Price	Members Response
£5.00	44
£5.50	6
£6.00	5
£6.50	13

Following the above result and feedback on lunch pricing, we have settled for a £1 increase. Therefore, lunch will be increased to £5 from 1^st April 2019. Transport and other services remains the same through 2019/20. We aim to review this next year in consultation with yourselves.

Please note, if any member is going through financial hardship and unable to pay the increase for lunch. Please speak in confidence to one of the managers: Natasha (Office Manager), Katherine

(Resource Manager) or Susanette.

To support the initial process from £4 a meal to £5, Nataliya

(Finance Officer) will be around in April, to support you with changing money notes and coins.

Thank you once again for your feedback and we look forward to continue working with you All.

Susanette Mansour

---

Trustee Recruitment

 

Croydon Vision is recruiting for the following Trustee roles:

• Treasurer to assist the Board of Trustees and Executive Director with the financial management of the charity, offering oversight and guidance as the organisation continues its efforts to diversify income streams Croydon Vision – Treasurer Candidate Pack (2019)
• A Trustee to assist the Board and Executive Director with expertise in health and social care matters. Offering oversight and guidance as the organisation continues its efforts of member care and to diversify income streams Croydon Vision – Trustee Pack (Health and Social Care)
• Trustee with expertise in Human Resource Management, to assist the Board and Executive Director. At Croydon Vision, we believe in Team development – investing time and resources to influence the team and the organisation Croydon Vision – Trustee Pack (Human Resources)
• A Trustee to assist the Board and Executive Director with expertise in business development, corporate sponsorship and other funding initiatives. Offering oversight and guidance as the organisation continues to diversify income streams Croydon Vision – Trustee Pack (Business Development)
• Croydon Vision is looking for a Charity Secretary to the Board of Trustees
  We are particularly looking for someone with good administrative experience in minutes taking, highly organised and methodical with possible knowledge of charity law or willingness to learn Croydon Vision – Charity Secretary to the Trustees

---

Events Calendar

Date	Event	Further Details
25th March	Spring is Here! Lunch wine and games	1:00pm – 4:00pm
12th April	Quiz, Food and Entertainment	Celebrating all ages                *       * 4:00pm – 8:00pm
Month of April	Geranium Day: replaced with a new sponsorship programme	Raising funds for CV               *
5th June	Celebrating Volunteers	Event at CV from 4:30pm
12th June	Woldingham Wives Tea	2:30pm-4pm at Woldingham Village Hall
21st June	Taster day – Opening Doors	Showcasing Croydon Vision –All Day event 12:30pm – 5:00pm                  *
6th July	Family Outing	A day out Beddington Park     * Celebrating all ages
	Any Suggestions?
21st  August	Summer Barbecue!	1:00pm – 4:00pm                     *
5th to 23rd August	Excursions 2019	Monday to Thursday               *
4th October	Annual General Meeting (AGM)	4:00pm – 6:30pm
22nd November	Autumn is Here – Dinner and Dance	5:00pm –  9:00pm                    *
	Any Suggestions?
19th December	Christmas Party (Christmas break follows)Re-Open 6thJanuary 2020	Celebrating all ages from        * 13:00 – 17:00pm (Essential to book)

Events 2019: We currently have 2 spaces available on events calendar – awaiting recommendations/suggestions from members or volunteers. We would love to hear your ideas.

---

What’s on at Bedford Hall

Spring is Here!

 

On Monday 25^th of March, Croydon Vision (CV) will be holding a movie and a Vietnamese lunch event hosted by Trevor starting at 1pm until 4pm. The movie will be an old black and white classic and will have audio description. In addition, we will have a raffle where you can win some prizes. Our lunch will be cooked by two of our working age group members both whom used to be professional chefs. Le will be cooking the Vietnamese option while Tommie Brittan will be cooking an English alternative, details of which can be found at reception.

 

Vietnamese Option

Starter: Vietnamese Chicken Spring Roll

Main: Vietnamese Beef Soup

Dessert: Che Dau Trang (Vietnamese Take On Rice Pudding)

There will be a vegetarian option upon request, Please inform us of any dietary requirements.

