News
November 2024
Nottingham Mencap’s Opens
On Friday 22nd November Local Paralympian Charlotte Henshaw opened the new Nottingham Mencap building which included tours of the building, displays of work and celebrations.
Nottingham Mencap was originally founded in the 1950’s by a group of local Nottinghamshire parents to support their children with disabilities and in 1962 a new building, Harpenden House was built, as a social and recreational centre. According to Nottingham Mencap’s archive press cuttings, it was the only purpose-built building for this function in the midlands. Since that time services have developed to support over 600 people of all ages, both children and adults, within the building and in the community. All this is done while staying true to their original values of promoting and delivering support for people with learning disabilities and autism, enabling people with learning disabilities to live successfully and happily in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
Through hard work and dedication from everyone involved with the organisation, and successful fundraising, Nottingham Mencap have been able to create a new space the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire can be proud of. The space includes a gym, health and beauty room, sensory room, multi-media suite, café and large function rooms for sessions such as dance, drama, creative writing, art and independent living skills.
We also welcomed the Masons who generously funded the Gym Equipment by the Mark Benevolent Fund and dedicated to Peter Maxwell Ball Provincial Grand Master for Nottinghamshire in the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons 2012-2020. Special mention to the Youth Investment Fund. https://youthinvestmentfund.org.uk/ . We were successful in applying for capital funding which enabled us to make the building the wonderful space it is, and look to develop our services for young people.
Chief Executive Officer Danny Hewis says:
‘We are all so proud to call our new building home. I believe that our purpose-built space is now the flagship space in the County for people with a learning disability. Special thanks to the City Hospital for all the years we were based at Harpenden House, so it’s a fond farewell, and we are now all excited to develop new friendships in and around Sneinton.’
If you would like to view the photos from the day click here
Notts TV reports on the opening
Notts TV attended the opening and enjoyed a tour and interviewing staff and service users. Click the photo above to view the clip or click here.
November 2024
November 2024
Diwali at Nottinghamshire Police and Fire and Rescue Service Joint Headquarters
A Nottingham Mencap service user acted as an ambassador for Nottingham Mencap and had several useful discussions with senior fire and police officers at the event. They can be seen pictured holding a poster that was launched
They also learnt more about the Sikh and Hindu religion and the history of Diwali and as part of the celebration also trying their first samosa!
October 2024
Abbie’s Running London Marathon for Mencap
I’m Abbie and I’m super excited to be running the London Marathon for Mencap. I work at Nottingham Mencap on the weekends helping out with the kids groups and I love it, it fills me with so much joy seeing the kids happy and having fun at Mencap. I want to run this and raise money because it is so important to have that funding that can help fulfil their time at Mencap and ensure they can take part in activities and enjoy themselves to make their days better.
Abbie will be raising funds for both Nottingham Mencap and Royal Mencap to sponsor Abbie and help Nottingham Mencap click here
Job Vacancies
We have some exciting opportunities to join our team.
To see the adverts, job descriptions and to apply click here.
September 2024
Nottingham Mencap 2024 AGM Notice
THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEEETING OF NOTTINGHAM MENCAP WILL BE HELD ON MONDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 2024 AT 7.30 PM
1a-3 CLARENCE STREET, SNEINTON, NOTTINGHAM NG3 2ET
If you would like more information or to attend please contact the office (info@n-mencap.org or 0115 9209524) to book your place and receive any relevant papers.
Disability Awareness training with Victim Care
Nottingham Mencap were delighted to host a training session on Disability Awareness for Nottinghamshire Victim Care at our new building at Clarence street. Victim Care offers people who have experienced crime support to cope and recover from what they have experienced. Victim Care are a valued partner supporting the welfare of people with disabilities in our community. The Victim Care team learnt about the impact of crime on disabled people and different approaches that can be used when working with people with learning disabilities and autism. Energy levels were maintained with delicious cakes made by the Nottingham Mencap cake decorating group.
Little People UK National Conference
On Saturday 24th August Nottingham Mencap attended the Little People UK National Conference in Nottingham. We were part of an information panel answering questions on reporting crime and hate crime and issues on how to stay safe, when and where to report hate crime. We also advised several individuals on a one to one basis on recognising and reporting hate crime. The Nottingham Mencap balloons with anti-hate crime messages on went down very well with the children and could be seen bobbing around the hotel throughout the day.
July 2024
A Day in the Life of Clarence Street
Dan from Forecast Designs came to visit us at our new premises to capture a day in a video.
Watch people learn, dance, sing and be creative. Every day is different but always fun and something for everyone.
May 2024
Hello Clarence Street!
At the end of April Nottingham Mencap relocated to a brand new premises in Clarence Street, Sneinton.
The podcasting group have made a fun video giving you a tour of the new place. Take a watch and if you would like to book in a visit/tour please give the office a call.
May 2024
Inclusive Technology Programme
On Thursday 30 May we enjoyed meeting members of the public in Hucknall Market Place. Our partners at The Carers Roadshow and Ashfield Wellbeing Network put on a fantastic event with circus skills and entertainment. We were incredibly busy telling people what we do at Nottingham Mencap, promoting the Inclusive Technology Programme and encouraging people to report crime.
March 2024
Goodbye Harpenden House
We’ve made a great film of our building as we’re about to move to give us something to remember! As soon as our new building is ready to film we’ll do another one so we can compare. Can’t wait!
