Nailsea Disability Initiative AGM
NDI Christmas Closure Dates
NDI will be closing today (20th Dec) for the Xmas holidays and reopening on the Thursday 6th.
If you receive any paper work in this period don’t ignore it !
Ring the DWP and request a one month extension as you want assistance with dealing with your paperwork and we will tackle it with you in the New Year.
Nailsea Disability Initiative is moving
As many of you will know we took the difficult decision at the beginning of April for the safety of our volunteers and clients to shut the NDI drop-in centre for what we thought would be a temporary period as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
When the closure of the NDI the drop-in centre was clearly not going to be short-term we took the decision to hand in our notice on the premises because despite central government optimism we didn’t foresee this pandemic getting back to any kind of normality this side of Christmas which is how it has played out.
We don’t take the money we receive through fundraising, donations, and in particular from grants from key supporters such as Nailsea Town Council for granted. We foresaw us potentially just pouring money down the drain paying rent on a space we weren’t able to use because of the shutdown.
As a consequence, we still had money in the bank and the possibility of a future reboot somewhere else although at the time we did not know where.
When this decision was made to leave 10 Crown Glass Place I did fear the worst in terms of finding a new place to work from post-pandemic that was viable.
Fortunately, we were invited by the fantastic team @Number 65 High Street to move our services into the building purchased and refurbished by the Nailsea Town Council to be a community space for the many different groups and organisations that Nailsea has.
We had planned to start our services up again long before now however the second lockdown stopped that possibility so we are still in a holding pattern as to when we will be able to invite people to use our services again.
We are still available to assist where we can so if people can continue to get in touch via the NDI email address and the Facebook page we will endeavour to offer what help and assistance we can remotely.
I would like to thank Ian at Number 65 The High Street, Councillors Dee Houlbrook and Clare Hunt, and the council in general for their foresight in obtaining and developing number 65 as a community space that is available for organisations such as ourselves to use.
Finally, I would like to say as someone who has been shielding away in my bunker fairly uselessly, pay tribute to all those who have stepped up within the local community to organise and assist those in need via projects like the Nailsea Community Group and the many other groups, businesses and individuals helping out in these challenging times.
If nothing else good comes from this pandemic I think the way that people have stopped and thought about others and how we can help each other has been one positive we can hang onto and build upon going forward.
Best regards
Sean Kelly
NDI chairman
NDI Closure As A Result Of Coronavirus Statement
With regret the Nailsea Disability Initiative has taken the decision to temporarily close the drop-in centre in line with the recommendations from central government with regards to responding to the Coronavirus.
We appreciate that this will be a huge inconvenience for our clients for which we apologise however currently there is no other viable alternative.
It’s a fluid situation subject to change, we will post any information of relevance to our service users on this website in the News section of the website and social media platforms.
We don’t currently know when we will reopen the drop-in, thank you for your patience in these difficult times.
Best Regards
Sean Kelly
NDI Chair
Christmas Closure And Return Date
Nailsea Christmas Fayre
Please if you can pop by our stall at this years Nailsea Xmas Fayre in the town centre and try your luck on our raffle. Loads of great prizes to win as well as a lucky dip for the kids. We will be situated at the bottom of Colliers walk near Burchells fruit and veg.
Xmas Faye Flyer
Thank You Tesco Nailsea
Huge thanks to Hayley and Jon from the Tesco’s Nailsea Community Projects team for popping into the drop-in centre with this generous cheque.
We receive the grant through the Tesco’s Blue Token #bagsofhelpCommunity Projects Initiative Tesco’s run in local communities where the stores are based.
The generous £4000 cheque has gone towards updating our IT equipment as well as updating the kitchen area used by volunteers and clients using the advice centre.
Many thanks from all the volunteers at this NDI
If you have a local project that needs funding support by not get in touch via @communityattescoNailsea or check out details at https://www.groundwork.org.uk/…/grants_tesco-community-gra…/
Tickets available from the drop-in now.
NDI QUIZ NIGHT
Thank you, Tesco Nailsea customers and staff.
The Nailsea Disability Initiative would like to express our gratitude for being invited to do a collection last week at the Nailsea Tesco store as part of Tesco’s supporting local communities program.
A massive thank you to the Nailsea stores community champions ambassador Hayley Watson for organising our week and setting it up.
Over the week we raised a fantastic £396.20 thanks to customers generosity which will go towards the ongoing costs of running the disability information and advice centre.
