A brighter mind a brighter future

I consider myself to be a good spirited, healthy and able bodied person. I love to keep active, I often jog, I kick a football when I can, I even ski (albeit dangerously) and my newest pursuit climbing really enthrals me to the max. You can often find me in and around the city, drinking, dancing, exploring new tastes and cultures at will.

I have the world at my feet and embrace it with bright wide-open receptive eyes - always willing to help as many others as I can along the way. I have many dreams and the horizon beckons me to them.

I am simply like most people my age and until recently upon speaking to a friend about his job for a charity that works within care homes I never realised I have had a rather screwed on approach to my present but a clouded naivety to my future. I have found that river runs deeper with wider berth than I had consciously cared to imagine.

The young, active, and virile among you have it all to look forward to, however, as we get older, people inevitably slow down and body-clocks slowly grind to a halt. As this natural progression dawns among us we expect the best care from those around us. The state provides the best it can for our needs with a compulsory state pensions and care facilities. A number of 450,000 residents make up the numbers of our care home population, who are left to live out their days in what should be exemplary physical care. What sometimes is overlooked though is that mandatory thirst for mental stimulus that is core in human nature.

It is often a neglected and unseen notion that those once active minds of our older generation are lacking in that nourishment. The ex-musicians, architects and sportsmen of days gone by can keep their treasured token memories of past success and happiness but it can often all left behind for a routine of tv, dinner and dominoes. This may seem a standard approach to the latter stage of life but have we just been conditioned to believing this?. The staff that work in your average home will often do as their title suggests ‘care’ but that can sometimes only be on a physical level; It is an unfortunate situation, but bureaucratic and financial shackles wrapped around care homes mean that the residents don’t get that beneficial one-on-one mental care they need. However, this is not the only hope we should accept and hope for. A resident does not have to believe the old cliché ”I’m too old for this, “ - they need to be encouraged.
Luckily, Sheffield has its own answer to this unrest in the senior ranks in an initiative that is driven to shine a light into the life of persons in this period of their lives.

My friends charity Learning for the Fourth Age are a new pioneering organisation that work tirelessly to bring joy and fulfilment to our senior citizens, with an inspiring effort from a team of volunteers who are funded on a non-profit basis. Their staff will head into the homes and sit and complete activities with a resident. They give them a one-on-one mentoring service where they can encourage and dually complete tasks with the residents; this can range from arts, crafts, learning a foreign language and music. What the mentor will do for them is asses their individual needs, and provide them with all the assistance necessary for them to push forward; for example, an ex-artist who hasn’t drawn in years due to ill-health can expect a encouraging volunteer to sit and complete drawing exercises with them – in time that person with his new found confidence can continue in his new latest work, his first in twenty-years perhaps.

Charity development coordinator, Jason Briggs, is enthusiastic about what their work can do for people ”People like this depend on other people but doing this makes them feel worth while again,” he said ”It improves an old persons well being and gives them lots to look forward to.”
Alzheimer’s is often rife around homes and with this is mind mentors for the charity, take the time to assess a person and stimulate their minds with activities that cater for their every need and desire. This in turn brings a refreshing breath of fresh air to their lives; the once able and active contributors to society are allowed to feel like givers again.

It has been proven that in many scientific studies that Alzheimers can be improved by brain stimulation in later life.

The Nuns Study carried out by a team from The University of Minnesota in the US adds weight to their ethos.Researchers found in cognitive activities with aged nuns, that whether it be filling in a crossword, playing mind stimulating games or drawing - the effects of the disease were significantly numbed.

At a time where cost for care facilities are ever rising for residents and their families a charity like this is needed. The government’s care home model at it stands says persons who own more than £22,250 in property and savings will astonishingly find that they must finance most of their care themselves. For this amount of cash it is not far fetched to expect the sort of care Learning for the Fourth Age provides. What is needed is that same level of care that is given to our young children and that isn’t given to them.

Mueti Mbado, manager of Fulwood Lodge residential home, uses the charity and says he can see a positive difference in his residents.
He said: "We sometimes have difficulty with spending time with each resident individually but the charities' volunteers are people that can spend up to two hours with them so they are a great help.

“It’s definitely very beneficial to residents, the volunteers are all very good and the activities that they do are specific to each patient which is important. The residents who take part and their families are all very pleased.

“The residents are getting one-on-one time and they are always happy and refreshed after sessions.

“They have worked well and we will continue to use them.”

The charity currently works in 8 homes in Sheffield alone, 11 in Leicester and 1 in Leeds. For the future they would like to work to the same ethos with persons who suffer from drug and mental health problems.
Helping a person who thinks they’re over the hill continue to keep on climbing mountains is perhaps something we should all consider.

