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Boost for
disabled sports
LIVERPOOL has been awarded
more than £300,000 to encourage disabled adults to get sporty.
The money will fund the Activate Me project, set to start in early
2013, opening up opportunities for adults with disabilities to get
involved in a variety of sporting activities.
Figures show that only 22.6% of people – around 3,200 - living in
Liverpool with a limiting disability are involved in physical
activity once a week. The aim of the programme is to get this sector
interested in a sport that they can take part in for several years –
from dance and basketball to swimming and football.
There will be a group of 'Activators' who will give
one-on-one support to disabled people who are interested in
accessing sport, building their confidence and being on hand to give
them advice, helping them become as sporty as possible
Sports Buddies will also be recruited to offer initial support to
anyone who is trying something new. And, to make sure the new
initiative is as accessible as possible, each session will cost just
£1.
Liverpool city council's cabinet member responsible for leisure,
Councillor Wendy Simon, said:- "We consulted with the disabled
community to find out exactly what was stopping people from getting
fit and active.
Activate Me is all about eradicating any barriers which stop someone
taking up an activity, and we can now create a legacy of lifelong
sport for disabled people.
Funding like this is essential and as a result new sessions can be
provided, more training can be given to staff and volunteers and
equipment can be bought.We're committed to increasing inclusive sports participation at
every level and I hope that as a result of this new scheme, more
people get involved with sport and, you never know, we may produce
the Paralympians of the future!"
The project will initially offer opportunities to people with 1 of 3
disabilities:-
Moderate learning disability
Visual impairment
Hearing impairment
The programme hopes to overcome
the barriers which may prevent people taking up a sport – which
includes building people's confidence and improving communication so
people know what facilities in the city are available to them.
The city council bid for the National Lottery funding of £334,000
which was awarded by Sport England's Inclusive Sport Fund through
their Places People Play programme. The funding is available as a
result of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy programme.
Britain's greatest Paralympian, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, said:-
"This funding will go a long way to helping those inspired by
the outstanding performances of our Paralympians this summer to get
out and try sport for themselves. It's fantastic to see such a wide
range of organisations benefitting – all of them focused on helping
more disabled people to discover how much sport has to offer."
Activate Me is also being supported financially by Liverpool Mutual
Homes and Your Housing.
For more information call:- 0151 233 3880 or
email.
Christmas jobs bonanza at the
Grange and Pyramids
CHRISTMAS has come early at
Birkenhead's busy Grange and Pyramids Shopping Centre where more
than 100 jobs have been created. Christmas temp positions at
the busy shopping centre have been snapped up like hot cakes by
people looking to gain valuable work experience for their CVs and
earn some extra cash in the run up to the big day. Commercial
Director for The Grange and Pyramids Shopping Centre, Derek Millar,
said:- "Christmas is always such a busy time and it brings job
opportunities too and particularly for young people this can be a
bridge to full-time employment because these positions can often
lead to permanent roles and to careers. They are an
opportunity for many people, often young students and
school-leavers, to gain work experience in the retail sector and to
earn much-needed cash. Often keen and hard-working temporary staff
can impress their employers so much they either get taken on
permanently come January or they're first in line when the next
full-time post becomes available. And these positions offer
work experience and the chance to add something meaningful to your
CV as well as a useful reference for future employers. It
shows how important the retail sector and the Grange and Pyramids
with its 1,300 plus employees is to the town of Birkenhead and the
surrounding area."
Next at The Grange and Pyramids Shopping Centre has taken on a
sizeable group of 33 extra staff to cope with the Christmas rush.
Bernadette Walsh, Manager of the Next store, started herself as a
Christmas temp for the high street giant, 20 years ago.
Bernadette Walsh said:- "I
came out of college and had been struggling for a little while to
find employment and then the temp job with Next came up and I
absolutely loved it. I didn't want to leave but of course I had to
but then two or three months later, I got a phone call and they
called me back. The rest is history! Our Christmas temps get
some really worthwhile training while they are here which will
hopefully hold them in good stead even if the position doesn't
become permanent. And of course it is the experience of
working with the customers and dealing with different problems and
situations. These are useful skills which you could transfer to
other jobs if you needed to. We can't guarantee a permanent job at
the end of it but for those who work hard and make the most of their
time here, then who's to say what vacancies might come up in the
near future and we will already have a very good idea of how they
work."
Kayleigh Cooper, 18, from Rockferry said she was 'made up'
when she heard she had got the temp job at Next for the busy
Christmas period. "I have just finished college and I didn't
really fancy going to university because I wanted to start in a job.
I like the idea of working in retail because it involved working
with lots of different people so the job is quite varied. I feel
really positive about what this might lead to for me and I am
looking forward to making the most of it and enjoying the time with
Next. The staff are really friendly too which is good. I am also
looking forward to the money in the run up to Christmas although who
knows if I will have much chance to spend it. Hopefully I will be
working too hard!"
Other retailers at The Grange and Pyramids Shopping Centre have also
taken on their fair share of temporary Christmas staff. TJ Hughes,
which reopened its doors only two months ago, has taken on 20 extra
staff to cope with the festive rush and Argos and River Island have
taken on 15 and 14 respectively. There is late night shopping
every Thursday at the shopping centre in the run up to Christmas and
parking is only £2 for the full day.
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Women Want Car
Accessories and Men Want Beauty Products
EXTENSIVE research of over
500 members of the British public has come up with some amazing
insights into men and women's lifestyle choices this Christmas. The
key findings from the nationwide research outlined below, shows that
men are spending more time on the way they look than women, whilst
women take more pride in their cars than their male counterparts.
