Snooker legend Terry Griffiths opens new Age Cymru Sir Gâr offices
Snooker legend, Llanelli hero and ‘active pensioner’ Terry Griffiths was the guest of honour for the grand opening of the new Age Cymru Sir Gâr offices in Trostre, Llanelli.
Mr Griffiths OBE, 67, also helped launched the charity’s new ‘advocacy service’ in Carmarthenshire.
“It was very much a double scoop for us at Age Cymru Sir Gâr,” said the charity’s chief officer Ann Dymock.
“We managed to celebrate both the launch of our new advocacy project called ‘Help to be heard’ and the opening of our new premises at the LEC Workshops in Trostre Road.
“And, to put the icing on the cake, we had a true local hero and sporting legend to do the honours for us.
“Terry Griffiths is greatly admired by young and old in Carmarthenshire and it was a delight to have him cut the ribbon on what was a big day for Age Cymru Sir Gâr.
“This is a wonderful start to the year for us, letting people across Carmarthenshire know where we are when they need us, but also celebrating our new offices in our 20th year and our wonderful new advocacy project which has already supported more than 60 people to have their voice heard.”
Age Cymru Sir Gâr is the older persons charity serving the over-50s of Carmarthenshire.
The ‘Help to be heard’ advocacy project has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
It will help older residents in Carmarthenshire secure their rights, understand situations they are in and ensure that their voices are heard and respected.
Staff and volunteers were on hand at the launch day to promote advocacy for older people and explain how the already popular service can benefit more people across the whole of Carmarthenshire.
The grand opening also saw other events at the new Age Cymru Sir Gâr HQ, including opportunities to learn new crafts (put on by its successful West Wales Befriending Links project), the chance to learn new digital skills, plus talks and information stands on all of the charity’s valuable projects, including welfare benefits advice and the ever-popular ‘Practical Services’ projects such as handyperson and gardening.
Harvey Jones, chairman of Age Cymru Sir Gâr, said he was delighted to see the opening of the new HQ.
He added: “We want to build on the quality we've got with this new building. We want to do a quality job and stick at it!”
Guest of honour Mr Griffiths, winner of the World Snooker Championship, the Snooker Masters and the UK Snooker Championship, entertained the 100-plus who attended the opening with amusing anecdotes.
He also paid tribute to Age Cymru Sir Gâr’s valuable work in the community and welcomed the new advocacy project as a major tool in giving older Carmarthenshire people a voice.
Although there are some advocacy services in Carmarthenshire these mainly centre around those with mental health issues, dementia or learning disabilities and are funded by local authority or Welsh Government via a fund called supporting people.
The Age Cymru Sir Gâr advocacy service is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and is the first of its kind in Carmarthenshire in that its criteria is solely based on age and issue as it helps older people have a voice and be heard.
For instance, it deals with a range of issues from elder abuse, to helping people understand their care systems to sorting out problems with energy and phone companies which don’t listen or try and railroad vulnerable older people into paying bills they don’t owe or purchasing items they don’t want. Advocates speak up for those unable to do so themselves. The service is free.
Mr Griffiths said: “There is a strong demand for advocacy to support vulnerable older people in Carmarthenshire as not all have supportive families or access to information in a way they can understand, so Age Cymru Sir Gâr’s Help to be Heard advocacy project goes a little way to meeting the demand for help and support that Carmarthenshire’s older residents need and want. The project aims to support older people and make sure they have a voice.
“It is also great to see Age Cymru Sir Gâr moving to new, larger offices so that they can expand the services and support they provide to Carmarthenshire’s older residents. I’m delighted to help promote the location of the new office so that many more people can access information, advice and other services.”
Age Cymru Sir Gâr’s new offices are at Unit 5-11, 100 Trostre Road, LEC workshops, Llanelli, SA15 2EA. Telephone - 01554 784080.
The office is open for drop in from 9am – 2pm to the public, Monday to Friday. However, the phone lines are open from 9am to 4pm after which time there is the national helpline – tel. 08000 223 444.
Age Cymru Sir Gâr is a charity affiliated to and partner with, Age Cymru and Age UK. Age Cymru Sir Gâr is an autonomous charity that sources its own funding to provide support and services for Carmarthenshire’s older residents. The charity supports people aged 50+.
Age Cymru Sir Gâr website www.agecymru.org.uk/sirgar
Age Cymru website www.agecymru.org.uk
Advocacy:
Independent advocacy provides people with the support they need to be heard, uphold their rights, and make informed choices about their lives. It can help to place people at the centre of crucial decisions.
There were 25 full time and 46 part-time paid advocates delivering services funded specifically for older people in Wales in 2012. This is equivalent to one paid advocate for every 11,0001 older people in Wales
There were 53 volunteer advocates delivering services specifically for older people in Wales in 2012. Overall, there was one advocate (paid and volunteer) for every 6,000 older people in Wales in 2012.
Number of older people supported by advocates in the last 12 months: Over 4,000 by services specifically funded for older people.
An additional 1,500 people were supported by other services including IMCA and IMHA. This has increased by approximately 1,000 since 2010, which should be expected given the increase in paid and volunteer advocates.
The long term sustainability of services is an issue which must be addressed as the funding for the regional Big Lottery projects comes to an end in the next few years.
For further information about advocacy – see Advocacy counts 4 produced by Age Cymru –
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/brandpartnerglobal/swanseabayvpp/documents/age%20cymru%20advocacy%20counts%204%20e(4).pdf
Age Cymru Sir Gâr Advocacy case study:
Mrs Z, aged 70, lives in an extremely isolated rural location with no electricity other than a small solar charger, no mains gas, no mobile or landline telephone and just a wood burner for heating and has no real road to her home. She suffers from a number of progressive conditions including ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) and extreme anxiety and had not left her property for several years.
Mrs Z is receiving her full benefit entitlement but couldn’t get her money herself and didn’t have a bank account. So her friend would fetch the money for her using a Simple Payment Card (SPC) from local shops, but because of problems getting the cash using this system her friend was considering stopping assistance. Mrs Z contacted Age Cymru Sir Gâr for help.
Mrs Z told Age Cymru Sir Gâr that the DWP had opened a post office (PO) account for her and had shut down the SPC account. However, no money had been made available to the PO account and she was now running out of money.
An Age Cymru Sir Gâr advocate visited Mrs Z who showed him a large number of failed withdrawal receipts relating to both accounts over several weeks and Mrs Z was worried about where her money was.
The advocate then helped her to make some telephone calls as she was anxious making phone calls and she needed assistance to clear security, too, before she could authorise the advocate to speak on her behalf.
Our advocate was then able to establish that despite the DWP assuring that the payment method had been changed, payments were still being made to the old SPC account not to the new PO account.
The advocate then ensured with the DWP that the SPC account was no longer open and that the PO account was active.
Mrs Z was extremely relieved to find her monies and to be able to make plans to retrieve it.
The advocate told her that it was possible to withdraw up to £600 and specify from where and when her friend could collect the money. The advocate then left after ensuring that no further assistance was needed.
Terry Griffiths speaking at the launch of the new advocacy service at Age Cymru Sir Gar’s new offices in Trostre, Llanelli.
Harvey Jones and Llanelli MP Nia Griffith.
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