Threshold's new fishing club, appropriately known as 'Gone Fishing' started this week with thanks to funding from Oldham East District Partnership's Community Chest,: and through the support of Oldham Community Leisure and Alexandra Park.

The first group went to Alexandra Park and had a great time.  The project intends to use fishing as a positive way of engaging with Threshold customers providing a positive, diversionary activity for customers.  National evidence shows that angling is a fantastic way of relaxing and improving behaviour and this first session proved no different.

Many of the group had never fished before and were shown how to prepare their equipment and given tips about how to fish safely and effectively.  Here's what some of the budding anglers said

'I will definitely be fishing again, with or without staff, in the future. I loved it'

Central Support services hosted a Strawberry Tea event on Friday 6 August to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care.

Guests were treated to lots of strawberry themed goodies including delicious home made strawberry and cream cakes made by Maggie Mellor - yummy!

We held two quizzes, the Strawberry Tea quiz and guess the number of hundreds and thousands.  Congratulations to Lee Wilds who won both quizzes.

Guests also had the chance to purchase organically grown vegetables from Steve Goslyn's allotment.

Over £60 was raised for Breast Cancer Care.

A big thank you to everybody who came along.

I'm James, I'm a resident in a supported housing service and I'd like to tell you about a careers day I helped to plan.  On Friday 2nd July, Threshold hosted a careers day at Napier Street East. This was attended by various organisations such as Police, Army, Fire Service, V-involved, Oldham College and Highways 2 Opportunities.

It was a fun day for all those who attended with the added bonus of a variety of food that was on offer provided by Threshold. The event was open to the community as well as supported housing tenants from across Oldham.

Friday 11 June saw the start of the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa. The tournament was watched by billions of people around the world.

Thanks to the creativity of the staff and residents at Spring Street, Threshold have opened their very own 'world cup zone' in the communal lounge. The 'zone' celebrated all 32 countries competing in the tournament and contained flags from the world, iconic pictures from previous world cups, facts about the competing countries including national dishes and fun facts about the nations and, of course a big screen T.V.

Housing support worker, Stuart McNair said 'the world cup was a great way of engaging with our customers and to learn more and celebrate some of the diverse range of cultures we have within our services'

The 'zone' featured in four of the group stage matches and customers from across services and the wider community were invited to come along. The first group match to be featured was the opening game - South Africa versus Mexico. Before the match, residents at Spring Street devised and prepared a 'traditional' Mexican meal which was enjoyed by all those who came along.

Each of the feature matches gave the opportunity to sample popular dishes from the countries playing - see below.

At half time at each of the games, we hosted our very own 'half time team talks' where we covered a range of topics including diversity, customer involvement and sexual health awareness.

Threshold proudly celebrated the world cup and our 'world cup zone' was a huge hit throughout the football month and we event managed to have it as a vuvuzela free zone!

>> World Cup Food

Since the start of the Garden Project at Spring Street, we have had a high interest in how to grow your own vegetables and a number of customers have been involved in planting from seed and also pre-grown and more established vegetables have been planted which are thriving. Customers have been coached and asked questions on how to use the vegetables we are currently producing in every day dishes to form part of a healthier diet and a guide book is being produced to further assist customers to maintain the project themselves. Andrew Atherton, Services Manager, has plans to incorporate the food produced into the Learn2Cook project.

We are currently producing turnips, spinach, carrots, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage and a number of herbs including sweet marjoram, coriander and parsley. We are also growing Lolo Rosso lettuce that Mark has sampled in a salad he made and said; "Its really crunchy and fresh".

Spring Street customer Mark Leasley said; "Its great watching the vegetables grow and you get a proud sense of achievement when you eat them"

Mark and other customers have been looking after the garden making sure it is watered and weeded on a regular basis and the added sunshine we have had recently has helped the vegetables along a treat.

Threshold shone at Manchester Shine

On Saturday 17th April, Manchester hosted it's first ever 'Shine'.  Shine is a night walk which raises awareness and money for Cancer research UK.

Threshold was well represented at the event with 10 members of staff (Abigail Birch, Neil Thomas, Janet Nadin, Jason McKenna, Andrew Atherton, Amanda Peacock, Stuart Warburton, Helen Smith, Helen Robinson and Helen McCreave) completing the walk along with Lee Rigby of Safety2Business and various friends and family members joining the 7,500 competitors.

 The competitors had the chance to walk either a half or full marathon both of which covered some of the great landmarks in Manchester and started and finished at Manchester Central.

They arrived at Manchester Central on Saturday evening and enjoyed the pre-race build up which included a high energy warm up, live entertainment.  Participants were reminded of the importance of the event with some very real stories of how cancer affects so many and the bravery of so many people.  The race itself started at 10.00 p.m.  and the walkers were sent on their way by Dennis Law, the former Manchester City and Manchester United star, himself a cancer survivor which made it fitting and inspiring and it was also derby day!

The walk took a little time to get going as it was a real cram and for the first 6 or 7 miles it seemed like walkers were in the biggest queue ever!!.  Once they got into their stride it seemed to get moving and despite the pain, blisters, aches, exhaustion and watching other participants fall by the wayside, they all managed to complete the race which was a fantastic achievement.

Between the staff, they have raised around £1,500 towards the overall Shine target of £1 million which will make a difference to cancer treatment.

They all  have a fantastic sense of achievement and sound in the thought that they have made a contribution to  this fantastic cause.

Well done to all those who Shone and a special big thank you to all those who supported and sponsored those taking part.  Together we will beat cancer.

During a support session at Stamford Villa, Jason Walker, customer, suggested that staff and customers take part in the Comic Relief fun run as he felt he would like to do something to help other people. This idea was received with enthusiasm and staff and customers quickly signed up for the event.

Everybody was excited when the post arrived containing the details of start times and numbers to be worn on the day. Ross Jamison had signed up to run 3 miles and Jason Walker to run one mile alongside staff, Jo Wells and Byron Stansfield.

On Sunday 14 March, the sun was shining and everybody was keen to go!  Upon arriving at Spinningfields, Manchester the carnival atmosphere was great with people from all walks of life lining up to take part in the event.  Ross said  "he has never taken part in anything like it and was really glad he'd come".  Jason was keen to get started as his intention was "to run as fast as he could".

Jason was the quickest to finish the run with Jo, Byron and Ross following.  Ross had ran 3 miles and was proudly wearing his medal saying he was feeling great and wanted to do it again! Ross thanked staff for paying the entry fee in order for him to have the experience. Jason agreed saying "im buzzing that I managed to run that fast!"

A great day was had by all and a total of £65.00 was raised for a good

cause.

Many thanks to all that sponsored the team.

On Wednesday 17th March, Spring Street hosted a decorating master class for customers.  The session was expertly delivered by New Charter Building Company and was done as part of the current redecoration project at the scheme.

The residents of Spring Street used their communal lounge as a working and training room and decorated the room under the expert eye of Steve Shilley and Anthony McMaster from New Charter Housing Trust.

New Charter's Steve Shilley said "it was a really enjoyable day and it really helped that the lads who came along really wanted to learn."

As part of the ongoing promotion and cross borough networking, the GMOP team took part in Bolton's Vision Spotlight Event. GMOP hosted a stand at the event and Sarah Cooke, Services Manager was a key note speaker. The event was a great successes and has raised GMOP's profile leading to a number of excellent contacts and referrals for the project.

GMOP are now working closely within the Probation Spotlight Teams cross borough expansion. As each new borough signs up to the strategy they will be made aware of GMOP and hopefully work closely with us.