Lonan3 Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 More smoke and mirrors from Robertshaw - but I'm sure he'll find time to appear on Manx Radio to promote justify himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Peters Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 Some great points Roger Mexico. Confirms what I've thought for years - it's apparently considered more important to have lots of meetings and produce reports for politicians than to get your hands dirty trying to help people get off drugs, moderate their use or help families of addicts (often the children of users I believe). My understanding is that DASH has never turned anyone away, so the notion that they're 'underused' is a nonsense. They have been a political football with the establishment moving the goal posts to suit its own agenda. The fact that DASH probably trod on a couple of toes, has failed to roll over and play nice so that civil servants can tell them what to do and MHK's can launch drug crusades, has led to them losing funding. And my understanding is that the £20k budget for the helpline has also been refused. We all know that government needs to save money, and when DASH was told the service was to be taken 'in house' it was a major blow but understandable. The fact that their funding has instead been diverted to another charity (and I have no argument with the AAS as a booze agency) without a proper tender process smacks of political payback and a 'done deal'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebees Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Stu, sorry to thread crash but have you seen the Katherine Crowe thing(In music)? Obvs I don't listen to Manx Radio (or any other radio station....except for spotify radio) so I do not know what they're doing to help but ...if I promise to listen to at least 2 of your shows next year could you have a word & gert promoting this? She is a great woman and I think it's right that the IoM and its station should push what she is doing as much as they possibly can. thanks I've been trying to hilight how much of a waste of money that O'Really woman is for years but will anyone listen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Peters Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 Complete thread crash Miss Bees. Met KC for the first time recently and thought she was great, and she has lots of fans at the station who will be promoting this. And don't listen to my programmes, support DASH in some way instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Does anyone know if MT provide vital helplines such as DASH, the Samaritans, et al, at reduced-rate? Or better still, for free? If not, they should.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebees Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 And don't listen to my programmes, support DASH in some way instead! Heehee, maybe listening to your programmes would make me turn to drugs, so, by not listening to them I am supporting DASH by not getting a drug problem and being a drain on their resources Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsyBitsy Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Hi No, we have asked Manx Telecom in the past for support to have a free helpline and were declined. Robertshaw claimed the service was too expensive because his 2 'civil servants' told him it cost between £300 - £500 per appointment to run - this was wholly untrue and is in fact not even near £100 (I won't say how much on here because he has yet to be bothered to meet with me to discuss and has so far refused. (less for young persons service) to see an individual for an hour including on-costs. But because its suited the overall 'plan', he didn't question it, neither did David Quirk or any other person and refused to speak to me about it. They then told us to apply for 20k for the helpline which we did, but after months waiting for a decision with they just declined it saying the service was too expensive. For those questioning it, our success rate is 70%+ leaving drug free - the service given funding to provide the drug service instead, success rate, last time I saw documents was 25%. But they're two different beasts to be honest. We also suppoort family members affected including children (or 'Young People) - which the other service to my knowledge would not be supporting. I say that - because the DSC wouldn't tell us what they were providing! But as far as I know, it's just adult drug users. I've probably said too much already and in danger of sounding too un-professional however true the above is, but we were the only charity to lose all our funding, put it that way. Regards Shelly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moghrey Mie Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 I think the One World Centre lost all their government funding too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsyBitsy Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 How much was that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moghrey Mie Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 £30,000 from the Department of Education and Children. Considering the great work they do in schools raising awareness of other cultures, poverty, fairtrade etc etc it is a disgusting way to treat the people there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Hi No, we have asked Manx Telecom in the past for support to have a free helpline and were declined. Robertshaw claimed the service was too expensive because his 2 'civil servants' told him it cost between £300 - £500 per appointment to run - this was wholly untrue and is in fact not even near £100 (I won't say how much on here because he has yet to be bothered to meet with me to discuss and has so far refused. (less for young persons service) to see an individual for an hour including on-costs. But because its suited the overall 'plan', he didn't question it, neither did David Quirk or any other person and refused to speak to me about it. They then told us to apply for 20k for the helpline which we did, but after months waiting for a decision with they just declined it saying the service was too expensive. For those questioning it, our success rate is 70%+ leaving drug free - the service given funding to provide the drug service instead, success rate, last time I saw documents was 25%. But they're two different