 

Event – including meal and movie	£10
Raffle – All money collected will be donated to CV	£3
Transport – Limited transport on the day	£3 each way

 

Please contact reception for more details. Last booking date for transport is Thursday 14th March and for tickets is Thursday 21^st March.

---

 

Quiz Food and Entertainment

 

We are holding another evening of Quiz and Food, along with some entertainment; on Friday 12^th April from 4:30pm. This event is being organised by our Resource Manager Katherine. Last booking date is Thursday 4^th April.

It is an all age event, everyone is welcome. The cost, inclusive of food will be £12. For more details, please contact reception. Please post any ideas for this event, including for food, into our suggestion box.

Limited transport will be available on the day with normal prices applying.

---

Children and Young People

Making Computers & IT accessible for Visually Impaired Children

This month I have decided to talk about computer training for children who are visually impaired. Find out below what the big company Microsoft are working on to help children with sight loss.

Coding for children has been used in hundreds of primary schools. Scratch is a visual program, which involves dragging coloured blocks of code around a screen and watching an animation. However, this doesn’t necessarily work for those who are visually impaired or blind. Cecily Morrison, a computer scientist at Microsoft’s research laboratory has come up with a physical programming language to make coding accessible to anyone with a visual impairment. Cecily’s son, Theo 6, was born blind and commented

“We wanted to understand the world that he was going into and we found very quickly that many of his older friends wanted to learn to code and there were no options available to them to learn to code at this young age.”

She and her Microsoft colleagues quickly decided that what children needed was something physical – “something that they could have in their hands and that would make sense to them in their world”.

Music is also a part of it – each pod can be programmed to play a certain note and the young coders can put them in different sequences.

Just as with Scratch, this is a basic introduction to the concepts of programming, and children can then move on to other more sophisticated coding languages. It has worked for Theo.

When Theo is asked if he now wants a career in technology he interrupts me to say, “Definitely!” and outlines his plan to make phones and computers more accessible to blind people.

Nicola Peake – Children and young People Officer

---

Working Age

The working age group has been busy as usual. This month we have focused on learning a little bit more about technology and have had many achievements to discuss from our members.

A key aim of the working age project is for our members who would like to gain employment or voluntary work to reach their goals.  We would like to congratulate member and volunteer Anna Smith on her new job with Croydon Council. Another congratulation goes to our member Maxine Plowden, who has been given the great opportunity of extending her internship. Well done ladies you are an inspiration.

On Wednesday 20^th February, Katherine the Resource manager came down to give us an in depth look into the resource centre and the admin hub. Members got to find out about all of the different devices including the most popular device, the talking microwave. Other devices favoured were the talking induction hub and the infamous non-spill cup that each member tried to knock over with no luck. For all those who have not paid the Resource Centre a visit, I truly recommend it.

The working age members were thankful to have a visit from Davinder Kullar. Davinder works for the RNIB and is their Technology for Life Coordinator. He came into our group to conduct a Q & A session, covering Mobile Phones, Social Media and internet safety which members found very interesting and helpful.

The Working Age group takes place every Wednesday morning

10.30-12.30. For more information on how you can get involved with the working age group please contact Trevor our working age officer who can provide you with more details.

Trevor Aziz – Working age Officer

---

Over 65’s

Dance at Croydon Vision

Every Thursday morning members take part in our dance class led by two wonderful volunteers Bharat and Patrick. They teach a few different styles of dance, there is something for everybody to enjoy. Dances include; Cindy Swing, Yearning Saunter, Barn Dance, Viennese Swing, Square Tango, Sweet Heart Waltz and Bossa Nova. All levels and abilities are welcome and beginners/learners are paired with those with a little more experience to make it easier to pick up the tempo and beats.

