@ datesnmates

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

GLASGOW • RENFREWSHIRE • ABERDEEN

@ datesnmates

Contents

2 @ dnmscotland

Christmas Parties

Dates for Your Diary

Mind and Draw

Europe in Action: 2017

Coffee & Cake

Halloween 2017

National Take Me Out Event

d-n-m Aberdeen Halloween Party

Christmas Singing Project

d-n-m Aberdeen Directors Surprise

d-n-m Renfrewshire Member Training

d-n-m Renfrewshire Volunteering

d-n-m Renfrewshire Halloween

d-n-m Renfrewshire Events

d-n-m Renfrewshire 2nd Birthday Party

Member Spotlight

2

3

3

4

5

6 – 7

8 – 9

10

11

11

12

12

13

14

15

16

C-Change Christmas Party

When: Thursday 21st December, 7 – 10pm

Where: Clyde Community Hall,

4 Whitefield Road, Ibrox G41 2YB

Tickets cost: £5

There will be DJ, Buffet, Bar, Raffle, All Welcome!

To book your place please contact us: info@c-change.org.uk or 0141 427 2946

@ datesnmates 3

3@ dnmscotland

Dates for your diary 2018Take Me Out Glasgow — After the success of the dating event “Take Me Out” in Aberdeen we will be running this event in Glasgow on Thursday 8th February 2018 in the Grand Ole Opry. More information to follow.

The annual dates-n-mates Scotland Ceilidh will be held on Friday 23rd of March 2018 at Paisley Town Hall. We will announce the 2017 Champions at this event.

d-n-m Glasgow will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary next year!! It’s going to be an exciting year for us and we will be running a series of celebration events from the summer. If you have any ideas on how we can mark this very special anniversary please get in touch with us. We would welcome any input from our members.

We will be putting a committee together to plan various events over the 12 month period so if you would like to be involved please contact John Paul or Stacey.

Mind And Draw Mind and Draw is a creative project delivered by Garry Steven, a volunteer with dates-n-mates. Each workshop provides the chance to draw how you feel and relax without the pressures of creating perfection.

The workshops for dates-n-mates is down at the ‘The Space Scotland’ where everyone is enjoying getting the chance to be creative and expressive. If you want to know more about Mind and Draw you can contact Garry by email: mindanddraw@hotmail.com. Or on social media channels @mindanddraw

@ datesnmates4

GlasgowGlasgow

Europe in Action 2017: Love, Life, and Friendship

By John Paul Moffat

This June myself, Molly from dates-n-mates Glasgow and Magda from dates-n-mates Renfrewshire attended Inclusion Europe’s annual conference in Prague, Czech Republic. The theme of this year’s conference was Love, Life, and Friendship, so we thought it was a great opportunity for dates-n-mates to share what we do at the moment and learn from others.

One highlight for all of us was a workshop the three of us attended called “Diverse Sexualities: Speaking of LGBT” run by a Spanish organization called Plena Inclusion. This gave us great ideas about how we can carry out training for our members and work to be inclusive in all three dates-n-mates areas. The person leading the workshop was a very confident and charismatic person named Hector Santana Sanchez, who in their spare time is a drag performer.

The conference ended with a dinner cruise on the Vltava River. I am glad we went to Prague as I have come back with learning, ideas and connections.

@ datesnmates 5

GlasgowGlasgow

Coffee & Cake Committee

Update

If you’ve been a member for a while you probably know about our Coffee and Cake Committee. It’s a bi-monthly meeting where we get together over a cuppa and chat about changes we might want to make at dates-n-mates or new things we might want to try. All members are welcome to come along and you get a point on your champions card for attending (and an extra point on top of that if you make a suggestion!)

You Said We Did

You want more karaoke events We attended Massaoke at St. Lukes on 8th September. One member said it was “brilliant, a great wee night”. Another said it was “awesome, the singer in the band held the microphone out to the people in the front row and I got to sing into the mic”

You asked for new and different dating events

In September dates-n-mates Aberdeen hosted out first ever dates-n-mates Scotland ‘Take Me Out’ event, with members from all 3 branches taking part. We will be holding our own Take me out in Glasgow in the spring!

