• Planning for 2 Open Events next year for professionals working with Early Years and Older People

Welcome to Lifewise in Rotherham

Fire and police film-set learning experience opens its doors in South Yorkshire



A brand new film-set style learning facility in South Yorkshire has opened its doors to hundreds of school children for the first time.

The new Lifewise centre in Hellaby, Rotherham will see thousands of the county’s school children learn vital life skills, including fire, road and personal safety tips.

Older people will also visit the centre as part of the new ‘Get Lifewise’ course, which aims to equip the county’s older citizens with the key safety information they need to stay safe in later life.

Lifewise is a life-size film set of a small town which is used to deliver safety messages to the public. It has been built in a unique partnership between South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership.

The new facility replaces Lifewise’s previous site near Magna, Rotherham which closed earlier this year. The Hellaby centre cost £215,000, with more than £200,000 in goods and services donated to the project by local businesses and the community.

The new centre’s larger size means it will now become home to members of the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue (SYFR) and South Yorkshire Police community safety teams, allowing them to work in partnership under one roof for the first time.

The new site also offers greater revenue raising opportunities in the future, increasing the sustainability of the centre long term compared to the old site.

SYFR Head of Community Safety Phil Shilito said: “Lifewise is our flagship learning centre for delivering our fire and road safety educational programmes. We’ve worked very closely with the community, police and other partners to create a learning space which will more than pay for itself in terms of keeping young people safe and reducing future crime and emergency incidents.”

Head of Community Safety for South Yorkshire Police, Superintendant Eddie Murphy, said: “It became clear that some work needed to be done on the old Lifewise building and we saw this as an opportunity to put the money we would have spent on repairs to good use by creating a brand new centre. The result is that we can now deliver so much more in one place.”

Lifewise’s flagship education programme ‘Crucial Crew’ began last week, with 400 Barnsley school children taken through a scenario-based learning programme to learn about anti-social behaviour, fire safety, arson, road safety, first aid and safe travel on buses.

Each year every South Yorkshire school is invited to attend Crucial Crew and the scenarios are delivered by partners local to the school.

Contact details:

Lifewise 
Kea Park Close 
Hellaby Industrial Estate 
Hellaby, Rotherham 
South Yorkshire 
S66 8LB 

Tel: 01709 832 455 
Website: www.lifewise999.co.uk 
facebook: www.facebook.com/lifewisecentre 

So what’s been happening since our re-launch event at end of June? Well, as you will see from the photo, all the old ground has been fully turned over and new foundations laid.

The steel frame is being fixed into the foundations and the real scale/size of the buildings will start to emerge. This will take up most of the contractor’s time over the next couple of months.

We see the centre as being very much a community resource and it is important that local groups, organisations and businesses are involved from the outset. We have been talking to them about how they could use the centre and the possibility of sponsoring an aspect of it. So far, the response has been very positive and we look forward to really engaging with them over the coming months.

Representatives from our contractor, Kier Moss, have visited schools in the area to discuss possible careers in the construction industry. They have also invited some local schools to take part in a project actually at the SkillZONE site to decorate the hoarding that will be going up around the construction site.

Talking of schools, we will be visiting schools throughout the county after the holidays to inform Headteachers and other influential school staff more about SkillZONE and the benefits it can bring them. Articles will be appearing on school staff e-bulletins in the new school year to encourage them to find out about what SkillZONE can offer.

For more information, please visit http://skillzone.glosfire.gov.uk/

Wrexham County Borough Council has always looked for ways to work in partnership with DangerPoint, to enable children and young people from our schools to visit the Centre. Our local schools have found that they gain so much from the experience and the reality of dangers and how to be safe are brought to life through interactive and informative sessions. 

During June, DangerPoint welcomed Scottish Power to the Centre to hold their annual Health and Safety conference.

Scottish Power has been a stakeholder of DangerPoint since opening and has been extremely supportive across the years.

During this event, employees from across different fields within Scottish Power had the opportunity to tour the Centre to experience firsthand what is delivered by our team of Rangers.

They were also able to witness the partnership working between DangerPoint, North Wales Fire & Rescue service, North Wales Police and Welsh Ambulance Services Trust during a road safety demonstration. The simulated collision highlighted the dangers of careless driving and the importance of concentrating at all times when behind the wheel.

Feedback from the employees was very positive with many commenting on the day’s events. “In my opinion it was the best Conference we have had, maybe it was down to the venue, but I also believe it was down to the content of the day. Speaking to all of the SPEN safety reps who attended, they were of the same opinion, in that it was an excellent conference especially the Emergency Services presentation, I never went over 40 miles per hour on the way home.”

DangerPoint would like to express its gratitude to Scottish Power, for the kind donation of £500 to the Centre.

For further details about the road safety presentation, or about donations to the Centre, please contact Victoria Burrows: Funding & Development Officer.

DangerPoint welcomed friends old and new to join us at our first Ladies Lunch fundraiser event on 15th July 2011. The event took place at St David’s Park Hotel, Ewloe and was a great success, raising in excess of £2500 for the charity.

During the event, 120 Ladies were greeted upon arrival with a drinks reception and had the opportunity to browse a number of stalls including Jamie at Home, Virgin Vie, Phoenix Cards, Miche Bags and Really Nice Chocolates.