GMYN is offering funding through the East Manchester Ending Youth Violence bursary programme for staff or volunteers from voluntary, community and faith organisations to attend training, conferences and events which will increase their ability to support young people engaged in/at risk of being engaged in violent activity.
The training or events may directly address issues of youth violence and working with young people involved in gangs or violence, but could also a range of other issues identified as key risk factors for young people. You can email Martin Duffy Strategic Development Manager 0161 274 3377 martin.duffy@gmyn.co.uk Greater Manchester Youth Network Ask for download link to latest impact report "Enabling young people and organisations to participate, develop and achieve." Head office: Top Floor, 27 Ardwick Green North, Manchester, M12 6FZ www.gmyn.co.uk
Please promote this event to residents, friends and colleagues who may work professionally or have personal interest in the effects of drug misuse,
We are keen to spread the word about RISE Manchester and the public launch event on the afternoon of Thursday 14 February 2013 to make sure we get as many people as possible down to the Town Hall.
Could I ask you to forward details about the event to any relevant networks or contacts? These may be colleagues within or outside your organisation, people or groups you work with or for, or distribution lists you look after or are part of. Your help with this would be very much appreciated.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RISE Manchester presents a free event for anyone affected by drug misuse in the city 12.30 - 5.00, Thursday 14 February 2013, Manchester Town Hall RISE Manchester provides comprehensive, recovery-focused treatment for Manchester residents with substance misuse problems
This afternoon event will offer service users, carers, professionals and members of the public the chance to:
- Learn more about RISE Manchester and meet the service providers - Experience a Narcotics Anonymous and SMART recovery group - Participate in seminars on over the counter drugs and 'legal' highs - Request a carers assessment - Watch a performance by Streetwise Opera - Sign up to the RISE Manchester Service User and Carer Reference Group - Find out more about other services, groups and opportunities
Lunch will be provided and refreshments will be available throughout the afternoon.
The event will be followed at 5.15 by a candlelight vigil in Albert Square.
To contact RISE Manchester please call 0800 988 1948. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Many thanks (in advance!)
Julian
Julian Andrejczuk Drug & Alcohol Strategy Team Manchester City Council Public Health Manchester
The launch of RISE Manchester, the city's new adult drug treatment system will take place on Thursday 14 February 2013 at Manchester Town Hall. Please visit www.manchester.gov.uk/events/event/2713/ to find out more.
POSTAL ADDRESS: Manchester City Council, Public Health Manchester, P.O. Box 532, Town Hall, Manchester, M60 2LA
LOCATION ADDRESS: One First Street, Manchester M15 4FN (for sat nav systems, please use M1 5DE).
"Trained library staff can check the validation forms for benefits claimants in twelve local libraries. This is a well-used service, with 13,150 benefits validation sessions in the year to September 2012. Staff also signpost claimants to further information and services, whilst remaining clear that library staff cannot themselves give advice. Libraries also host advice surgeries given by professional benefits staff, with 1350 benefits advice sessions provided in library settings last year. Given the shift towards benefits claims only being possible on-line, the free computer access provided by libraries enables access to services for those families without the internet at home. Digital Champion volunteers will also be available via the library services to help people with basic internet access."
APART from the personal issues people directly face: My other worry is that the bedroom tax, universal credit, and housing benefit cuts will strangle the accepted circular nature of funding for HA's. 30 yr mortgages, repayments, balance into maintenance and services. All From Rental Income and service charges. Then - Income strangulation, and rise in arrears, debts, court actions, will remove vital circular flow money for services for all stock, not just those in arrears or affected by the changes through draconian welfare changes. Theres a universal impact across all tenants which H.A.s are shit scared of RIGHT now, with all sorts of disaster worst case scenarios written almost daily. The fear is that Value For Money exercises, which are admirable, desirable and essential will not breach the financial impact of changes. Services could suffer drastically. This is 2013 UK Toryland. And its disgusting. Update: Heres a blog piece I read with numbers and calculations of some of the impacts , someone sent it to me after reading the above synopsis. Bedroom Tax Could add Billions to Welfare bill
Without ignoring personal impact, heres one highlighted by the Daily Mirror
There's many times Ive thought about Location based tweets, good or bad?
Good?
Great for keeping in touch
Great for informing people you are safe
Great for lots of things.
Within communities there CAN be some irksome opportunists in the shadow economy.
Criminals.