You asked for Guys and Girls days In November we’re having a guy’s pool afternoon at Reardens (and we’ll likely be following that up with another pool day for everyone!)

In December we will be attending the Girls Day Out Show at the SEC.

Our Spooktacular Halloween bash took place at the Clyde Community Hall on 31st October. 80 people attended and enjoyed a night of dancing to DJ Alan’s spooky tunes. We also managed to scare up some fun with our traditional mummy-wrapping contest.

Costume contest winners were Hughie McIntyre with his terrifying serial killer clown costume, Ross McDevitt as John Snow, and Leanne and Suzanne Geary as Princess Anna and Princess Elsa.

@ datesnmates

Halloween 2017

6

GlasgowGlasgow

Halloween 2017

@ datesnmates 7

@ datesnmates

8 @ dnmaberdeen

AberdeenAberdeen

National Take Me Out Event

September saw the first dates-n-mates National dating event, hosted by the Aberdeen team, with Glasgow and Renfrewshire members in attendance too. The event was based on the popular TV programme Take Me Out where there are contestants introducing themselves to a selection of dates. The potential dates had a light they put on if they were interested in going out with the contestant before one date was chosen and a match was made.

The event was held at the ROX hotel, in their grand ballroom, where 9 new date matches were formed.

The night began with a pamper session – make up and glitter for the ladies and aftershave for the men. The dating part of the evening included a round where contestants showed a video introducing themselves to their potential dates. This was the first dating event of its kind in Aberdeen specifically for adults with learning disabilities and the first national dating event for us where members from each area were all invited to find a date.

@ datesnmates

AberdeenAberdeen

9@ dnmaberdeen

dates-n-mates volunteer, Sofie had the following to say on her experience of the event: “I had a great time at the Take Me Out event because it was amazing to see our members have such a great time. It was a truly successful evening, as we saw a lot of matches (some of whom have gone on multiple dates!). As a volunteer, I helped the members with moral and emotional support and ran a couple of last minute errands but also enjoyed cheering for the contestants. I loved helping out as I got to do a lot of different things, but most of all it was fantastic to be part of a night that most of our members will remember for a long time.”

dates-n-mates offered support to all the couples to arrange a date if required. A few dates have taken place since then with some success already showing. Project Coordinator, Piotr, provided support on some of the dates.

The Take Me Out event ended with a fun disco. dates-n-mates Aberdeen plan for this to be the beginning of more exciting dating opportunities for our members.

@ dnmaberdeen10

Halloween Party On Friday the 27th, dates-n-mates Aberdeen held their Halloween Party at the Cotton Club. This party was a great success – it was busy with around 60 people in attendance, all having a fun spooky night of dancing, a raffle and more. The DJ played some great music for everyone to dance to including ‘Thriller’ of course! Thank you to the Cotton Club for providing the venue and DJ again this year.

The Halloween party included a costume fashion show when everyone showed off their costumes by walking down our ‘catwalk’ and striking a pose! We then chose 1 female and 1 male best costume winner – what a hard choice it was as everyone made a good effort.

Winner of the best female costume, Claire Spence, who dressed as Maleficent said “I really enjoyed the Halloween Party, I won best costume, it was a really nice evening just being with friends, probably one of the best nights I’ve had in ages.”

Member and volunteer on the evening, Craig Wilson, said the party ‘was really good fun’. Thanks for your help!

A video of the fashion show can be found along with more photos from the night on our Facebook page.

AberdeenAberdeen

Christmas Singing Project

dates-n-mates Aberdeen are planning to record a Christmas song this year with members. So far, we have had a few singing and music practices with our very talented members – they are sounding great so far! The song will be recorded November 2017 and ready in time for the Christmas party. We can’t wait to hear the final song and share this with everyone.

