Blogs & News

We are very excited to announce our Easter Healthy Holidays Activities in collaboration with St Paul’s Church, Ireland Wood, Leeds ESNW Cluster, @paulos_pizzas and Gigi Creative Bee.

FREE ZOOM PIZZA MAKING AND MANDALA DRAWING SESSIONS WITH FREE KITS PROVIDED!!

Priority for places will be given to those in receipt of free schools meals and those aged between 5-16 in the LS16 area so if you know any young people who might be interested, please get in touch.

They can book online www.link.tr.ee/HHLS16

OPAL will be hosting a community event in the OPAL carpark of the Welcome In Community Centre around Easter time.   There will be food, music and activities.   If you are interested in coming please contact us so we will know how many people to cater for.   

Membership payments are due from 1 April 2021.  We are keeping membership fees at £12 per year.   If you are paying by cheque, please could you make it out to OPAL and put 'membership' on the back.    If you are paying by bank transfer OPAL's sort code is  53 70 00 and our account number is 24503274.   If you pay by cash please put it in an envelope with your name, the amount and membership written on it.   That way we will know what it is for.

Leeds Directory has pulled together a list of various trade and community services who are available for support between Christmas and New Year.

 We also list a variety of online and telephone befriending services, emotional support helplines and helplines offering help and support for a variety of health conditions. Availability over bank holidays may vary but it is another line of support for people in the community over the holiday period.

Here is the link to the services that are available over the Christmas period.

https://www.leedsdirectory.org/s4s/WhereILive/Council?pageId=5218&Search=christmas&Template=319ef527-1b77-49f9-aea6-a9a000937e73

The website will be available throughout the Christmas and New Year period and the helpline will be covered as normal, with the exceptions of the bank holidays. If we can be of any help please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. 

  Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Better 2021 from everyone on the Leeds Directory team. 

Home made face masks available from OPAL for a small donation..

Do you need meeting space?

Lots happening here at OPAL.

SWIFt Project Worker

OPAL supports older people to live independently in their own homes. We have funding from Public Health to employ a SWIFt Project Worker until the end of September 2021.

The SWIFt Project Worker will support older and frail individuals living in the Leeds 16 and Moor Allerton areas, to improve their quality of life and increase their social and support networks

£19199.68; Pro rata for 21 hours per week.

Preferable Monday, Tuesday and Friday however there will need to be some flexibility.

The successful candidate will have experience of working with older people, assessing individual care needs and providing support, including outreach support. You must be motivated, enthusiastic, have excellent inter-personal skills and be empathetic to older people.

You must have your own car and have a full licence.

Closing Date: 30^th October 2020

Interview Date: Tuesday 3^rd November 2020

To apply for the position please download an application pack here

SWIFt_advert.pdf                        SWIFt_job_description_Oct_2020.pdf     Application_Form_2020.doc

Application Packs may be available in other formats on request

For an informal chat about the position, please contact Ailsa Rhodes, OPAL on 0113 2619103.

We are very excited that the renovation of the Bar Room has been completed in August!   

This is thanks to the many people who donated money, joined in with 'Buy a Brick' and the 'Smartie Wall' and for the many other fundraisers who have raised money towards this, including Rowan Simpson who has raised £800 for OPAL, cycling 600 miles through out June!   We would also like to give a special thanks to 3 brothers (Nick 12, James 8 and Ben 5) who used their daily exercise slot to complete the Tour de Yorkshire to raise money for OPAL.   They added up their miles each day for cycling, running and walking - a total of 305 miles and raised a massive £775.    We were also very fortunate to receive funding from the following organisations who have very generously donated funding towards the renovations of the Bar Room

 The Liz and Terry Brammall Foundation also kindly donated towards the Bar Room funds.

 A very big thank you to Tom Dick and Harry for printing our July August OPAL Newsletter and arranging funding from Norther Powergrid.   We are incrediably grateful for their help.      We look forward to welcoming you back to Welcome In and to seeing you all again.

OPAL are making plans to restart some of our activities in September and we will keep you updated about this via our fornightly email (to members with email), phone calls and in our Newsletter.   We will also post information on our website and social media.

• In a nutshell, this is what OPAL is up to at the moment
• Delivery emergency food parcels and shopping vouchers
• Picking up prescriptions
• A phone buddy scheme connecting volunteers to people who are self isolating
• Providing transport to unavoidable appointments
• Providing emotional support and sign posting people to services that can help them
• Matching volunteer shoppers to people who are self isolating
• Delivering jigsaws and books to people who are self isolating
• Deliverying freshly cooked hot meals (Monday, Tuesday and Friday).  We are charging £3.50 per main meal.
• Matching people who are self-isolating to IT phone buddies - to help them use smart phones, iPad, tablets etc for social interaction
• Loaning iPads and Alexas
• Zoom Friday coffee afternoon
• Doorstep/garden buddies
• Strolling buddies

If you need any other help, call us on 0113 261 9103 and will will do our best.