February 2024
Mencap Matters!
Our podcast group have made a film about our current building and what they will miss when we move to our new site and what excites them about our future building!
February 2024
Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Youth Commission Workshop
The young people looked at a range of topics including Knife Crime and Trust and Confidence in Nottinghamshire Police. They also practiced their debating skills to develop their ability to see issues from different perspectives.
The group worked hard to develop their plan for new workshops for 2024.
A big thanks to Leaders Unlocked for running the session.
September 2023
New Service at Wilford!
We are delighted to announce that we have begun day provision in Wilford! Click on the picture for more information…
September 2023
AGM!
Notice of the Annual General Meeting to be held on Monday 27th November, 2023 at 7.30pm. Meeting to be held at Harpenden House, 203 Edwards Lane, Sherwood, Nottingham NG5 3JA. If you would like to attend please click here to send an email.
August 2023
On the News
Our Hate Crime and Anti-Bullying service were on the TV this week speaking about the Pegasus scheme in Nottinghamshire. Take a look and for more information and how to apply click here
July 2023
Understanding communities
In collaboration with Notts County Foundation, Mencap Me Time Nottingham, Trent Bridge, and Active Notts, we got together to talk about our community, what it means to us, what’s on offer, and what could be better. We all had a great day and the the interviewer, along with the interviewees were all fantastic!
July 2023
Meeting the Chief Constable and Control Room
A group of Nottingham Mencap students interested in policing and safety visited the Control Room and met the Chief Constable to see how calls and reports to the police are managed. The control room staff explained how calls were answered and how the Pegasus Card scheme works. We had a good conversation with Kate Meynell, Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable about reporting crime and how to keep safe. Everyone we met were really friendly and we ended the session by having lunch in the canteen.
June 2023
On the News!
Karen and Micky appeared on East Midlands Today to talk about her work in the promotion of Pegasus.
We are encouraging people to sign up to the Nottinghamshire Pegasus Scheme. If you have a disability, a Pegasus Card will help you stay safe and communicate quickly and effectively in a crises.
Micky uses our short breaks service, and has volunteered in a number of ways for the Smile! Stop Hate Crime Project. He has been a passionate advocate for the rights of people with disabilities in Nottinghamshire. Thanks Micky!
June 2023
Lenton Community Festival
We took part in the Lenton Community Festival, a fabulous day in the sun where different parts of the community came together for fun, music and a good time. We were able to have lots of conversations with people to tell them about how to report hate crime and encouraging people to join the Nottinghamshire Police Pegasus Scheme. We were luck enough to share our gazebo with a group of ladies from the middle east who kept us well supplied with lovely food throughout the day.
March 2023
Creative Business
We are excited to announce our brand new project. We will be working to develop skills around business and art techniques to start our very own small enterprise. We will be developing products and showcasing them online so there will be plenty of skills to learn and develop, creating a sense of achievement and working towards a common goal. Watch this space!
April 2023
New Building Update
We have good news! If you know Nottingham Mencap you will know that we have been struggling in our current building for some time now, so we are really excited to now say that we are the proud owners of a new building. We are now in the process of altering the insides, which includes adding a lift, enlarging some rooms, making the space more accessible, and adding a gym with changing rooms and showers!
Building work is well under way now. In fact, the building work is nearly complete, so once done we will be moving on to plumbing, electricians and internal fittings. More updates soon…
August 2022
Proud Day for Joe and Nottingham Mencap
Our representative for Nottinghamshire Youth Commission attended the Youth Commission Conference. Joe co-presented a section of the conference on relationships and online safety to a large audience including Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable, Craig Guildford and Sharon Caddell, C.E.O Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commission. It is important that the safety concerns of people with learning disabilities and autism are heard and responded to by both our community and the Police Service. Well done Joe!
Feb 2023
Amazing video editing skills!
Nottingham Mencap YouTube group are go!
Each week on a Tuesday morning we have been learning to make videos, record them on our GoPro, download them and edit. Here is our first published video on YouTube. We hope you like it! The interview is with Karen, who leads on our campaigning and hate crime initiatives, as well as our digital inclusion project. The film is about one of our latest projects about safe communities. Watch it until the end to see what we did.
Nov 2022
We are Podcasting!!
At Nottingham Mencap we are developing our multimedia skills and are producing podcasts and YouTube videos. It’s been hard work learning these skills, but it’s a great way to show what we do, and for people to express themselves. Here is our first podcast. Enjoy!
Working with the community
On Wednesday 16 we worked with the Newark Hate Crime Group to put on a Disability Hate Crime and Safety Day. We met forty people ranging in age from 17 to 80 living in Newark. They learned how to stay safe, recognise hate crime and learn how and when to report it.
Let’s Get Digital!
We are proud to announce that we have been successful in our bid to become the chosen county provider of digital support to those who are not currently accessing the internet. Click on the picture above for more information…
Data Security and Protection Toolkit
We have completed our Data Security and Protection Toolkit assessment and are have met the standards needed.
Everyone who uses health and care services should be able to trust that their personal confidential data is protected. Publishing your Data Security and Protection Toolkit provides assurance that our organisation is practising good data security and that personal information is handled correctly. The status can be viewed here https://www.dsptoolkit.nhs.uk/OrganisationSearch/AQME