The research, which took the form of focus groups and online
questionnaires, was conducted on behalf of The Giving Card; a
unique discount loyalty card that allows the user to contribute
directly to a charity of their choice; in order to ascertain
exactly what the general public desire in terms of goods and
services in the festive season.
The findings show that although women still look for fashion items
as their top requirement, they have uncovered the fact that women
now prize their car above men, whilst men have a preference for
beauty and grooming products that outweigh the traditional views
that they love cars above all else. Men seem to be more interested
in cleanliness, from grooming, right through to dry cleaning,
whereas women seem to be spending more time in their cars and are
treating them like a second home, adding accessories to the interior
such as seat covers through to cuddly toys. More worryingly perhaps
is the fact that amongst women, the desire to purchase
'surprise'
gifts for their partners has plummeted to number 10 in their list -
whilst for men it is higher at number 5.
The research is at the forefront of the marketing and promotional
campaign of The Giving card, the brainchild of Dan Taylor, former UK
Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year and the man dubbed as
'the new Alan Sugar'.
Taylor commented on the research saying:- "We set out to find
where the British public most wanted to save money each week.
However, during our study we noticed some other fascinating facts.
You may not have initially thought that men may care less about
whether they receive surprise gifts from their partners. Stereotypes
need to go out the window in business today and we've been able to
develop a product tailored to the general public. One of the
benefits of The Giving Card is that men and women alike can pick and
choose where they get their discounts; both sexes can save on their
cars and on their beauty treatments; which one will spend more on
which though, only time will tell!"
Subsequently, out of the 500 people involved in the research, it has
become clear that men in the UK seem to have grown much vainer. This
even relates to their homes where such things as domestic services
are ranking higher than may have been previously believed as it is
clear men would still prefer to get someone else to do the housework
than have to do it themselves. Women on the other hand, wish to
travel longer distances than men in order to get the exact services
they want, especially when it came to beauticians and hair stylists.
Evidence shows men really want things within easy walking distance;
this in part may explain the woman's desire to place more importance
on their car than the men.
The % relate to the amount of people that placed these in their top
10 lists.
Top 10
requirements for services ideal to the giving card consumer are as
follows:-
Men's Top 10 1. Fitness/Beauty – discounted gym memberships were on 82% of
men's questionnaire results.
2. Grooming – 64% of men visit a hairdresser or barber more
often than their female partner
3. Cars and accessories – 72% of men would prefer a better
performing car than one which was more appealing to look at,
compared to 88% of women who preferred more about how the car looked
than the actual specification.
4. Fashion – Over 50% of men surveyed would prefer to skip
one meal a day in order to buy the new clothes they wanted.
5. Gifts for you partner (65%) – During the survey it was
established that "keeping your partner happy with gifts" was
seen as a major expense each month and one which men were keen to
have discounted!
6. Domestic Services – men frequently stated that they would
be willing to give up drinking beer to pay for someone to clean
their properties rather than have to do it themselves (80%)
7. Cinema – discounted trips to the cinema with freedom over
choice of day was very popular. (77%)
8. Bars (44%)
9. Electronics – The majority of males surveyed showed a keen
interest in owning the latest technology and saw this as a large
expense each year, rather than as a monthly cost. Most men (66%)
purchased an average of 2-3 technology products every year.
10. Restaurants (70%)
Women's Top 10
1. Clothing – Our survey showed that 78% of women spent a
large proportion of their disposable income on buying the latest
fashion trends each month.
2. Cars and accessories – Stereotypes out the window with
this one. Women ranked higher (79%) than men (54%) on the spending
on their cars; the survey showed women were more likely to want to
'kit out' their vehicles to make them look great, as opposed to men
who ranked this in 3rd place.
3. Shoes (71%)
4. Fitness (58%)
5. Restaurants (80%)
6. Cinema (48%)
7. Domestic Services – Still ranking quite high on their list,
62% of females said they would rather pay for someone to clean their
property, than have an argument with their partner about who should
do what each week!
8. Days Out – 77% of women surveyed expressed they would like
to go on more 'days out' but find the cost of doing so 'too high'.
55% of the women surveyed said they believed the most expensive day
out to be in the capital city, London.
9. Dental (61%) – Not appearing in the men's top 10, but
placing in 9th place on the women's list was the desire for great
looking teeth. Responses ranged from wanting money off of check-ups
and cleaning through to getting their teeth whitened.
10. Gifts for your partner (43%) Last chance for
Southport poem to represent Merseyside
A poem about Southport or
another town in Merseyside could win £1,000 in a poetry competition,
but hurry, because the closing date is almost here.
It's free to enter this annual competition and it's open to all UK
residents, young or old. The competition is held every year and aims
to get more people to start writing poetry. All you have to do is
send a poem about life in your own home town or area to "Local
Poem", United Press Ltd, Admail 3735, London, EC1B 1JB or
visit the
website or call:-
0844 800 9177.
The best poem will win £1000 cash and you can send up to three
entries, which must be no more than 25 lines and 160 words each.
"The competition is designed to encourage more people to get
involved in writing poetry. Your entry can be about something or
someone from your home area," explained a United Press
spokesman. "We find that poems written from personal
observation and experience are the most heartfelt and expressive, so
we're expecting some great entries from Southport and other towns in
Merseyside.
Last year's winner was from Surrey and previous winners came from
Sheffield, Bristol, Oxford, Stafford, Rotherham and Manchester.
Maybe this year the £1,000 will go to a poet from Merseyside.
Winning poems have been about a river, a tower, a local character,
village life and local history."
The closing date is December 31 2012.
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