We would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to our funders for contributing to our renovation work 

Bernard Sunley Foundation    

Inner NW Housing Panel         

Outer NW Housing Panel     

Clothworkers Foundation      

The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation

The Edward Gostling Foundation    

Keyfund                                   

Power to Change

Donations from everyone else including Buy a Brick, Smartie Wall.

If you are interested in joining any of the following groups please email amy.hallam@healthforall.org.uk or ring on 07508868354. You only need an email & phone number to join a group. We often use Zoom to deliver sessions.

• Tai Chi— Helps you slow down & calm your mind. Wednesdays 2 pm.

• Reiki —Level 1 course to benefit the body & mind for yourself & loved ones, using a relaxing yet rejuvenating therapy that promotes self healing. Thursday 10am

• Improve Confidence in I.T.—Word, shopping on line, setting up safe passwords, Internet browsers and downloading safely, online books for free (kindle and other systems), Android Phones and tablets and iPhones and iPads. Tuesday 10 am

• Poetry The poetry group is on Fridays at 3pm • Creative Writing Monday 2pm

• Sing & Shine — You don’t have to be pitch perfect to join in on Wednesday’s & Fridays at 11 am

• Learn Mindfulness— for the over 50 s, this is a 90 minute group held on Mondays 10am to 11am

• Camera Club—Thursday 1pm, this club will start once they have 8 people signed up.

Below is the support we can offer in these strange times.

• Delivering emergency food parcels, shopping vouchers, picking up prescriptions and providing transport to unavoidable appointments.
• Matching volunteer shoppers to people who are self isolating.
• Delivering jigsaws, wool & needles and books to people who are self isolating.
• Delivering freshly cooked hot meals (Monday, Tuesday and Friday).  We are charging £3.50 per main meal and have a little bit more capacity.
• Matching people who are self isolating to IT phone buddies - to help them use smart phones, IPads, tablets etc for social interaction.
• Door step buddies - for a short socially distanced chat.
• Strolling buddies - for a short socially distanced local walk.
• Providing emotional support and information.

This is what we have been doing for the past few weeks.

• 583 people have a telephone buddy check and chat
• 278 contacts made with people referred Leeds City Council
• 115 hot meals made and delivered each week
• 7 Ipads loaned out and 5 Alexa's.  We still have 3 more IPads and 1 Alexa to loan courtesy of Leeds Libraries.

We do have capacity to support more people so if you know of anyone struggling, please let us know.   People can contact us directly or you can refer them to us by phone 0113 261 9103 or email  admin@opal-project.org.uk.   If the individual needs a food parcel or shopping voucher they need to be refered to Leeds City Council Helpline first 0113 2781877

As many people are aware it is the 75^th Anniversary of VE day on the 8^th of May. OPAL was planning to have a week of celebrations with 1940’s themed lunch clubs (Shelley was going to cook Homity Pie and I was going to do trifle!). We were going to decorate the café in red, white and blue bunting and union jack flags and the staff involved were going to dress up in 1940’s outfits.  As well as this I was going to find out if some of our members had particular memories of that time to be put onto the OPAL web site.

All that has now gone as we have another “enemy” to combat in this virus that is keeping everyone apart .So instead of video/sound recordings of the memories I have been interviewing people over the phone and making notes about their stories. If I can, I’ve tried to search for pictures to give the memories a bit of “colour”.

Thank you to all those people who have taken part, I hope I’ve recorded everything accurately and I’ve really enjoyed listening to all your stories. This type of history is fascinating and each one is a snap shot of life at that time often in different parts of the country as well as Yorkshire!     Anne

Here are some of our members memories of that day.

Barbara      Chris      Dorothy        Alma      Mary

Elsie           Eric        Harry            Val        Kath2  

Jean           Kath1     Margaret      Rose     Janet

Please feel free to use the resources below to help plan your own activities in the run up to and on 8^th May.

•  - Watch the specially created Leeds Libraries montage of archive footage taken at the end of the war (to be hosted on Leeds Armed Forces Facebook and Twitter). If you have any photographs or material that you would like Leeds Libraries and/or Museums to be aware of for possible future use then please contact them on          localandfamilyhistory@leeds.gov.uk
• -  Watch Emily Nelson from Leeds Museums) reviewing the item of the day relating to archive material from the end of the war
• - Take part in the ‘Nation’s Toast to the Heroes of WW2’ at 3pm, 8 May by raising a glass of refreshment of their choice https://www.veday75.org/ 
• - Tune into Her Majesty -  The Queen’s message to the nation at 9pm on BBC One, the exact moment her father, King George VI, gave a radio address in 1945.
• - Join in with the Royal British Legion at 9pm in coming together to sing Dame Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’
• - Share your Second World War stories, family histories and messages of remembrance on social media using #VEDay75

For more information click below

For the pdf of this leaflet click here

LATEST UPDATE 18/3/20

In response to the Government’s advice that all over 70’s should social distance themselves, OPAL have suspended all social activities until further notice.

