Small Scale Fundraising
When we were planning to move from 2 Richard III Road one of our Trustees, David Allan, came up with an idea called Time4Change. His idea was that people would collect their small change and donate to mosaic.
The separate bank account, which Bank of Scotland agreed to make no charges on, is called Time4Change and is still accepting donations. If you want to help mosaic please collect your small change for us.
In the kitchen area at Oak Spinney Park we have a small “book shop” with both brand new and second hand books, all at £1.00 each. We welcome donations but we also welcome buyers! We also sell DVD’s.
Currently we have a selection of over 100 videos. If you don’t want to move to DVD’s and still have a video recorder these may be for you.
Wilkinson’s have generously donated packs of 12 sheets of Christmas wrapping paper for which we are asking 20p donation per pack. You will never get a better offer!
If you want to raise money for mosaic the Trustees are trying to develop a ‘friends of mosaic’. For more information contact Barbara Howard. All monies raised will go towards the development of the kitchen area and gardening project.
Updated on 5 September, 2011
Voting Members and Trustees
Some people think that because they receive mosaic news it means they are a member of mosaic. This isn’t true. Anyone can receive the newsletter but you have to apply to become a Voting Member.
So what is a Voting Member and why is it different from just receiving the newsletter?
If you are interested in giving more to mosaic, not money but time and experience then perhaps you would like to become a Voting Member. It is free to become a Voting Member. As a Voting Member you get a personal invitation to the Annual General Meeting. You have the opportunity to elect Trustees who will manage mosaic. You can even put your name forward to become a Trustee.
If you are thinking that you might like to become a Trustee you can be co-opted to see what happens at the meetings after which you can put forward your name for election.
For more information contact Barbara Howard on 0116 2318720
Updated on 5 September, 2011
Community Legal Service Quality Mark
Since 2005, the Information Service has achieved the Community Legal Service Quality Mark in General Help with Casework. For mosaic yet another review/reassessment of one of our services is taking place, this time in August. This results of this will be posted on the website.
All these external inspections are valued by mosaic because they ensure our working practices are up to date. This process of external inspection is part of our Quality Assurance programme.
Updated on 6 July, 2011
September Consultation Month
In addition to any external inspection within mosaic we carry out an annual consultation programme. Many of our customers will have taken part in one of these exercises. The idea is to find out what people think about each service. All the pieces of consultation are carried out by people who do not deliver services in the organisation. Each service designs a consultation exercise to suit it’s customer group and the sort of service we run. We chose to carry out all the exercises in the same month so we have an overall view of what is happening in mosaic at one point in time. After September Consultation Month a report is written summarising all the findings and what we have decided to do to improve our services. If anyone wants a copy of the report please contact Barbara Howard on 0116 2318720
Updated on 6 July, 2011
Care Quality Commission
Since 2004, the Independent Life Project, and now ColtonCare, has been registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a Domiciliary Care Agency. This means that these two services are regularly externally inspected in terms of how our customers feel about our service, the policies we have and whether we put them into action.
Our registered manager is Michael Brittain. While Care Quality Commission carry out a ‘desk top exercise’ every year out last on site inspection was in 2008. Information about Independent Life Project is on the CQC website.
Updated on 1 November, 2011
History of mosaic
Established in 1898 as the Guild of the Crippled, mosaic has gone through 4 name changes, the last being in 2000 when we became mosaic: shaping disability services (often known as mosaic). The last change of name came about following an open competition when we received 227 entries.
A lot of people ask us what the name ‘mosaic’ means, is it an acronym? We see mosaic as a good description of the organisation – each person, each service contributes to mosaic as a whole but together they make up more than the sum of the parts. mosaic’s strength is that it is so diverse. People also ask us why our title is all in lower case; the only reason for that is to make it distinctive and different from any other organisation. ‘*mosaic*’ should also be in bold; few people get it all right.
mosaic’s history is really in two parts:
- its building
- its services
Both are a fundamental part of mosaic.
The Building
Between 1907–1909, the ‘Guild’, as it was known then, raised over £6000 to purchase the land, freehold, pay for the construction of the Guild Hall on Colton Street in Leicester and furnish the whole building. The aim of the Management Committee was that any building would be built “free of debt”. This is what they achieved. The money raised covered the running costs for a number of years while the organisation became fully established.
The Guild Hall was designed as a social centre and was the first to be built in England. With about 2000 sq. ft. of floor space, the Guild Hall was made up of three rooms, a balcony and a kitchen. There was also a stage. For a building designed in 1907 the Guild Hall was a prestigious example of accessibility and there are many buildings in Leicester, newly constructed, that do not have that level of accessibility. The Guild Hall is a significant part of the social history of Leicester. The Guild Hall was flat to enter, with wide doors including double doors at the front of the building. There was a spacious hall where the socials were held. There were two other meeting rooms which were also very large.