LEARNING FOR THE FOURTH AGE

With green fingers and hearts

The year is 15,000 BC. The nomadic tribespeople of the Urn stand and admire their finished showpiece, a stone circle in Crookes. It has taken a month, but now all that hard handcraft has paid off. It stands etched in the landscape, giving Sheffield one of its first symbols of civilization. Utus, the head of his clan, has seen his dream realised. He has built his talisman, constructed to acknowledge and ward off the spirits of nature and provide a place of ceremony for his bloodline. His work is now complete, his family are now settled and they will continue to live and hunt in the land for generations to come.

This ancient Bronze Age tribe is long gone from our midst, but still ingrained in Sheffield is its serene natural landscape setting in the heart of The Peak District. It has seen industry and commerce take over, but still shines though as the greenest city in Europe. Nowadays, our lovely landscape is in part tended to by the careful hands of the people at Sheffield Wildlife Trust. As part of a network of 47 trusts, they have one core mission – to help local people and wildlife. They are the single largest conservation and environmental group operating in the region and have created 11 sites within the boundaries of the seven hills. They also run a trading arm known as Wildscapes, which provides a high quality landscape and ecology consultancy service. Various training opportunities are on offer, with a wide range of NVQs in conservation, wild food and geographical information systems.

They reassuringly have a strong backbone behind them and are more than well equipped, with support from the national Wildlife Trusts network and from Sheffield Council and Sheffield regeneration agencies on home turf.

In a society that has been condemned to an impending carbon death by scientists – not a day goes by that we don’t hear damning news reports of melting ice caps and the increasing temperature of the Earth – nature and our ecology are slowly disappearing into a swamp of nothingness. While politicians argue what can be done on a national level, Sheffield Wildlife Trust makes a valuable contribution right here and now. Their 50 dedicated employees work all out and there are no less than 4,000 members, always leaving an open door for others to play a part.

For those of you who have a David Attenborough edge to their sword, there is more voluntary work than you can shake an oak branch at. The charity provides environmental training and food & health living development, offering an excellent range of opportunities on a casual or regular basis for people who are looking for work in the environmental sector or just want to lend a hand. From backroom media and marketing representatives to in-the-field outdoor volunteers helping on participation projects at the nature reserves, there is something for everyone.

Regular events held by Sheffield Wildlife Trust aim to involve the public in their work, with a particular importance placed on involving families in play activities, practical conservation days and watch groups.

With green fingers and hearts, you can help preserve this city, which has remained picturesque for thousands of years.

Glitter, glam and pychedelia in Manchester

Of Montreal hit Manchester Academy 2 on the 7th October for what was a colourful showcase of their extravagant neo-psychedelia, funk and indie-pop. I describe their lavish carnival mix of 7-foot monsters, theatrical face paint, glitter and confetti.


The American band that hails from Athens, Georgia bring a brand of music that takes its best serving of influences from 60s groups The Beatles, Kinks and Jefferson Airplane mixed with a modern twist of Prince and the Arcade Fire. Their eyebrow raising energetic stage show is reminiscent of The Flaming Lips and is a full-on bombardment of the strange and the wonderful. Flamboyant singer Kevin Barnes, the ringleader of this spectacle, marches around the stage clad in a miniskirt bandana and purple tights broadcasting a confident falsetto.

A strange story envelops the stage, involving strange beasts who dance, prance and fight - it has no plot but is mesmerising all the same. At one point a creature fires its toy gun into the crowd and then grapples with another monster who is wearing a gas mask. Providing this entertainment are two dancers/performers who wear everything from banana heads to gas masks, straitjackets and angel wings. The group’s eight musicians are reminiscent of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in their outfits, topped with pale theatrical face paint. Watching it all pan out you almost feel like you are Hunter S Thompson in Fear In Loathing In Las Vegas; all of this said, it is a somewhat tamed down performance; Barnes has been known to enter the stage bereft of clothes and riding a horse.



This is as a decent showcase of the group’s more recent material and there's room for many tracks from their recently released album, False Priest. Latest single, ‘Coquet Coquet’, finds appreciative heads in the three-quarter-full crowd nodding in sync. It is a performance that’s full of upbeat funky beats cemented by a loud backing of guitars, violins, keyboards and decoders. A particular highlight is ‘An Eluardian Instance’, one of the group’s bigger hits that sees them jumping up and down on the stage while a pig-headed beast tosses confetti into the grateful crowd.