Thank you to all the lovely people in the community who have offered their help and support - we will be in touch with you soon. In the meantime, if anyone can make donations of UHT milk, soup or tinned food, we would be glad to receive them at Welcome In main entrance between 10am – 1pm. We will be distributing emergency food parcels as necessary – the first two parcels have gone out today.

Also, if anyone has any jigsaws, puzzle books, etc that you are willing to donate please bring them to the main entrance of Welcome In between 10am – 1pm.  We plan to distribute these over the coming weeks.

At the moment, the staff team are focusing on contacting all of our members to update them, check they are ok and to reassure them that we are here if they need help.

If you know of an older person who is concerned or who wants us to keep in touch with them through this situation, please ask them to contact OPAL on 0113 2619103.

Please note:

 One You Leeds Smoking Cessation sessions (Tel: 0800 169 4219) &Youth Groups (Tel: 0113 275 9282) on Mondays and Wednesdays are still operating from the centre.

This is an evolving situation and things are likely to change.    We will do our best to keep you updated.

If you have emailed us, please be patient for a response - we will reply to you as soon as we can.

Yours sincerely

Ailsa Rhodes

The Making a Match Club, helps people aged 50+ to meet new friends and matches them with people with a shared interest.   The blub meets wevery week for local walks, cinema trips, meals out and anything else you may find of interest!   In March we will be visiting Harewood House, Temple Newsam and plenty more in-between.   Also, it's free to join!      Call Lisa on 07498 614258 or OPAL 0113 261 9103 for more details.

Sorry no transport is availabel for this club.

Now the Sunshine Room is complete, we've started fundraising to refurbish our final room the bar room, which will cost around £80,000. We already have £21,000 and aim to start these works in June 2020, subject to Government guidelines and it may take longer than planned as there is a shortage of supplies.

Thank you to everyone who has helped with fundraising in the past, we really appreciate it. So it's that one final push.

We are doing the 'Buy a Brick' again where for a minimum of £50 a tile will be displayed in the Bar Room with the name of your choice.  

Please help if you can

You can make a donation to OPAL by cheque, bank transfer or by our Localgiving page.

Please make cheques payable to OPAL and post to OPAL, The Welcome In Community Centre, 55 Bedford Drive, Leeds LS16 6DJ. 

By bank transfer a donation can be made to sort code 53 70 00 and account number 24503274 

If you would like to discuss your donation, then please contact Ailsa on 0113 261 9103.

Click here for our Localgiving page which gives the option to make a one-off or regular donation and this could be done anonymously if you prefer.

Please support us and will will make sure every penny counts.

Thank you x

Most of you will have had a telephone call from Mandy Moran who is our newest staff member.   Mandy will be helping out with administration for us for a year.

The Christmas Banquet at Ralph Thoresby School was a brilliant night with around 120 members attending.   Lots of good and laughter plus a change to catch up with friends.   Thank you to all of the staff, governors, PTA and students at the school for all their hard work.  Thank you also to the OPAL volunteers who transported ourmembers there and back safely.

Thank you to everyone who supported us by visiting, donating items or helping out on the day.  We raised £900 towards the restoration of the bar room

Great News .....We've heard our application to the 'Co-op Local Community Fund' is successful for the Community Garden.   From 27 Oct 2019 - 24 Oct 2020 Co-op Members can choose the Welcome In Community Garden as their local good cause.    

If you are not already a member of the Co-op please join and then you can choose the garden to benefit when you shop in a local Co-op.   Please join online click here.  It costs just £1 to join and there are other community benefits too.

You've done so well helping us raise money for the renovation.  So far we've reached around £500,000 in total towards the works at the Welcome In.   

Now that the Sunshine Room is complete, we've got the Bar room next to the cafe to renovate, which is the final room.  We need around £75,000 to complete this room and, as before, we will be starting the Buy a Brick fundraising again, where for £50, a tile with the name of your choice, will be displayed in the new room.

We've also decided to start Smarties Savers and we'd be thrilled if you could join in.   Pop into OPAL for a free tube of Smarties (subject to availability) and once you've enjoyed the sweets, keep the tube and fill it with 20p pieces.   Return the filled tube and leave us your first name and initial and this will be displayedon the Smarties Savers board in the new room.

The clocks go back by one hour on Sunday 27th October at 2am

Sunday 26th & Monday 27th May 2019 Non till 5pm

Collect your Scarecrow trail sheets (£1 for adults and free for children) from Leeds Modernians Clubhouse on Cookridge Lane and walk the trail through Cookridge to spot the 40+ figures.

In the Clubhouse between noon and 5pm will be games in the bar, entertainment, afternoon tea and, of course, the bar!

Keep your eyes peeled for the Welcome In & OPAL scarecrows.