We have been amazed at how wonderfully quickly schools and organisations have adapted to providing virtual lessons and engaging activities and resources on line for children while they are at home in addition to supporting key worker and vulnerable children in school settings, into the holidays as well as during the term. Certainly our weekly clap includes teachers and teaching assistants and those supporting our young people in other settings such as children’s homes and pupils referral units during these deeply worrying times, as well as for our fantastic NHS, care and social workers thank you!

The AET is very much open to support you with either online free resources, by age group, ability and by topic via: www.alcoholeducationtrust.org  with great quizzes and virtual games for young people by topic via www.talkaboutalcohol.com . Karen is available to tutor you via skype or zoom if you need any activities or downloads explaining and you can email her via: karen@alcoholeducationtrust.org  We have also mapped each of our activities to the new RSHE curriculum and so can help you with your planning for the new academic year too.

To help ensure our survival long term and to ensure we spend grant money appropriately, we have sadly had to furlough Kate, Kathryn and Brian for eight weeks as we are unable to carry out our normal visits to schools and other settings across the country. We are very keen to begin training and our day to day support as soon as lockdown restrictions ease, so please do get in touch to make future bookings. All areas of England and Scotland continue to be supported virtually and with resources during this time, so please do get in touch with Karen via: karen@alcoholeducationtrust.org  if we can help with advice and helena@alcoholeducationtrust.org for resource orders.

Hard copies continue to be available of our activity box for children with additional learning needs and for young people with higher vulnerability to alcohol related harms. With discussion cards, facts and where to go for support as well as short films. This is a must for anyone concerned about the alcohol consumption of a young person during these stressful times when problematic drinking may increase due to anxiety , social isolation or stress. Please email helena@alcloholeducationtrust.org   if you work with vulnerable young people or with those with additional learning needs -  these resources and indeed all our resources and training are free of charge for schools, children’s homes, PRU’s , for social workers, school nurses, sports and youth clubs. Due to high current demand, we may have to add you to a waiting list while the packs are re printed, please bear with us.

We also have a brand new edition of Alcohol and You available to download via https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/alcohol_and_you.pdf This guide for older teenagers is packed with practical advice on how to keep themselves and their friends safe around alcohol. The guide now includes advice on festivals, travelling abroad and spotting the signs of dependent drinking. Printed copies will be available by mid-May, so please email if you would like to join our wait list.

Update on our new build and office

The building of our new premises in on hold until work restrictions are lifted on the construction industry. We do not expect to begin the main build now until June/July and fortunately we are not homeless in the meantime and continue to operate from the garden office! We are especially grateful to our capital funders who are being so patient with these unplanned for delays as well as to The All Churches Trust and The Savoy Education Trust for their wonderful grants confirmed recently.

A workshop for Foyer residents

We are thrilled to be partnering with Stonewater Housing through the Longleigh Foundation to create a health and wellbeing workshop, peer mentoring and training for life coaches and residents of Foyers over the next three years. Foyers are a wonderful residential stepping stone to independence for young adults aged 16 plus. We are therefore adapting our activities for older young adults and extending the topics we cover to include domestic abuse, County lines, emotional resilience and the risk associated with poly use for example. We thank Stonewater life coaches and staff for their invaluable input via our brainstorming workshops and for Foyer residents for being so brave in sharing their experiences as regards problems they have encountered and what would help them and others.

Becoming a CIO

As part of the planning for our new office, community space and café at the Great Field, Poundbury and a review of our internal governance we officially became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on the 1st April 2020. Our name will remain the same, our charity trustees will remain the same and we will continue doing the same work to keep young people safe around alcohol. Our new registered charity number is 1186202 and as we also operate in Scotland we will be registering our new charity with the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) soon. We are also very pleased to welcome five wonderful Directors to our team who will voluntarily lead our trading arm for PiP’s café when we are able to open. Rosemary Rodgers who set up a café from scratch, Peter Lee who lives on Poundbury and has a wealth of charity experience and Chris Nadin who similarly brings commercial and charitable expertise have joined Keith Newton (Chair) who is our AET Trustee leading finance and Andy Morse our AET Trustee with huge experience in project and financial management. If you have any questions about our new legal status, please email juliesutton@alcohleducationtrust who is our Finance Manager

We send you our very best wishes and thanks, particularly to those who have contacted us to see how we are faring. It is, and will be, a very difficult time for small charities such as ourselves over the next 18 months, at least, and we do ask that you continue to support us and spread the word.

Very best wishes,

Helena Conibear

CEO

helena@alcoholeducationtrust.org

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