It is a non-stop fluent flow of music that's lively and upbeat with a fun factor of ten. Of Montreal’s energetic tempo immerses you like a warm blanket, but it’s disappointing to see that sometimes their strident songs manage to get lost in the fusion of noise. At stages tracks become clouded together and it’s hard to distinguish one from the next as you are bombarded by large choruses (like in ‘Enemy Gene’) that explode in a foray of jarring noise; it’s as if their medley of songs becomes a jamming session, which by the end had lost my concentration. In a way the performance overcasts the music, and the melodies become lost amidst the cavalcading atmosphere.


Having just released their tenth studio album they are still pushing boundaries, though, and it’s fair to say they will be around for a little while yet. Of Montreal are a party-band that blast you into an unknown galaxy at warp speed and you will fail to find another stage show quite like it.

An insight into the high-octane sport on roller skates that is gripping Sheffield

SHE receives a hefty shouder charge but yet stays on her feet.She is tripped as she tries again, the crowd shrieks and draws a breath, it's only a momentary wobble though, this girl isn’t phased. Onwards again, this time she spots a gap and bolts past the pack .The Clash’s White Riot is her victorious anthem. 4 points for the team!. She is queen of the track.
What we are talking about here is a women’s sport on the ascendency. it has began to root itself in society with it’s intense core values of high-speed contact, action on wheels, merged with a brassy gloss of punk and pop culture.

Imagine a setting of an oval track of a sports hall, the skaters line up in a formation roller skating shape and a battle for points is led by two members from each team called the ‘jammers’ who lap members of their opposition team scoring a point for each one they pass. Of course it isn’t so straight forward and there always is a snarling bruising bout that always ensues in what becomes a high speed meleebattle of wits and tact; taking place in fast paced two minute rounds .Rough offenders will find themselves in the sin bin as a mass of umpires keep check with hawk-eyes. Imagine girls with names like Iron Maven, Girlzilla and Jenny Rotten all of this accompanied by a booming punk-pop soundtracks from Cyndie Lauper to The Ramones bellowing out of the arena speakers. These girls are fast, tough and sexy; the sport is Roller Derby.

A little history on it then for those of you feeling puzzled right now. First rearing its head in 1922 in America, the term Roller Derby was know to describe fast-track roller skating. Promoters Leo Seltzer and sports writer Damon Runyon took up the baton and crafted the sport, adding more endurance competitions in the 1930’s and adding more physical contact and teamwork elements. Seltzer himself reserved the name for himself, claiming it for his clan of professional skaters. Alongside the likes of baseball and football it became a national icon with teams being formed and matches being played in all major US cities. Eventually by the 1960s the sport had branched out into other monopolies such as ‘The Roller Games’ which endured rapid growth with many major cities in the US having their own sides as well as attracting international attention from Australia and Canada. It went through many booms and slides in the 1970s with many short running TV features never picking it up. In the 1980s it again tried to revive itself. Roller Games came back in the format of a WWE style gameshow where ex-Roller Derby girls made a come back to battle it out in a figure of eight style track complete with snarling Alligator pits. Alas, the derby flame eventually died and it lay in its coffin for several years but for a few one off charity matches by ex-competitors.

In the early 2000s it saw a mini-revival back in the US by a new generation of young women who wanted to breath lifeblood into the sport who created a new branch of it known as ‘Neo Roller Derby’. Leagues have since been set up in the length and breadth of America, Canada and Europe - Belgians, Dutch and finish alike now are all happily getting their skates on in Roller Derby spirit. And now teams and leagues have sprouted up all over our country in recent years from North to South. The bug is spreading!


First played competitively in London four years ago it has grown and grown in the UK and now In our very own steel city you can now get a piece of the pie.Two years ago Pauline Chalmers stumbled across the sport on the internet and decided to form her own team The Sheffield Steel Roller Girls.The team shapes itself in the mould of Neo Roller Derby and two short years on and the team has developed into a 30-plus strong squad. Recently having their opening bout in July at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre. There is several recruitment drives for the team happening in the next year the latest being opened after the summer - you can now get involved yourself. I caught up with training co-ordinator Emma aka ‘Miss D’ who gave me the low down,“Over next year or so,we're hoping to host 3 or 4 games in Sheffield. In the late Autumn we are expecting a new intake of skaters, Get in contact with us and join in, there are plenty of skating and non-skating roles within the team so send us a email and come along. What we need is people with enthusiasm and resillence,” She said.
So whether you want to get involved or just watch, Roller Derby is something different. Giving something, fast entertaining and exciting for you to see and will give you a refreshing change from the typical Owls V Blades derby match you ordinarily encounter .This is definitely anti-Crucible snooker .Get your skates on and indulge yourself.


http://wftda.com/
www.sheffieldsteelrollergirls.co.uk