Was reminded today of why I am loathe to location tweet in my typing, or letting an app do it. Also realised if your hotspot is on, or bluetooth, people can follow you round corners and through throughways.
Also was told that the community police would tweet a warning on being careful with location based tweets/social apps.
Its here.
They also mentioned today mobile phone snatching, which , if you are not paying attention is an increasing occurrence.
I Found this piece from Steve Howard "The Economic Woes Of Osborne " With figures to be released in the next 48 hrs which will once again show that the UK economy shrank YET again in the last quarter by 0.1% - 0.3%,the madness which seems to have over taken the whole of the Tory party and the Lib-Dems, will as expected go into damage limitation mode. David Cameron will tell the UK that the economy is healing and that we are on the right track !! There is more chance that Iain Duncan Smith can bring back to life all the poor lost souls that he has consigned to an early grave than David Cameron ever telling the truth about the economic disaster that he has helped inflict on his own country,most of all by employing George Osborne to balance the books. One lone Tory backbencher spoke the truth when gave an interview to the Sunday Times stating that Osborne was both lazy and useless. In just three weeks we have seen the demise of HMV-Jessops-Blockbuster and the normally sometimes sensible and sometimes even caring Vince Cable, gave a very telling interview that shows just how far the Lib-Dems have sunk since they got in to the flea ridden bed of the Tories,he said ''The coalition can hardly be blamed for competition in the high street'',that he said ''is just life i am afraid.'' That may in someways be true,but not once did he mention any sorrow for all those people who were now damned to join the dreaded scroungers of this country , the scroungers who have been left to rot by his coalition, no words of help or regret only words of denial. So a new week and new misery, Honda,Rolls royse and the army all shedding their work force. At least we need not worry about new wars as we would now have trouble retaking Milton Keynes if it was ever to be invaded. However unlike the high street shops being boarded up, the blame for these job losses can be firmly put at Vince Cable and the coalitions door. Yesterday there was a cabinet meeting that the hapless George Osborne chaired about the economy. Now you would think after two and a half years of utter disaster, that George may be having a rethink ! but you would be wrong, dead wrong. The truth is, that there now is no going back,politically for George and the coalition it would be suicide to now admit they got it wrong and do anything that even resembled a u-turn. The chilling truth is that George has asked all his departments to draw up plans for even more deeper cuts and public sector job losses for 2015-2016 These will be implemented before the next election,which by then should be the final act of spite from one,if not the worst chancellor this country has ever had the misfortune to be lumbered with and anybody who says that Gordon Brown was a worse chancellor than this plank,has quite frankly,the brain of a pickled onion. Just as Thatcher laid waste to whole communities and left complete cities to crumble ( apart from Central London ) once again we see history repeating its self with David Cameron,who in one recent poll was voted the most disliked PM in living memory even beating the old battle axe herself and Tony Blair with his weapons of mass destruction in to third place. So if you still have a nice library and a park or perhaps a day centre you like to go to,or youth clubs for your children to keep them off the streets and a bobby on the beat or a local hospital or fire service,then enjoy them while you can because i can guarantee that most from that list will not be there after the next election.unless of course you live in Oxford.. Let the Tory supporters defend the indefensible,for others who now dare to look out their own front door can now surely see what a shambles this so called coalition is. They are a slight to the great history of the working people of this country,they are rotten to the very core and i can only hope that come 2015 that the majority of people help kick their rotten door in and watch as their whole rotten house come tumbling down. It is only when a Government has come to pass that the real truth sees the light of day and when the books are opened and the boxes are ticked, we may not find any weapons of mass destruction but we shall find ,greed, deceit,lies,weakness,wickedness, incompetence,and worse of all intent, intent to take this country over a hundred years back in time.
Will Labour protect disabled people? Pat’s Petition goes to Westminster to find out
Posted on
From Pat Onions, of Pat’s Petition:
After weeks of waiting – sorting out the logistics of travel to London – Pat’s Petition finally has a date for meeting with Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. Wednesday 6 February will see five of us at Westminster.
This meeting could not be happening at a more crucial moment in the long, sad history of this persecution. Because there is so much visible distress and so much suffering is now happening in real time in the public arena – before the eyes of the nation – people are beginning to see through the spin and myths – and see the truth.
There were two very serious debates in parliament last week. In the debate called by Michael Meacher on WCA and ATOS - MP after MP queued up to recite the litany of appalling cases that they had seen in their surgeries. Thank you Michael.