beasts to be honest. We also suppoort family members affected including children (or 'Young People) - which the other service to my knowledge would not be supporting. I say that - because the DSC wouldn't tell us what they were providing! But as far as I know, it's just adult drug users. I've probably said too much already and in danger of sounding too un-professional however true the above is, but we were the only charity to lose all our funding, put it that way. Regards Shelly Ha! MT= Measley Twats. In fact, they and their shareholders should be ashamed of themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Peters Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 Apart from the almost obligatory Mission Statements that many firms peddle (and make me want to eat my own eyeballs) one of the buzz acronyms that modern marketing people have fallen in love with is CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. Wouldn't it be nice if 20 local companies could each pony up £5k a year for DASH as their CSR commitment. Trouble is (as Shelly says in the video) hers isn't a 'sexy' charity where the MD of a sponsor could hand over a giant cheque to save cuddly animals or sick babies. There's probably a stigma to helping a drug charity anyway (not for me because I possibly never inhaled, except in Amsterdam where it is legal to do so*). So it needs to be funded by the people collecting our taxes to improve the lot of the population. A 70% success rate is phenomenal - even if DASH only saw 10 people a year (and it's many more than that). Think of all the families who have benefited from that intervention - and without wanting to seem over dramatic, how many lives have been saved? How many crimes won't take place because people aren't having to fund a drug habit? But the way this has all been done is (to my mind anyway) absolutely outrageous - and seems to be a litany of misinformation (disinformation?), mishandling, deceit and outright skullduggery by people who now won't even discuss the chain of events, much less admit that they've screwed up. I'd like one or more of our politicians to take the bull by the horns and press Tynwald to launch a full, transparent and honest investigation. Take evidence from the police, the judiciary, GP's, maybe former addicts and some people who know that Baby Bio was never a threat to our society. * This may or may not be a lie. And I've been a nicotine addict for over 40 years, so won't be throwing any stones around THIS glass house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spermann Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Apart from the almost obligatory Mission Statements that many firms peddle (and make me want to eat my own eyeballs) one of the buzz acronyms that modern marketing people have fallen in love with is CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. Wouldn't it be nice if 20 local companies could each pony up £5k a year for DASH as their CSR commitment. Trouble is (as Shelly says in the video) hers isn't a 'sexy' charity where the MD of a sponsor could hand over a giant cheque to save cuddly animals or sick babies. There's probably a stigma to helping a drug charity anyway (not for me because I possibly never inhaled, except in Amsterdam where it is legal to do so*). So it needs to be funded by the people collecting our taxes to improve the lot of the population. A 70% success rate is phenomenal - even if DASH only saw 10 people a year (and it's many more than that). Think of all the families who have benefited from that intervention - and without wanting to seem over dramatic, how many lives have been saved? How many crimes won't take place because people aren't having to fund a drug habit? But the way this has all been done is (to my mind anyway) absolutely outrageous - and seems to be a litany of misinformation (disinformation?), mishandling, deceit and outright skullduggery by people who now won't even discuss the chain of events, much less admit that they've screwed up. I'd like one or more of our politicians to take the bull by the horns and press Tynwald to launch a full, transparent and honest investigation. Take evidence from the police, the judiciary, GP's, maybe former addicts and some people who know that Baby Bio was never a threat to our society. * This may or may not be a lie. And I've been a nicotine addict for over 40 years, so won't be throwing any stones around THIS glass house. Just saw her spot on tvim. Perhaps you could give her some assistance on PR and interview skills to help move funding campaign forward. Is there a fundraiser in the organisation? It was nice to hear that the service is funded for at least the next 12 months. We should all support this service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsyBitsy Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Thanks Spermann - there are 3 staff. One full time adult and family worker (me), One full time Young Persons Worker and part time admin worker. So I do the adult drug users and families and helpline and over flow from theyoung persons service, I also do Fundraising, PR, Advertising, Leaflet production, awareness campaigns, website content (in process of re-vamp), Facebook & Twitter, wages etc.. Young Persons worker splits time between 1-1 work, helpline and outreach/projects in the community including education in schools. Admin worker is split between us. We all help with the cleaning. So you can see where there is a problem with time for fundraising and PR, which is an issue with all small charities I think where you have to be jack of all trades. I think it's the larger charities that can afford the fundraisers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Sadly, I don't think 'ponying up' what could be a good percentage of a salary is an option for most businesses. For my own part, would I want to donate that amount to DASH or would I rather give the opportunity to lower paid staff to up their earnings at this time of year by overtime, etc.? It is quite easy to expect support will be forthcoming, but the reality is that I would want to give first dibs to employees. We have a modest budget for charity but tend to focus it on support for individual endeavour and challenge. Its a tricky one, I agree, but wish you well in the fundraising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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