At this time, many disabled people used spinal carriages or wicker wheelchairs (from whence the term, often used in a derogatory manner, ‘basket chair’ came). The Guild Hall could accommodate more than 150 in the main hall. The balcony and the stage weren’t accessible but they were designed specifically for non-disabled people. On the back wall, above the stage, was a very large painting of the healing of the sick by the Apostles on the steps of the pool at Bethsada. The painting was by a reknown local artist, Roland Barker. Rumour was that all the faces of the characters depicted were actually portraits of local dignatories.
The area the Guild Hall was built in was very different in those days – surrounded by small terraced housing. At that time the Guild owned 5 houses which were rented to disabled people. Charles Street, now a thoroughfare, was then a lane.
Over the years the area has changed; the houses were knocked down to be replaced by factories. Charles Street became one of the main streets of Leicester with shops all along it.
By 1916, money had been raised for an industrial training hall was built called the Queen Alexandra Industrial Training Hall; this was next to the Guild Hall. This recognised the difficulty that disabled people had in getting employment. It produced rugs, woodwork, paper flowers and a range of craft work. Eventually, a shop was set up in Charles Street for the sale of the work produced. Because this was before the benefits system was established disabled people were able to take a share of income earned. This building eventually became the AA building on Charles Street.
In 1925, money was raised to build a holiday home situated in the rolling countryside within sight of Old John in Bradgate Park. At that time the village of Cropston could be considered to be a holiday destination but now is a part of an extended city of Leicester. Until 1992, Cropston Holiday Home was a flourishing home for disabled people for whom finding accessible accommodation for a holiday was very difficult. In 1992, the Trustees had to take a very difficult decision to sell the home. It no longer met the requirements for a residential home and the cost to upgrade it was prohibitive, beyond our reserves.
In 1997 it was finally sold. The Trustees set aside the money raised from this building to go towards the purchase of another building at some point in time. This decision was not liked by the older members of the Guild who had fond memories of holidays there. The site was sold for prestigious housing now called Guild Close in Cropston. In our meeting room at Oak Spinney Park we have an original watercolour painting of the holiday home.
In 1992, the Guild hall was registered as a Grade 11 listed building which actually ‘sounded its death knell’ as a working building for mosaic. Once listed, there were a lot of restrictions as to what changes could be made to the building e.g. the kitchen couldn’t be upgraded because the original copper urn was there. The door handles could not be lowered because they were an integral part of the original building. We could not install electric doors and of course the parking was very limited. Again the Trustees took the hard, business, decision to sell the Guild Hall. There was a great deal of sadness about this because so many disabled people and their families had grown up with the Guild Hall as part of their lives. The decision was taken that the money from this sale would be put with the money from Cropston Holiday Home to purchase a new building in keeping with the 21st Century.
A building as old as the Guild Hall had many artefacts, some of historical significance and some just junk. Many of the historical items went to the Leicestershire Museums at Snibston Discovery Park. The grand piano was housed at Melton Baptist Church until it finally went to the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick in Derbyshire where it is in daily use. The organ went to an organ restorer for renovation. Plastic chairs went to St Gabriels Church Hall and a number of bits and pieces were either sold or given to charity shops. As the time came to move we did not know what to do with some things so they went into storage at a Trustee’s factory.
In 2010 when our “history” came out of storage we were amazed about what we had put out of sight 8 years previously, 1,000 copies of “From Strength to Strength”; some arts and crafts furniture; crockery from Cropston Holiday Home; and old wheelchair and loads of old records. There was a “grandmother” clock and a wall clock from the Guild Hall. We had to be very careful about not just storing things for the sake of it.
Naively the Trustees hoped we would be able to find another building very quickly, within the two years we were allowed to stay at the Guild Hall rent-free. However, we were forced to move to 2 Richard III Road as tenants. We were there 8 years!!
However, history was never far behind us and our offices were, where legend had it, the bones of Richard III were thrown into the river after the Battle of Bosworth. A plaque on the bridge next to the building recorded this.
Oak Spinney Park where we are now based brings us full circle from the Guild Hall; it has large spacious rooms and great access. This time it has good parking and office space. While we waited a long time the Trustees felt it was worth the wait to own our own building, freehold, “free from debt”.
Our Services
While elsewhere on this website are details of our current services, it is important to note that the Guild of the Crippled was set up basically to challenge the social isolation and loneliness that disabled people experienced; loneliness that caused depression and aggravated any illness. Living conditions were hard and the opportunity to get out of the house was a boost to mental health and physical recovery for some people. Some people would argue that for many disabled people things have not changed very much.
A big service that was established in the early days of the Guild was a Visiting Service; we still have one. There were groups that people attended; they still do. The Guild organised day trips and holidays; we have the Overstrand Bungalows.
Before the establishment of the NHS disabled people had to pay for a visit to the doctors, to see a physiotherapist, to get a wheelchair or spinal carriage. One of the major services that the Guild offered was free doctor’s surgery, free wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, free physiotherapy and access to a specialist surgeon. The Guild was a radical organisation, and still is.