‘Our Dance group is like a family. We celebrate birthdays, care for any sick or unwell members in class, have a tea break informing members of important news and of course enjoy dance’ Bharat Koria – Volunteer

Dance runs Thursdays from 10.30am – 12.30am at Bedford Hall. Please see reception for more information, 020 8688 2486

 

---

British Museum – Touch Desk

 

The British Museum is full of amazing History, pieces that tell so many interesting stories. Some of the galleries here have unique touch desks, which gives you an opportunity to touch and feel objects from the collections. Each desk has a handful of volunteers to assist you through the process who will give you some history and information on the objects that you hold. These touch desks are completely free and available daily from 11am – 4pm. The galleries that have touch desks are; The Enlightenment gallery, Collecting the world, Living and dying gallery, Roman Britain gallery, Money gallery, The Islamic world gallery and the China and South Asia gallery.

Touch Desks are open Daily from 11am – 4pm at The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, 020 7323 8000

---

Information and Advice

Croydon Healthy Homes

Helping residents heat their homes and reduce their fuel bills. Croydon healthy homes will be visiting Timebridge on 14^thMarch 2019 at 2pm to advise on how to save energy in your home. All are welcome to attend but no additional transport will be provided.

---

New App for Taxicard

 

CityFleet now have an app for Taxicard called CityFleet Taxicard which is available on Android through the Google Play Store and iPhone through the App Store.

The app has been designed to give Taxicard members access to make and manage their bookings using their smart phone and the app includes a number of features including:

• The number of trips you have left to use
• The ability to save favourite addresses and journeys to save time when booking
• Information on the cost and distance of journeys
• Driver and vehicle details once your booking has been allocated
• A ‘track vehicle’ feature so you know when the vehicle will arrive
• A ‘share my location’ option to share with family and friends
• Touch log in for security
• A ‘Rate this booking’ feature

 

Information, Advice and Guidance Booking slots for March

Tuesday	Group Visits	Group Visits	2pm	3.30pm
Wednesday	10am	12pm	2pm	3.30pm
Thursday	10am	12pm	2pm	3.30pm

 

For more information or support on getting and using the Taxicard app and for other enquiries please make an appointment with John our I&A Officer via reception.

John Ebubedike – Information and Advice

---

 

Resource Centre

Amazon Alexa

 

This month Amazon launched a new feature on their Amazon Echo Devices, the ability to play Audible books at a faster speed. You do this by saying ‘speed it up’, it then announces the new playback speed. To slow it down you have to say ‘slow it down’. It currently plays at maximum 150% and a minimum of 75%.

Another more hidden feature is the ability to set voice profiles, this enables you to have tailored responses for different members of the household.

One more useful feature is the ability to have a response repeated to you if you don’t hear it the first time, all you have to say is “can you repeat that”.

Just remember that the more you use Alexa the more she knows what you want her to answer, so where you used to ask what is the weather, you may now be able to just say weather.

In March I will be liaising with the Group Leaders to bring some of the pieces from the Resource Centre into the groups here at Bedford Hall and at New Addington, equipment changes so rapidly that, there may be something new you have no idea about.

Remember the Resource Centre is here for you to get access to equipment and try it out. I am in the Resource Center for booked appointments on a Monday and Wednesday. I have a volunteer who knows all about the equipment in the centre on a Thursday and there is now a book with instructions on how to use all the equipment, so any member of staff can assist you.

Katherine Turner – Resource Centre Manager

---

 

Try Something New in 2019

 

Metro Blind sport offers many different opportunities and activities to support those with sight loss in getting active and having fun. Odette, who is one of our trustees and a member of the VI community, has shared with us her experience of her first ever time taking part in archery with metro Blind Sport.

“I tried archery for the first time ever last month! I play a lot of blind tennis but my new year’s resolution for 2019 is to be brave and try out new things. I looked in Metro blind sport newsletter to see what activities were on offer and spotted archery.

When I arrived, I was warmly welcomed by Jen and Fred who run the sessions for Metro at the Southfields community school on Sundays.

The Coach was very enthusiastic and very helpful; I started learning where to stand, how to hold the bow and how to load an arrow. I had to feel my way around the bow and the string a few times before mastering the first skills, and then the coach guided me to take the right position to pull the string and shoot.

