Newent Association for the Disabled
Founded in 1981 by Trudie Sheppard, Sheppard House is a modern purpose built day centre serving Newent’s elderly and disabled residents, providing excellent food, various activities, entertainment, and visits to the theatre and places of interest. Holidays are organised at specially built holiday homes for visitors and their carers.
Plans to extend the centre include new bathrooms, chiropody, hairdressing, physiotherapy and a large recreational activity hall for bowling, pottery and computers plus a facility providing information on benefits, allowances, wills and relative support.
Dial-A-Ride is a door-to-door transport service for shopping, doctor/dentist appointments and hairdressing. The service operates as far as Gloucester and Tewkesbury. A driver and carer give personalised individual attention. Last year this service, with seven specially adapted buses, covered 38,000 miles.
The Newent Shuttle is a scheduled minibus service offering a regular local bus service to and from Newent’s shops and supermarket. The bus also runs two trips a week to Hazelfield Garden Centre on the outskirts of the town.
The Charity Shop in Church Street sells items at affordable prices and stock is replenished daily and is complimented by the
One Stop Shop further along Church Street which features a bus stop for Dial-a-Ride and the Shuttle. Both shops are run by volunteers helping to maintain the other two services.01531 821227
www.sheppardhouse.org.uk
Highfields Residential Care Home
Highfields was established in 1981 as a residential care home for the elderly and is situated a few minutes from the centre of Newent.
At Highfields there are twenty seven single rooms, many of which have en-suite facilities, a care unit, lift to all floors, an aviary and lovely peaceful private gardens to the rear. Special diets are catered for and home cooked meals are of a high standard.
Staff are encouraged to train to NVQ standards and the owner is always at hand to encourage independence. Residents are welcome to bring their own possessions to make them feel at home right from the start.01531 821007
Fair Shares
Fair Shares, a Charitable Trust, was set up in January 1998 to explore the practical applications of using time as a currency to form links within communities in the UK. Learning from the achievements of 'Time Dollar' schemes, which now operate in over 200 communities across the USA, Fair Shares has six time banks working within Gloucestershire.
In our everyday working life our skills have a market value, for example, an hour of legal advice costs a lot more than an hour of child care. Fair Shares puts no market value on services but uses time as a currency. Therefore, no matter what service is offered or what skill is needed to deliver it everyone's hour of time is valued the same - you give an hour and you get an hour back.
To take part you don't need special qualifications, you don't need money - members are bound only by a moral obligation to help out someone else somewhere along the line.
The project has its own shop in Newent, next to the George Hotel, which is staffed by participants five mornings a week (for which they earn credits). Membership has grown to over 70 people from Newent and many of the surrounding villages.
Gardening continues to be very popular but more unusual and equally popular services include Aural Training and Stress Management. A Goods Exchange has also been established and another new development are workshops, the first of which was a demonstration in glass engraving.
For more information on how you can take part in this excellent scheme call, in at the Newent office: Chill Out Zone Broad Street Newent, Glos. . Fair Shares also has a detailed website at www.fairshares.org.uk.