Updated on 1 September, 2011
Volunteering at mosaic
mosaic has always had a large group of volunteers who support our services and without whom some of the services would not exist.
Currently volunteers mainly work in:
- Sunbeam as skippers (CBA qualified) or crew. This can be on a rota or ‘as and when’
- Sailability where volunteers are volunteer helpers, assisting people getting on and off the boats or as qualified RYA instructors
- Reception as telephone operators and Reception Desk workers
- Newsletter packers who pack our newsletter every two months.
- Visitors in our Visiting Service who visit disabled people who are socially isolated either in their own homes or in residential care
- mosaic news as writers of articles
Trustees, of course, are also volunteers.
During the next few months we are hoping to develop a whole new volunteering project – offering Volunteer Placements. There will be 3 parts to this project:
- to offer people who have, or who are about to, retire the opportunity to volunteer in a wider range of our services
- to offer disabled people opportunities within mosaic which might increase their ‘employability’ or just to meet people
- to work with Jobcentres to offer unemployed people on benefits, who are required to do voluntary work, the chance to think about a career in social care.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer in any of these areas contact Suzy Smalley on 0116 2318720 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
You can download our volunteering brochure here
We are also able to offer Advocacy Placements (voluntary) where people are interested in doing the Advocacy Qualification but are unable to do so because they do not have any advocacy experience. The Advocacy Placements are structured volunteering placements.
If you are interested in an Advocacy Placement contact Debbie Farrar on 0116 2318720
Updated on 5 September, 2011
Investors In People
mosaic has been an Investor in People since 2001 with reviews every three years. Having Investor in People status has been an important step for us enabling us to look at our Business Plan, staff support and training. It gives us a way of measuring mosaic against other organisations. We do not kid ourselves that being an Investor in People means ‘we have got everything right’ but it is a step forward, that is continually monitored.
We were reassessed for our Investors in People award on 26 July 2011 and sailed through with flying colours. There were such a lot of changes since our last assessment – new working environment, loss of a major service, redeployment of staff, new services, the development of a Business Plan and the need to develop a lot of new services. it was a thorough inspection which ended successfully – the assessor saw a huge improvement over the last assessment three years ago. Staff are really proud about this and feel their hard work in difficult circumstances has paid off.
Quotes from the assessors:
“This review demonstrates the hard work undertaken by mosaic: shaping disability services to ensure that the standards achieved for people development are maintained. As a recognised organisation for over 13 years the Assessor was particularly keen to consider how feedback from previous reviews has been used. The overwhelming sense of the review, however, has been the positive impact of changes and the committment to continuous improvement….People and their development remains a priotiry for mosaic: shaping disability services. It is clear that the recent restructure was delivered to maximse people’s strengths and support new developments in the organisation”
“There has been continued emphasis by mosaic on supporting and developing people in order to learn and develop in both current and future job roles”
Updated on 1 September, 2011
Find Us
Our new building is at Oak Spinney Park. You can download a copy of a map here:
Directional Notes:
Oak Spinney Park is off Ratby Lane, close to Meynell’s Gorse Park and Ride/ opposite Wembley Road.
By car: from the south via M1 junction 21a; from the north via M1 junction 21 and then A5460 (Leicester)/A563/A47 (Hinckley Road)
By train: to Leicester (then bus to Ratby Lane) By bus: Regular bus services from Leicester City Centre to Meynell’s Gorse Park and Ride
By bus: Regular bus services from Leicester City Centre to Meynell’s Gorse Park and Ride
Updated on 7 July, 2011
About mosaic
Why mosaic: shaping disability services?
In 2000 we held a competition to find a new name for the Guild of Disabled People. From 227 entries, the voting members chose mosaic: shaping disability services. mosaic illustrates the fact that the organisation is made up of many different features, different services and different people. In a mosaic each piece is different but put a lot of pieces together and they make a picture (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts). That’s how we see mosaic. ‘shaping disability services’ we believe describes how we work – we don’t provide static services but are part of the creation of new services, designed by disabled people.
www.mosaic1898.co.uk is our website. 1898 is the year we were founded.
While mosaic: shaping disability services is our full name we often shorten it to ‘mosaic’. We believe it is better to use our full name as much as possible so everyone knows who we are and what we do.
Updated on 23 August, 2011
Welcome
Welcome to the ‘new’ mosaic website – something a lot of people have said they have been waiting for. The new website coincides with all the changes that have taken place in Adult Social Care and what that means for disabled people and mosaic’s services. We want to use the website as one way to get information out about what mosaic can offer and how you can find out more. Things cannot stay the same and in mosaic we will try and make things even better.
Our mission is to deliver information and services that disabled people want; services that promote inclusion, equality, independence, choice, empowerment, respect and dignity.
As an organisation we recognise and challenge the prejudice, discrimination and social isolation that many disabled people face throughout their lives.
Have a look at our News page for an update on the success of the Christmas Fair
Updated on 7 December, 2011