I was very excited when I heard the noise of the arrow planting itself on the target! This was the very first time I had shot an arrow from a real bow! Although I could not see the target, it was still very interesting to find out about all the techniques. When all the arrows were spent, we walked up to the targets to see how well we did and to pick up all the arrows that went astray.

It was strangely calming to stand and think all the instructions, aim and shoot a bit like some kind of meditation. This is a sport one can do just for fun or it can become really competitive, Fred was telling me how some of the Sunday archers had started with them and then moved on to enter competitions and bring back gold medals for the club.

Odette Battarel – Trustee

 

For more details their website is https://www.metroblindsport.org  or please call John our Information and Advice officer who will assist you.

---

Quiz Time

Our Quiz this month is full of fun interesting questions about Science to get your brain working!

1. Who invented the telephone?
2. What does the initials USB stand for in technology?
3. What year did the National Science museum first open?
4. 1857 B) 1901 C) 1957
5. Who discovered electricity?
6. What is the closest planet to earth?
7. What planet is the moon titan surround?
8. How long does it takes the suns light to reach the earth?
9. A) 7 minutes 20 seconds B) 8 minutes 20 seconds C) 9 minutes 20 seconds
10. Who invented the telescope?
11. What was the first planet discovered by the telescope?
12. Which bone is the longest bone in the human body?
13. What is the largest internal organ of the body?
14. How many bones are in a giraffe’s neck?
15. A) 7 B) 12 C) 17
16. Which sea is the saltiest in the world?
17. Who invented the aeroplane?
18. What famous scientist quoted ‘I have a dream’?

 

1. Alexander Graham Bell 2.Universal Serial Bus A 4. Benjamin Franklin 5. Venus 6. Jupiter 7 B 8. Hans Lippershey 9. Uranus 10. Femur 11. Liver 12. A 13. Dead Sea 14. Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright 15. Stephen Hawkins

---

 

That’s Entertainment

A selection of Audio described performances in London next month.
Please note that some of the time for Touch Tours is yet to be confirmed (TBC), please use contact detail to enquire.

Date	What’s Happening	Contact Info	Price
Sat 30th March 2.30pm (Touch Tour 12.20pm)	WickedApollo Victoria theatre, Victoria	T: 08009126973	£37
Sat 6th April3pm	The Twilight ZoneAmbassadors Theatre, Leister Square	T:02073955405	£20
Tues 12th April7.30pm (Touch Tour 12.30pm)	DownstateNational Theatre, Waterloo	T: 02074523000	£10-£48
Fri 26th April7:30pm (Touch Tour 6pm)	Ghost StoriesLyric Hammersmith, Hammersmith	T: 02087416850	£15

---

Dates for your Diary

Tuesdays & Thursday IT Training	The IT Trainer Katherine Turner will be teaching on Tuesday and Thursday.
Monday & WednesdayResource Centre	The Resource Centre Manager Katherine Turner will be available.
Tuesday to Thursday Information & Advice	John Ebubedike, Information, Advice and Guidance, is in Tuesday to Thursday, please book through reception.
Glaucoma GroupMonday 4th March	The Glaucoma Group will meet at Bedford Hall at 1.30pm
Macular Support GroupMonday 11th March	Is the next meeting of Croydon Macular Support Group from 1- 3pm.
Thursday, 14th March Low Vision Clinic	Fiona Hazell will be at Bedford Hall between 9.30am and 12.30pm. She gives expert advice. This is a free consultation, but please book first.
No date in MarchNext visit Wednesday, 10th April Chiropodist	The chiropodist Joy Dell will here Please book with Reception.
Thursday 25th April andThursday 26th September	Croydon Hearing open surgeries

 

---

Lunch Menu – Bedford Hall
Croydon Vision – Eat well, Live well and Age well

All meals include a choice of main course and dessert

————————————————————————————–
Tuesday 5^th March

 

Meat: Homemade chili con carne (without chilli) served with rice or potatoes and steam vegetables
Vegetarian: Vegetable chilli con carne served with rice or potatoes.