So Pat’s Petition is going to Westminster to talk to Labour. We are hopefully going to finalise arrangements for an Opposition Day debate calling for a Cumulative Impact Assessment. Someone has to measure and record this persecution. Looking the other way and saying it is all too difficult is no longer an option.
This night of a thousand cuts cannot carry on unchallenged. Disabled people, their carers, families and friends cannot take any more. The financial stress is overwhelming and the emotional stress is more than we can bear. The public are on our side now that the myths are exploding and they can actually see what is being done in their name.
So we are going to ask Liam what Labour will do to help us.
What will Labour promise us to protect us?
How you can help
It is vital you lobby your contacts across all parties; stress how much you/your members need a Cumulative Impact Assessment undertaken.
Send us a supporting statement of why you think so a.s.a.p. – No later than Feb 1st. This will be shared across social media platforms so more people can see your concerns.
We will also print them to take with us when we meet with Liam.
We look forward to your response.
Please do circulate to your networks so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
So today... Sometimes i hear the lower quieter sounds off the tellybox and cos its stereo think its something in the flat or neighbours. That comes from slight mid range hearing loss i'm sure, but not helped sometimes the places my head goes. ... thats depression in part I also think. Sometimes even when you know what it is though , it doesnt help. Dont get probs if playing something on lappy with earphones. OOh getting a friend visit saturday, i think, and theyve fixed the iMac for my desk. means cleaning desk now. eek. I think I told them i'd probably scrape the stuff off cos its got clutterred, into a box. Something to look forward to. I turned down a civic function which i was invited, think that was Monday coming. Cos its early start, and thats tablets and mainly loo bound stuff in mornings. thats *impact* of ill. Also with the ills causing fatigue, and one of the tablets causing insomnia , I have a wide and varied unpredictable sleep pattern. This is probably as bland and random as a blog post could be. Sorry.
People asked and do ask often to me about twitter apps for phones and lappys.
So I'll briefly note what I use...
I have android touchscreen phone and almost exclusively use HOOTSUITE on that. I find the notifications lights at bottom easy to follow so I know what column a message is in.
It shows one column at a time, and you side swipe to get to other columns. Or you press back button and select from menu to jump.
If you use HOOTSUITE on the computer/lappy its rather a heavy beast and for some quite complicated. The phone app is good though.
On the lappy, Tweetdeck is very useful, but I set it to 125% zoom .
I also have twitlonger tab open in the browser for those longer tweets with tweetdeck restrictive on longer tweets. .
Tweetdeck is a memory hog though.
I DO use d.mylu.us An awful lol on the lappy because its light, and functional too, I really quite like that one. It stays stable most of the time too. This one you can set to do similar to twitlonger, or set multiple tweets as default. It numbers the parts of a longer tweet. You only get one column but the header is easy to click and switch.
There are many more... but i find these the easiest.
I just emailed my MP . More should do same on situations like this.
Dear Sir Gerald Kaufman,
I would sincerely hope you can help on a matter regarding the last Work Capability Assessment for myself. Without intimate detail i will outline my question in brief, based on occurrences that happened.
I attended an Assessment with a witness. At close of the assessment I asked if there was all information covered or anything else you need to tell me, or me tell you. The Health Professional said I think we have finished.
On leaving the witness actually said I think they know you cannot work. He is a Board Member for Central Manchester Foundation NHS Trust
I waited a few weeks and had a phone call from the DWP
In summary the DWP caller said We are calling to let you know results of assessment and ATOS have recommended you are fit for work.
(At this point my heart fell and stress was immense)
A tiny pause later and the caller said BUT DWP have found something on your ESA50 form and we have overturned that decision and can tell you you have Work Related Activity Group.
I asked What Did You Find... The caller could give me no info or feedback on that.
This is in my opinion a failure of WCA and uneccessary cost for the Govt, and leaves me short of information about me.
I've spoken to several people and they feel that an overturned decision should be fully explained.
There is also a question as to whether an incorrect fit for work decision in a report to DWP by ATOS classes as libellious, based on the fact of an honest claim and statement being decreed a lie.
This email is also a signal "In general terms" many people get this treatment, which in my view is draconian at the very least.
Can you ask the Minister responsible for Relations between DWP and Atos and working proceedures in the WCA for comment on this , as many people suggested I write this email to yourself.
