Melincryddan Advice Centre

Here is a useful link which gives another route of  applying for volunteering opportunities with Melincryddan Community Conference. Where the names are sent to the volunteering centre NPTCVS  who pass them on to  Melincryddan Community Conference . https://www.volunteering-wales.net/opportunity/20450/

Below are photos from three groups of Melincryddan Community Conference volunteers who have successfully completed two days training, completing the Digital Champion course with Digital Communities Wales.

The project has been a great success because it has given two MCC volunteers the opportunity to deliver the project which was set up by Fiona Davies and Stuart Morgan (Volunteer Coordinators with Melincryddan Community Conference (MCC). The project was run by two MCC volunteers Anne Bees and Gareth Matthews . The volunteers  shared that supporting the group had help them gain knowledge of how effective the Fitbit was with encouragement of  the participants in how they were able to check how many steps they were doing in the week. Over the six weeks the group had support with linking in with the Learn My Way which gave them information of using emails, down loading apps and how to keep safe online. Anne and Gareth  were able to promote the Learn My Way  program which  is one of the learning tools that MCC volunteers use to support people who regularly use  the drop in sessions in Neath /Skewen /Glynneath/Pontardawe Library, and Neath/Port Talbot Job...

The project has been a great success because it has given  MCC volunteers the opportunity and experience  to deliver the project. The IT support given for the Fitbit project was run Neath Library every Wednesday morning over a two month period. The project was coordinator by Fiona (Assistant Volunteer Coordinator) and MCC volunteer Rhiannon . Rhiannon  shared that supporting the group had help her gain knowledge of how effective the Fitbit was with encouragement of  the participants in how they were able to check how many steps they were doing in the week. Over the duration the group had support with using emails, job searching, down loading apps and how to keep safe online.  The  group were able to drop in to the IT support sessions in Neath Library which helped them develop further IT skills by registering on the Learn My Way course which gave them extra IT support. The volunteers shared that it had increased the group’s digital skills an...

Case Study –Coastal Housing – Ty Twyn Teg – Fitbit This is a housing scheme where Coastal Housing Group Ltd provide support staff seven days week and 24 hours a day to the residents. Melincryddan Community Conference (MCC) provide five Fitbit two for five Coastal Housing residents who were all over 50 years old.  Fiona Davies (Assistant GET NPT Online Volunteer Coordinator) worked in partnership with Nigel Lewis (Coastal Housing Digital Officer) to deliver a six week program which encourage the residents to learn IT skills while monitoring the number of steps they achieved over the week. The first week we had the support of a young person Serena who supported Fiona set up the Fitbits for each resident. The Coastal Housing Residents used the Fitbit device to measure their activity levels, to see whether they’ve been reaching health goals, while understanding how digital technology can help them achieve this. Fitbits are activity trackers – wireless-enabled wearable technolo...

Melincryddan Community Conference (MCC) is a not-for-profit company and a Registered Charity, operating across the Neath Port Talbot area. Neath Port Talbot Stroke Group is a friendly group of survivors and partners that meet regularly, to help each other build a more meaningful life after stroke. Outline of our Intervention Digital Communities Wales (DCW) worked with Melincryddan Community Conference (MCC) and Neath Port Talbot Stroke Group to deliver a six-week Fitbit health project. DCW supplied five Fitbits and a toolkit, which supported delivery of the project. There were five participants who each had their own Fitbit. Each participant established their own weekly health goals and was given support in ways to achieve these goals. During weekly group sessions they were supported to engage with the Fitbit dashboard online and use other online tools that supported their health and wellbeing. At the end of the project, all participants were encouraged to continue to engage...

The Fitbit activity tracker is all the rage at the moment and it’s becoming an emerging tool for digital inclusion work in Wales. Digital Communities Wales (DCW) has been working with Melincryddan Community Conference and Neath East Communities First on a project that was looking to improve people’s health, while increasing confidence around digital technology at the same time. Following in the footsteps of similar pilot projects in West and South Wales, the Neath initiative saw five people meeting on a weekly basis. The group used the Fitbit device to measure their activity levels, to see whether they’ve been reaching health goals, while understanding how digital technology can help them achieve this. Fitbits are activity trackers – wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics. DCW supplied five Fitbits and a tool-kit which supported the delivery of...

Below are images regarding the new timetable for Digital DROP in sessions, and a poster which shows the achievements of Young People with Millennium Awards since 2014. This post also contains an image of the awards and certificates which can be awarded for earning different hours as a volunteer.

National Fire Cadets Community Trust present  Melincryddan Community Conference  with a cheque for £219.18 on behalf of Seven Sisters and Cymmer Fire Cadets who actively fundraised during the Emergency Services Day in Neath. Well done eveyone! Facebook:  Gwasanaeth Tân ac Achub CGC / MAWW Fire and Rescue

Volunteer Experiences Volunteer Experience - Lorna Hanney "I attended an IT support session last week at Neath Library and wanted to let you know how useful it had been, and to pass on my appreciation for the support given by one of your volunteers. Rhiannon ran the group and proved to be the most helpful person i have encountered in groups since becoming unemployed last year Each participant was given significant individual attention and all needed very different assistance Every person was treated with dignity, patience and friendliness  The technical skill Rhiannon had, outstripped everybody else who was helping and each intervention made, was given with willingness and warmth i strongly commend Rhiannon's approach and ability  what an asset you have  warm appreciation"  Lorna Hanney Volunteer Experience - Syari "I think its a great thing to volunteer. I approached Stuart  Morgan with my interest to volunteer and  Being a volunteer gave me the ...

Nine Police Cadets from Neath Group were presented with  Event Volunteering certificates  for getting involved with supporting Melincryddan Community Conference Volunteer  Co-ordinators Stuart Morgan, Fiona Davies and Nigel Lewis, who are part of the GET NPT Online initiative of supporting people to gain IT skills to get online. The police cadets worked with a group of retired residents from a local community in Crynant at the Crynant Community Centre to successfully get online. The certificate was developed as part of the  Volunteering Spirit Wales project  to recognise volunteers at events. Volunteers were delighted to receive their certificates and get recognition for their contributions. Many of the volunteers were young people, who were excited by the idea of using these to contribute to Millennium Volunteers hours; this encouraged them to get involved in further volunteering opportunities. Digital Communities Wales  trained the young peopl...

Learner Review 1 "For some time I have been attending the drop-in sessions at Neath Library and have found all staff and most volunteers very helpful, kind and knowledgeable.  I must explain that I am almost 80yrs young, disabled and deaf.  I have not been discriminated against in any way, and everyone - library staff as well as I.T. personnel have gone out of their way to accommodate my needs and shown patience with my loss of hearing, willingly repeating the conversation when I have not heard or lip read. Emails are my main form of communication as I cannot hear conversations accurately on the phone, as with a number of other people in my situation, it is not only the loudness and tone, but also most importantly the clarity to me as my brain processes words etc. I have had help mastering a number of things on my iPhone which is a great problem to me and impossible for me to solve sometimes as some broadband providers will only deal with phone queries, as do some dom...