Fish: Pan fried cod served with potatoes and vegetables.

 

Dessert

Homemade plum tart served with custard
Fresh Fruit salad with yogurt or Ice cream

—————————————————————————————

Wednesday 6^th March

Fried rice served with BBQ chicken and salad

Dessert

Fruit salad served ice-cream or yogurt

—————————————————————————————

Thursday 7^th March

Meat: Stew chicken served with rice or potatoes and steamed vegetables
Vegetarian: Vegetable stew served with rice or potatoes

Fish: Fish stew served with rice or potatoes and steamed vegetables

Dessert

Homemade rice pudding served with berries
Fresh Fruit salad with yogurt or Ice cream

———————————————————————————–

Tuesday 12^th March

 

Meat: Homemade steak pie served with steamed vegetables.
Vegetarian: Homemade vegetable pie served with salad

Fish: Baked salmon served with potatoes and steamed vegetables

 

Dessert

Strawberry trifle
Seasonal fruit with yogurt or ice cream

————————————————————————————–

Wednesday 13^th March

 

Homemade chicken curry served with rice and steamed vegetables

Dessert

Chocolate sponge cake served with custard

 

—————————————————————————————

Thursday 14^th March

 

Meat: Roast pork served with potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables 
Vegetarian: Roasted vegetables served with potatoes and gravy

Fish: Baked cod served with potatoes and steamed vegetables

 

Dessert

Pear crumble served with custard

Seasonal fruit and yogurt

 

———————————————————————————–

 

Tuesday 19th March

 

Meat: Meatball stew served with penne pasta or potatoes and steamed vegetables

Vegetarian: Quorn meatball stew served with penne pasta or potatoes and salad

Fish: Pan fried salmon served with potatoes and steamed vegetables

 

Dessert

Homemade cheesecake
Seasonal fruit with yogurt or ice cream

 

————————————————————————————–

Wednesday 20^th March

 

Chicken tikka masala served aromatic rice and salad

Dessert

Apple crumble with custard

 

————————————————————————————–

Thursday 21^st March

 

Meat: Roast chicken served with roast potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables

Vegetarian: Vegetable curry served with rice or potatoes and salad

Fish: Baked cod served with roast potatoes and salad

 

Dessert

Homemade blueberry pie served with custard
Seasonal fruit with yogurt or ice cream

————————————————————————————–

Tuesday 26^th March

 

Meat: Roast lamb served with roast potatoes gravy and steamed vegetables
Vegetarian: Quorn roast served with roast Potato, gravy and steamed vegetables

Fish: Baked cod served with roast potatoes and steamed vegetables

Dessert

Homemade vanilla sponge cake served with custard

Seasonal fruit with yogurt or ice cream

 

—————————————————————————-

Wednesday 27^th March

 

Homemade chicken in breadcrumbs served with chips and salad

Dessert

Fruit salad with cream or yogurt

 

—————————————————————————-

 

 

Thursday 28^th March

Meat: Chicken casserole served with mash potatoes and steamed vegetables.
Vegetarian:Vegetable casserole served with mash potatoes and salad.
Fish:Fish pie served with steamed vegetables.

Dessert

Apple pie served with custard
Fruit salad Seasonal fruit with yogurt or ice cream

 

—————————————————————————-

New Addington Menu
Eat well – Live well – Age well

Thursday 7^th March

At Bedford Hall

Thursday 14^th March

Roast pork served with potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables Dessert: Pear crumble served with custard

Thursday 21^st March

Roast chicken served with roast potatoes, gravy and steamed veg

Dessert: Homemade blueberry pie served with custard

Thursday 28^th March

Chicken casserole served with mash and steamed veg

Dessert: Apple pie served with custard

---

We would love to have your input!

 

Submissions for the April Newsletter are due in by:
Thursday 14^th March – newsletter@croydonvision.org.uk

---

 

Contact Croydon Vision

 020 8688 2486

 info@croydonvision.org.uk

Charity Number: 1165086