Tuesday 7 May 2013

New Premises

Hello! Apologies for the lack of posts but it has been all go in Choices for Life over the past month and we're happy to say we are now located in brand new premises. Check out the address below...

Creative Cafe
Unit 17
The Gemini Centre
Villiers Street
Hartlepool
TS24 7SA
Tel: 01429 262918
Email: choicesforlife@creativesupport.org.uk

We're currently without internet access but we're contactable on our usual mobile numbers or the above number. We'll be inviting everyone else along to check out our new premises as soon as we have furniture for people to sit on!

Monday 1 April 2013

Art Club

The Art Club continues to make really outstanding pieces of artwork and are currently working on pieces that we will be using to make products for sale in the Creative Cafe, which is soon to be open. Artworks will be reproduced as designs on cards, bags, t-shirts, coasters and so on. We've had some beautiful work so far and we can't wait to see the final products.

Here are just a few pictures of their ongoing work!






Photography Group

Following on from the Out and About Group that looked at historical places of interest in Hartlepool and the Walking Group which continues to explore walks in and around Hartlepool, Choices for Life is organizing a series of photography sessions with res ident arty sessional worker Jess. This five week programme will look at digital photography with the idea being to create high quality digital prints that can be framed and then sold within the Creative Café.

The programme will cover anything from learning the technical side of your digital camera to composing shots and lighting. There are various local locations planned for taking photos, weather permitting so make sure to dress appropriately for being in the outdoors! We all know what British weather can be like. It's recommended that you have your own digital camera but if you don't let staff know and we'll make arrangements. 

A more in depth programme is available from the Friday Drop In or from a member of staff. If you’re interested in attending let a member of staff know or ring the office mobile.

Creative Writing Zine Project


We’ve just begun an exciting creative writing project working with performance poet and Creative Support Development Officer Michael Edwards and illustrator and Sessional Worker Jess Watson. There will be a series of writing workshops looking to create pieces of poetry, rhyme, short stories and so on followed by artwork, pictures and typography to pull all the work together into a ‘zine’, a self published magazine that can be sold in the café and at events. Michael will also work with participants to improve confidence to perform the pieces at the launch of the café, if they want to!

These will be integrated sessions with participants invited from other services. So sign up and come along to be part of this new adventure! Or if you’d like to submit a piece of work for the anthology get in touch.

International Women's Day


International Women’s Day or IWD falls on March 8th and celebrates the achievements of women and celebrating everything about women that is great! Choices for Life teamed up with partner organisation DISC to deliver an entire day of activities and education all centred around women.

The day started out at DISC with female project members of Choices for Life joining members of DISC to look at food and mood for the female body which was hugely interesting and everyone even got to try out the foods later for lunch! Then project members were given a taster session about the Freedom Programme which helps women to take control and ownership of the relationships in their life. It was incredibly informative and project members were invited to take part in the course running from April.

After lunch project members (including men!) were invited to take part in a special Drop In session where snacks from around the world prepared with the help of project members that were part of the multicultural sessions.  A “Common Sense before Self Defense” session was delivered by Tang Soo Do  Master Charlie Featherstone and his apprentice Carla, which was followed by and a Relaxation  session by Jaki Savage the manager of Centre Yoga and Wellbeing who demonstrated breathing exercises.  Everyone had the chance to have a go, both sessions were really informative, beneficial and fun.

It was a really exciting and vibrant day and really helped people to appreciate everything that is wonderful about the women in their lives! Thank you to all who attended including all workshop leaders and partner organisations that helped to make it such a success.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Words of Inspiration


Words of Inspiration
There are people everywhere
Who, exactly just like you,
Understand the trials
And the pain you’re going through.
For, at some time in their lives
The have seen dark shadows fall
And have felt that there is no one
Who could answer to their call.
Yet, somehow they made it through
And found the strength within
To find acceptance of how things were
And to once again begin.
They are living proof that every cloud -
Even those of darkest grey -
All eventually pass by
To bring along a brand new day.
So, please just hang on in there
And keep tight hold of the belief
That beyond them there are rainbows
That very soon will bring relief.

These words were found and contributed to the newsletter by a Choices for Life project member.

Creative Writing

We just had another wonderful creative writing session here at Choices for Life. We were lucky enough to get talented writer Michael Edwards, who works for Creative Support in the North East to pop over and run a workshop that was inspired by food. We had a lot of fun final results that included Christmas dinner with a visit from a nun, a curry with Tommy Cooper and beer with Stephen Fry in Thailand. Hopefully we'll be able to share a few of the pieces once they are finalized and we look forward to working with Michael in the future on other creative writing projects!

Thursday 7 February 2013

Art Club








The Art Club have been producing some outstanding canvas work over the past few weeks with the aim being that once the Creative Cafe is opened that their work will be displayed on the walls. Inspired by the sea because of the vibrant colours and abstract shapes work was begun on paper using oil and soft pastels as well as acrylic to practice the use of composition, texture and colour (among other things!) before moving on to creating a canvas piece. With next week being the last week of canvas work it's obvious that we'll have an array of amazing artwork ready for when the cafe opens.

Also apologies for the lack of posts recently, we've all been so busy with the day service and sourcing content for our new monthly newsletter that we haven't had the chance to post!

Friday 4 January 2013

The January Newsletter is Out!


The newsletter for January is now out! To get a copy call by the office, ask for one in sessions or get in touch with your key worker or a Choices for Life member of staff.