As well as allowing us to collect with our buckets and hand out leaflets at the store to fundraise, Hayley also facilitated for us to have access to Tesco’s maintenance department who came down and carried out some much-needed electrical lighting maintenance at the drop-in centre.
(Thank you, Brian!)
Most importantly thank you to all the generous customers who stopped and made donations, thanked us for help we’d given them or a loved one in the past.
All the volunteers were particularly touched by the many children who without prompting dug into their precious pocket money purses and wallets and made donations.
I would like to also thank all the volunteers and trustees who gave their time last week to shake the buckets during our time at the store.
Fundraising Week At Tesco
Massive thanks to the Nailsea Tesco store for hosting us Wednesday through to Saturday this week as part of their community outreach programme supporting dare I say local good causes.
We have been fundraising with our bucket collection and spreading the word about the help and support the charity provides.
Thank you Haley the Nailsea stores Community champion for facilitating everything for us.
Nailsea Street Auction Transmission Coming Soon !
As you may know back in the summer Chris and Linda Baker were nominated to be part of the new BBC series Street Auction.
We have been told that the series starts on Monday 26th September at 11 AM through to the 14 October on BBC 1. The program featuring Chris and Lin and the good people of Nailsea is broadcast on 7th October.
May I take this opportunity to thank Chris and Lin for choosing NDI as the charity of their choice to donate £500 from the proceeds of the charity auction and thank everyone who got involved on the day on the stalls or donated items or bidding and buying on the auction or providing fabulous entertainment.
Support Nailsea Disability Initiative @ Waitrose Nailsea in July
We are delighted that Waitrose Nailsea have chosen Nailsea Disability Initiative as one of its three local good causes it will support in the month of July.
Waitrose as part of its Community Matters campaign donates £1000 a month to nominated local good causes.
We would be delighted if you are shopping in the Nailsea Waitrose (please spread the word to family and friends) if you could show your support for NDI by placing your green token in the NDI box.
Thank You For Your Support At This Years Carnival and Fair 2016
Well I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was not full of the joys of spring or indeed summer when I set off this morning in driving rain to attend the First Nailsea Scouts 2016 Carnival and Fair.
However fortunately the weather improved throughout the day and although we set up in driving rain come the end we were applying factor 50 sun cream.
Thank you to all the people of Nailsea who supported NDI by having a go on the tombola or donating to our collection tins, we managed to raise a very respectable £166 on the day.
Congratulations to the local Scout group who again ran a very well organised event. Working on the tombola we did not get to see much of the parade however looking at the pictures gallery on the http://www.nailseapeople.com website it looks like local groups again made a fantastic effort in what was a very well supported carnival with I believe increased numbers from previous years in attendance.
Look forward to doing it again next year, but hopefully without the squalling rain early on!
Chris And Linda’s Big T.V Surprise !
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Congratulations to Nailsea Disability Initiative founder and trustee Chris Baker and his wife Linda who on Sunday were recognised and rewarded for their hard work in the community over many years as part of a new BBC1 TV show presented by “Flog It” star Paul Martin and Co-presenter Irina Aggrey.
Street Auction scheduled for transmission in September, is all about the community coming together to say THANK YOU to local community champions by holding a street party and auction with them as unknowing guests of honour. (The lies that were told setting this up!)
Local people kindly donated items when Paul and his team went knocking on doors looking for potential auction lots (auctioned prior to Sundays event) with all the proceeds going towards a special gift for Chris and Linda as a way of saying thank you for their work within the community.
A exciting pop up Auction took place with Paul Martin bringing down the gavel on a variety of different auction lots ranging from a Sunday carvery dinner for 2 at the Ring O Bells pub, trout fishing lesson with the aforementioned pubs landlord, matching China dogs, and a very tempting brand new laptop just some of the items people were raising their hands to bid on.
As well as the auction there were stalls selling bric-a-brac, delicious crêpes,
home-made cakes and a tombola run by NDI volunteers with proceeds from these efforts and the two auctions raising a fabulous £1500.
Entertainment on the day was provided by the fabulous Barry Walsh Band and there was dance entertainment from local dance troupe Jazz on Tap.
At the conclusion of the pop-up auction and a quick tally up of how much everyone’s efforts have raised Paul finally let the cat out of the bag!!!
Paul approached Chris and Linda to say that they were in fact the recipients of a special award in recognition of their tireless volunteering in running The Nailsea Disability Initiative until their recent retirement.