AberdeenAberdeen

Directors’ Surprise Event In October we held our first Directors surprise event.

A director’s surprise event is when each director takes turns to plan an event every 2-3 months and not tell the members what the exact event is - only include details on the date, time and place to meet.

Our Director Sarah planned the first event:

“I planned a meal out at Coast to Coast and we had a lucky dip and a game to play between meals. We also gave members a treat by paying for a big starter for all of us to share. Everyone said they had never been to Coast to Coast before and thought it was great. The members said I did a great job.

I think Director’s getting involved in planning a surprise event is great because it is good to be involved and be able to share your ideas.

It went really well, there is nothing I would do differently next time.”

Director, Daniel will plan his first surprise event early 2018.

@ dnmaberdeen 11

@ dnmrenfrewshire

Member Training During Autumn we held two training events, Friendly Faces and Social Media and Online Safety.

We would like to thank our member Kim Murphy who helped deliver the training with our Director Graham Watret and Event and Admin worker Magda Podstawka.

We will continue to offer training throughout February, March and April when we will be delivering training on:

• What to Say After Hello• Friendly Faces• Social Media and Online Safety • Dating Advice

12

RenfrewshireRenfrewshire

Volunteering through our Champions Scheme

Remember you can Volunteer your time at dates-n-mates and receive Champions points. We are looking for more members to take part in the Friendly Faces Training to help new members at events.

Our next Champions Awards will be held on 23rd March 2018 when the member with the most points will win a Golden Ticket for 6 months free membership! You still have time to volunteer or help us fundraise and collect points.

For more information or to discuss volunteering or fundraising get in touch with the Renfrewshire team on 0141 427 2957 or email dnmrenfrewshire@c-change.org.uk

Halloween 2017 On Saturday 28th October we held our Halloween Party at Ferguslie Bowling Club, Paisley. Nearly 70 members danced the night away as DJ Alan McGuire played spooktacular tunes such as classic Thriller to keep the dance floor packed all night.

Three teams took to the floor to battle it out dressing dates-n-mates team members Raynor, Magda and Fiona as mummies in our Mummy Game.

Our Best Costume Winner was Claire Addison who won for her amazing Elvis Costume. Well done Claire and all our other members, you looked fabulous!

@ dnmrenfrewshire 13

RenfrewshireRenfrewshire

Renfrewshire Events We’ve held 20 fun filled events over the Autumn months, including a fabulous night out to see Starman – The David Bowie Story at Paisley Town Hall. From Rebel Rebel to China Girl, Life On Mars, Changes, Heroes, Golden Years, the Bowie Hits wowed the audience.

We also held our regular Cinema Club, Meal Out, Pub night and Ten Pin Bowling. Renfrewshire and Glasgow members told us they’d be interested in running a ten pin bowling league so we teamed up for a joint bowling event at the Springfield Quay in September.

We also had fun with Glasgow and Aberdeen members at our National Event Take Me Out, hosted by our lovely dates-n-mates Aberdeen colleagues. Watch out for a similar event being hosted by Renfrewshire and Glasgow in the Spring 2018.

David Bowie Tribute Night, Paisley Town Hall Team Renfrewshire Bowling!

14 @ dnmrenfrewshire

Host Graham and National Member Andrew at Take Me Out, Rox Hotel

Pub Night, Hamishes House, Paisley Renfrewshire’s Director Graham at Ability Fest SECC

RenfrewshireRenfrewshire

15@ datesnmates

RenfrewshireRenfrewshire

dates-n-mates is a project of C-Change Scotland. Company Number: SC262558 Charity Number: SC035124

0141 427 2957

01224 924 730

0141 427 2957

dnmrenfrewshire@c-change.org.uk

dnmaberdeen@c-change.org.uk

dnm@c-change.org.uk

dates-n-mates.co.uk/renfrewshire

dates-n-mates.co.uk/aberdeen

dates-n-mates.co.ukGlasgowGlasgow

AberdeenAberdeen

RenfrewshireRenfrewshire