Blogs & News

I've been a volunteer at OPAL since about 2013. I'd retired that year but wanted to do something useful with some of my spare time - something where I'd be useful, be able to make a difference and where I could meet others and possibly make new friends too.

This year marks OPAL being open for 20 years.   Not only this but it is also 5 years since OPAL opened at the Welcome In!  Those of you who have been around for a while will know that before we moved here, OPAL was based in Holt Park behind Asda.   At the start of this year we moved our Wednesday Lunch Club to the High Farm Pub to reintroduce OPAL in Holt Park, back where it all began.

June is Pride month, from everyone here at OPAL we would like to say a massive HAPPY PRIDE to all members of the LGBTQIA+ community!

All OPAL groups throughout the last week of May and first week of June will have Jubilee themes and activities, with our main celebration being on Friday 27th May.

In 2022, Her Majesty The Queen will become the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, 70 years of service, having acceded to the throne on 6 February 1952 when Her Majesty was 25 years old.

It is nice to see the Welcome In cafe busy and full of people.   If you are a member of OPAL you can pop in any time Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 4pm and ask for the OPAL Special.   This is a hearty main course just for OPAL members and only costs £4!.   There is also a Pay as you Feel meal that is on Wednesday to Friday in the the cafe.

We are currently making a bee swarm to exhibit in the Sunshine Room throughout June 2022, to encourage people to plant bee friendly flowers and create environments that encourage bees and insects.  The materials are being sponsored by Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust.

As of the 30th September you can no longer use old paper £20 and £50 bank notes, however, you can still swap them for the new notes in any bank!   The same goes for any old notes or pound coins you may have.

A big thank you for all your generous donations in particular:-

Yes, it's that time of year when we ask you to renew your OPAL Membership.  Membership costs £12.  If you find it hard to pay this amount, please talk to Ailsa by phoning 0113 261 9103 or coming into the Welcome In and we will work something out.

If you are a tax payer, an easy & financially painless way to help is to register your membership donation as 'Gift Aid'.   As a charity, OPAL will be able to reclaim the tax from the Inland Revenue and turn £12 into £14.40.  So for every £120 given, OPAL will receive an extra £24 from the taxman, which makes a big difference to us!  If you pay tax and you haven't filled our a 'Gift Aid' form, then please contact us.   OPAL would like to thank all of you who paid your £12 membership last year - you helped to bring in approximately £7,000, which covers some of our staff & office costs such as staionery, insurance, bills and the internet.

We hope you feel that the membership of £12 is still good value, and that you would like to remain a member this year, even if the only thing you use OPAL for is the newsletter.

Many of you are on the ball and have already paid so thank you very much.    

If you decide not to re-join your membership will expire on March 31st 2022 but you can re-join at any time.

We will be integrating celebrations for the Queens Platinum Jubilee into our activities at the Welcome In w/c 23rd May.   We will also be putting on an event, further details to follow in the next newsletter.

If you are putting on a street party or an event, please could you let Ellen know?   It would be lovely to promote your events if you would like us to to – and we may be able to support you with a small Sparks grant to help with your celebrations. It would also be great if we could have photos so we can create a montage of photos of the activities that took place in the area.

A big thank you for £200 donation from ASDA.  OPAL were runners up for the green token scheme.

Thank you Harrison & Potter Trust for a very generous contribution of £7,776 towards our exercise programme.

Thank you to Weetwood Councillors for £300 towards our Christmas activities, which we are grateful for.

Thank you to Lloyds Bank for the very generous donation of £3,000 (which our lovely volunteer Liz H applied for on our behalf) and for which we are incredibly grateful for.

A huge thank you to Russell Farm Otley for the donation of the 8ft Christmas tree for the Welcome In Cafe!

Thank you to Oldham Electrical Ltd for the donation of the gold Christmas tree decorations.   They are beautiful.

Every other Wednesday starting 16th February, please contact OPAL on 0113 2619103 to register your interest.

You can bring your own project or join in with ours.   We are currently making a bee swarm to exhibit in the Sunshine Room throughout May 2022, to encourage people to plant bee friendly flowers and create environments that encourage bees and insects.   The materials are being sponsored by Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust.

Horsforth Shed runs activities for people to do together, mostly around woodwork and metalwork.  They have a well-equipped shed full of tools and are offering a 2 hour taster session where you can learn some new skills or pick up some old ones.   The taster sessions run between 10am to 12 noon on Fridays.

If you are interested, please call OPAL on 0113 261 9103 and ask to speak to Hattie who will assess your skills and interests and provide more information and confirm the date of the taster session and how to get there.

Thank you to ASDA who generously donated £810 to help cover the costs of the community fun day, which we are incredibly grateful for.

Thank you Cookridge Hall Golf Club Senior Section for their generous donation of £643 to OPAL, we are very grateful.

Thank you to all the gardeners who have been helping with the Welcome In garden you have all made such a big difference.

A Big Thank You to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, who donated £200 towards our bee friendly planters, which are next to the trellis on the patio, Steve, Dan, Paulo and Joel very kindly built the planters for us.   This will help atrract insects and make the entrance to the Welcome In look inviting and pretty.

Thank You to Pauline and Martin Drury who brought in some cabbage and leek sets and planted them in the raised beds next to the back door.

Thank you to Matthew Howell who, amongst other things, has cut back the undergrowth at the back so we can now actually see the compost bin!

We are running Healthy Holidays in conjunction with St Pauls Church week commencing 20 December. Suitable for Children 5 to 16. 

We will be offering a wide range of exciting fun filled activities to keep everyone entertained.

If you have grandchildren or know of any families with children who might be interest they can register online by putting the following link into their search engine or click on this link.   https://hhls16.org/

This service is availale for £10 per hour for OPAL members

Steve can help with issues with your TV, phone, internet connection and other digital issues.   He can help diagnose the problem even if he can't resolve it and help you get the assistance you need to solve the issue.   Steve can also help you get the best internet/phone deal for your requirements.

This is incredibly good value all part of the OPAL service.

OPAL has many vulnerable people accessing Welcome In Community Centre and our activities in the community.  Therefore, to help keep these individuals safe, we are taking a cautious approach to the easing of restrictions.   Our policy for the Welcome In Cafe, all OPAL activities at Welcome In Communcity Center and at community venues hosting OPAL activities is:-

• Masks must be worn when entering and moving around, unless individuals are exempt from wearing masks for health reasons.
• When seated, individuals are welcome to remove masks.
• People must sanitise their hands when entering the building.
• We will manage numbers to prevent crowded places.
• We will retain strict hygiene measures including regular sanitising and ventilation.

These rules apply to staff, volunteers, members and visitors.  OPAL will keep this under review but we do not expect to make any changes in the near future.

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