Gentle Exercise and Meditation Class

 Friday Afternoons 
 2.00pm at The Helm.

We have recently been running our first taster course of gentle exercise techniques and meditation along to music to ease tension, keep fit and to aid relaxation. It is a very enjoyable class and is along to music and guided by a tutor. A wonderful way to relax and unwind and also have a stretch and blow the cobwebs away.

Creative Writing and Poetry Sessions

York House in Morecambe
Wednesdays 1.00pm till 3.00pm

We have been running Creative Writing and Poetry Sessions at York House in Morecambe since the service began. The emphasis initially was on Poetry but currently we are four weeks in to a new set of sessions which combine the two.

The idea behind the approach towards the sessions having begun with the theme "Observation and Assumptions around people Watching"  includes walks around the facilities in Morecambe combined with a Photography session. This was based on how differently people see the world as individuals and the personal journey by observing people in public places.

The photographs are then used as a way of creating a stimulating discussion that prompt ideas to take us to the starting point into writing a short piece.






Lots of pictures were taken of the memorial to Eric Morecambe.

This is one that we thought was particularily interesting.




 This is a beautiful poem written by someone who attends the sessions written at the beginning of the year during the Poetry class. We started the session with a bag filled with random items and wrote about what memories were stirred by them. Paul got a string of black beads.



Earrings made for the Easter Craft Fair

Beads

by Paul Sanderson 

Your beads are the thing

For whatever you days

That we would together go

 Around your neck they hung

and matched your black number

that you occasionally wore

 For dressing up, no that's  

not kind of me, for you had 

 better things to do, i'm sure

  To remind me of than these

  non descript ivory, ok plasticated

  Cherry, yet somehow beautiful

   beads 

Art Sessions that run every Tuesday at The Helm

We run our Art Sessions every Tuesday with a break for lunch between the times of 11am till 1pm and 2pm till 4pm.

The sessions cover a large range of different topics and genres These include Painting, Textiles, Mixed Media, Small Woodwork Projects, Jewellery making, Photography and bringing back the lost art of Rag Rugging!

Different combinations of these sessions also work well together. An example of this is putting together a little booklet of people’s work during our poetry sessions and illustrating the poems with photographs that explain them to build up a lovely atmospheric feel.






Recycled jeans were then  turned  into beautiful wallets with felt decorations

 

We have also been making lots of different items to raise funds for materials and equipment for the centre and towards subsidising the cost of trips and mini bus hire.

Everybody enjoys the Art sessions a great deal it’s a wonderful opportunity to unleash creative talent, develop coping strategies through the relaxing sessions in a creative environment.

Our recent Easter Craft Fair was a fantastic event where we opened the doors to the general public providing a choice of homemade soups, beverages and cakes, entertainment for children for the day in the form of a puppet theatre and other activities. We also sold beautiful craft items made by people made by people who access The Helm.

People that regularily access The Helm played a large part in the planning and setting up of the event and worked on the stalls selling items we had made and it built up a wonderful sense of pride and achievement for a lot of people.

As well as making money for the service we also wanted to use the event as a vehicle to promote a further awareness of what we can offer, as we are the only Mental Health lifeline to so many people that can be easily accessed by the local community.

We held our Easter Craft Fair on the 16^th April 2011

We are still raising money totalling to date around £950 which is being used to fund further projects and a nice trip or two.

Our next step in Social Enterprise is to have a market stall in the centre of Lancaster selling Craft Items, Art work and Homemade food (most likely cakes as many service users have now done their food hygiene training)