Paul presented them with a five-star hotel trip to the Eden Project and presented Chris with a football trophy entitled the Chris Baker Fair Play Award to be given to a junior footballer of merit each year from a local team of Chris’s choosing.
Paul also announced that some of the money raised would go to the Nailsea Disability Initiative which as a charity we are extremely grateful for.
I would like to take this opportunity to also thank the residents of Strawberry Close who had their cul-de-sac well and truly taken over for the day, with residents really living up to the program’s ethos of coming together for a cause by providing electricity for the band and toilet facilities!
For more information about the day, loads more pictures and video footage please use this link to the excellent Nailsea People’s website. http://www.nailseapeople.com/
Chris And Linda Retire From Running the Nailsea Disability Initiative
As many friends of the Nailsea Disability Initiative will already know Chris Baker the co-founder of the NDI along with his wife and client adviser Linda have decided after over 13 years of service and dedication to the local community to take a well earned and deserved retirement.
They took the decision last year but it did not come about until this April when a new volunteer office manager Chris Sumpter was appointed although they would not leave the NDI ultimately until the beginning of the summer as they saw through to their conclusion their respective cases they are working on for NDI service users.
The remaining volunteers felt it would be fitting to celebrate and thank them for all their hard work and support they had given over the years to both service users and volunteers by holding a afternoon tea party in their honour at the Tithe Barn opposite Holy Trinity Church.
At this point I would like to thank Nailsea Town Council for once again showing their generous support towards the Nailsea Disability Initiative for giving us the venue for the afternoon it really is a fantastic setting and we greatly appreciated the gesture.
The volunteers all contributed although a special thanks goes to Helen Reid who took the lead with party planning and Maggie Parnell who baked a fantastic cake, but thanks to all who contributed to create a fantastic spread to feed just over 50 guests consisting of family and friends, volunteers current and fantastically volunteers of yesteryear as well as client users.
After this blogger had eaten far too many sandwiches, scones, cakes and more scones we had a short address from Ian Morrell to thank Chris and Linda on behalf of Nailsea Town Council for all the work they had done in the community during their time running the Nailsea Disability Initiative.
After some short speeches from Maggie and Sean to thank them on behalf of the volunteers there was a gift presentation for them both and a cake cutting ceremony and a chance for some photographs with a very emotional and grateful Chris and Linda.
I’m sure Chris would not mind me saying that just to remind everyone although the NDI has lost two of its central pillars the charity will continue to operate WE ARE NOT CLOSING!!
Thank you to everyone once again who contributed to making it a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine and thank you for all those who came to say thank you and good luck to Chris and Linda and bought so many kind cards and gifts and remember Chris was not crying he had something wrong with his eyes!
Nailsea Disability Initiative Christmas Opening Hours
Nailsea Disability Initiative Quiz Night 24th October 2014
Well done Linda Baker Our Volunteer Of The Year
As part of the celebrations around Volunteer Week 2014 Volunteers Linda and Sean were invited to Knightstone housing headquarters in Weston Super Mare to be part of Voluntary Action North Somerset (VANS) ‘Volunteers of the Year’ awards ceremony.
They joined 27 other voluntary and community bodies across North Somerset, all of whom nominated their own ‘volunteer of the year’ to attend. The awards ranged from long service, outstanding contribution to the work of the organisation and stand-out dedication.
Linda Baker demonstrates all these attributes so it was a easy decision to make to chose to nominate her as our Volunteer of the year and she received a certificate to mark her achievement, the fantastic event was rounded off with a buffet lunch and celebration cake.
Nailsea Disability Initiative would like to thank Knightstone Housing & VANS for hosting and administering the event and well done Linda again a very deserving Volunteer of the year for NDI .
Somerset Masonic Charities Donation
We were really delighted to be presented with a cheque for £500 from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Somerset to support Nailsea Disability Initiative and its ongoing work serving the community of North Somerset!
Chairman Chris Baker and volunteer Sean were presented with a cheque by Mr Georgetti who is Assistant Provincial Charity Steward of Somerset Masonic Charities.
Cribbs Causeway Mall Fountain Fund Donation
Lin and Sean recently had the pleasure of being invited to the management offices of the Cribbs Causeway Shopping Mall to receive a fantastically generous cheque for £1000 to support the on going running costs of the NDI drop in centre.