I thank you for your representation in this matter , in advance.
one of the most reprehensible ministers in recent times, no? That
man will give out any old figure just so long as it fulfils his purpose
of pushing through reforms that even members of his own party
found repugnant when it came to voting on them.
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Added this from the Guardian:
The scale of the threat to the coalition's universal credit scheme (UC) has been revealed by figures showing that the IT system required to match employers and banks' records is failing 25% of the time.
Fears that the centrepiece of government welfare reform will not be ready have led to repeated negative Treasury briefings about the problems facing the Department for Work and Pensions.
It was the latest salvo in a bitter political battle on welfare before this month's vote on whether benefits should rise by only 1% for the next three years. Labour has all but vowed to vote for a rise in line with inflation.
The shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, and his deputy, Stephen Timms, have fought a campaign to prove that the complex technology necessary for UC is not ready, and that the system will not create the promised incentives to work. Duncan Smith has virtually staked his political reputation on delivering the system on time and on budget.
Labour's latest blast pointed to an admission by the Treasury secretary, David Gauke, that the system underpinning UC failed for over a quarter of pilot cases in November.
Labour said Gauke's answers to a parliamentary question showed that in half a million cases that month, the IT system could not match wage payment records correctly, and claimed that Revenue & Customs "will have to decide to make universal credit payments on the basis of incomplete, or plain wrong, information".
Timms said: "Universal credit is now in real danger of arriving in universal chaos. This scheme is supposed to launch this year, but the RTI [real-time information] system is getting more than a quarter of transactions wrong. This scheme is now in danger of an IT meltdown. If ministers don't urgently act to fix this soon millions of families' tax credits will be put at risk."
The RTI system was developed to enable universal credit payments to be made on a monthly basis taking into account actual income. When an employee receives their monthly wage, both the employer and the employee's bank must let HMRC know how much the employee has been paid. Both the employer and the bank use a hashtag that identifies the employee. But on the basis of figures supplied, this is not happening on a sufficiently regular basis.
Gauke, in an answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Timms, revealed that in 526,608 cases in November, the hash identifiers in RTI pilots did not match – more than a quarter of all cases. In June more payments were unmatched than matched.
Ruth Owen, HMRC's head of RTI, had recently told the Treasury select committee that the hash matches have 95% accuracy.
The requirement for real-time information is the biggest change to the pay-as-you-earn tax system since it was introduced in 1944 and will represent a significant payroll challenge to many employers. Already accountancy magazines are full of employers' complaints about the cost and complexity of the scheme.
Patrick Wintour - 1st Jan.
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And from twitter .... OwenJones844 hours ago Look forward to the @Telegraph printing a clarification that IDS's claims on tax credits - published in the paper - were bogus via web retweeted by 101 others
--------------------- LobbyComm42 secs ago Cheated to get in2 Gov with help of dim cousins~the Ostrich Party,stole our NHS and legal rights and only answer Qs with lies#IDSsociopathsvia Twitter for BlackBerry®
REGARDING IDS BEING ASKED TO LEAVE CURRENT POST during the reshuffle, i asked the question, Heres One reply cwugrahamCould it having something to do with a PM with less spine than an earthworm? #Cameron#spineless via Twitter for iPhonein reply to Jules_Clarke Here are hints of fascism
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
Disdain for the importance of human rights
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
Supremacy of the military/avid militarism
Rampant sexism
A controlled mass media
Obsession with national security
Religion and ruling elite tied together
Power of corporations protected
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
Obsession with crime and punishment
Rampant cronyism and corruption
Fraudulent elections MacfarlaneRobin19:53 Colin Traynor, life long epileptic."FIT FOR WORK",APPEALED but died before finding out he had WON appeal. Monster IDS go to HELL NOW via web AlmerÃa, Spain retweeted by 1 other
trannymum12 mins ago IDS thinks an £11 rise in benefits over 5 years is 'greedy'. No IDS, what is greedy is giving rich people over £100,00 in tax cuts is greed via web retweeted by 8 others retweeted to you by fibro_girl mistynow4 mins ago @Jules_Clarke sheez its unbelievable, the man is a liar on his own C.V. as well !!!! Horrified. via Tweet Buttonin reply to Jules_Clarke ---------------------------- NOW A SUPERB TWEET LordRennard6 mins ago @Jules_Clarke I think I did my bit to help bring down IDS as Tory Leader helping Sarah Teather win Brent East! v