At the event Lin and Sean listened to a presentation from a member of the Mall Team who explained that the fund which has been in existence since 2003 supports smaller charities and community groups within a 25 mile radius of the shopping centre.
This year saw around 40 grant applications with NDI being chosen as one of the lucky recipients THANK YOU!!
The cheques were presented by Caroline Duckworth, Chief Executive of Quartet Community Foundation who manage the fountain fund on behalf of the Mall.
Sean and Lin outside the front entrance of the Mall with other recipients of grants from the Mall Fountain Fund programme.
Thank you to The Original Factory Shop for Supporting NDI
We really appreciate being chosen by the Factory Shop as the charity it would support last year as part of the companies programme of supporting local charities working in the local community.
So a massive thank you to the Factory Shop and all the costumers who donated spare change at the Nailsea branch of the Factory Shop in aid of the NDI.
As a result of the donations we received just over £505.00 which is absolutely fantastic.
http://www.theoriginalfactoryshop.co.uk
Nailsea Disability Initiative in the news!
Thank you Waitrose and it’s customers for supporting NDI in October
Nailsea Disability Initiative were delighted to learn they had been chosen to be part of Nailsea Waitrose stores Community Matters green token program during October.
Clearly the good people of Nailsea know a good cause when the see one as we are delighted to say NDI collected the most green tokens of the nominated charities.
Our collection of green tokens totalled up to a fantastic £446 so thanks so much if you supported us with your token and a very big thank you to Waitrose for their support.
Nailsea Disability Initiative 10th Anniversary Party!
It was a very special day on the 10th October as Nailsea Disability Initiative reached a special landmark.
It was 10 years to the day since NDI first opened its doors to members of the community to offer disability advice and advocacy to those affected by disability, young or old.
Chris and Lin were delighted to see so many faces both old and current clients as well as people who have kindly volunteered through the years.
We would also like to thank all those who were unable to attend for the kind messages that we received to congratulate us on the 10 year milestone.We were a little pushed for room at times during the day but we managed just about!
The fantastic NDI cake was made by one of our volunteers Maggie and we were delighted that the cutting of the cake was carried out by Val Broomhead whose husband John Broomhead was with Chris the co founder of the NDI back in 2003.
Nailsea Disability Initiative Supported By Waitrose This October
We are delighted that Waitrose Nailsea have chosen Nailsea Disability Initiative as one of its three local good causes it will support in the month of October.
Waitrose as part of its Community Matters campaign donates £1000 a month to nominated local good causes.
We would be delighted if you are shopping in the Nailsea Waitrose (please spread the word to family and friends) if you could show your support for NDI by placing your green token in the NDI box.
Quiz Night Success!!
NDI would like to say a big ‘Thank You’ to all the those who helped and donated to make our recent Quiz Night at the Grove Leisure Centre, such a success and raising over £450!!
Simply Health Donation
Our thanks go to Simply Health for a recent cheque for £270!!
Jamie Wilson, spokesperson for Simplyhealth comments: “We are pleased that we can help Nailsea Disability Initiative and hope that our donation goes someway to improving the lives of people in the local area.
“Each month our employees choose three charities to support through the proceeds of our dress down days. We also have an established community fund in Bristol that provides funding for worthwhile causes across the region. We would encourage charities and organisations to contact Amanda Willis amanda.willis@simlyhealth.co.uk at the Bristol Charity Committee for details of eligibility.”
Cheque Presentation!!
We were very delighted to be presented with a cheque from the Provincial Grand Lodge of Somerset for £500, to support Nailsea Disability Initiative and its ongoing work serving the community of North Somerset!
Chairman Chris Baker being present with a cheque by Mr Georgetti 
Holiday Closure
Please note we will be closed for a summer break, for one week commencing 16th July 2012. Also Thursday 26th July 2012.
Nailsea Sponsored Walk – May 20th 2012
It was dry but a chilly wind for the Nailsea Sponsored walk, with Chris – on a mobility scooter courtesy of Wilmott Mobility, Yatton – and Tilly in a wheelchair with assistance from Diana and Arthur, the black labrador!
Chris was slowed down by the other three, but we completed the 3 miles in an hour and a half, and raised over £100 for NDI!!
Sponsored Walk 20th May 2012
Nailsea Town Council Award
Annual General Meeting
Was held on 23rd March 2012 at 7.30pm at Nailsea Methodist Church, Silver Street, Nailsea
AGM minutes 2012 Click here
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