As you have probably seen if you’re a regular visitor to Ask My Community, or even if your not, there is always something new happening on the site, whether it be that a new community group has emerged promoting their work and services, like a local neighbourhood watch group wanting to communicate online in a safe and secure environment, or a new blog has been written with a heart felt story about a families battle with dementia that touches people hearts.

Ask my community always has something to offer to visitors and members alike.

This week is no different, but with an added little extra. So what have we been up to I hear you say?  Well quite a lot actually.

Since our last update we have been working hard to make the site even more user friendly, and have added even more communities for you to interact with.

We have created Four New Landing Areas, which have been designed to help you quickly and easily navigate around the site, helping you find the information or advice you are looking for.  

After our last update the community felt that there wasn’t enough balance, in terms of the different groups, topics, and discussions, as well as the information and services that where available to them. So we listened to your suggestions and worked our new look around you.

 
Now all the major topic areas of Work, Care, Health and Community have been crafted with the aim to bring the community to you. All the areas have a brilliant mixture of real and inspiring stories from people within the community, and helpful and concise information and advice from professionals, as well as easy access to community groups that are related to your chosen search.

One of the new communities that you can access from these new look community areas is the New Communication Partners Website.

Communication Partners

Communication Partners is a program organised by the Rotherham Speech and Language Therapy Department. They assist people who have been affected by Aphasia (a communication problem) after having a stroke.  

This group are a passionate and dedicated group of people that want to communicate affectively with their group of volunteers, sharing information and materials etc. easily and affectively, as well as promoting and raising awareness of this little known side affect of having a stoke, and informing users that there is this service available to assist them.   

People with aphasia don’t only struggle with speech after a stroke, but also have reading and writing problems in some circumstances. With this in mind, the new look site had to use imagery to tell the story of Aphasia, while being informative of the services that this group can offer. At the same time as providing information about the group, the site needed to be a place where the volunteers that they rely on so much could communicate and access support.



To do this 4 main areas where created:

Communication Partners Clients Area: This is a place where people with Aphasia, or their family members, can access information on the group to find out how the group can help them. Here, people have the ability to contact communication partners about accessing their service directly on the Internet.

What is Aphasia: To tell the story of Aphasia communication partners have created a story that explains, with the help of illustrations, how Aphasia affects people, not just statistics, explaining Aphasias affects in a more touching way.

Volunteers Centre:  In this area the volunteers can promote the work they do by writing blogs or uploading videos and images with the hope to encourage more volunteers. This is also where any member of the public who wants to sign up to become a volunteer can do.

Resource and Group Area: To support the current volunteers we have created a download area just for the volunteers, so they can access travel forms and images etc, that can assist them with their support of a client, all in one place without the need to travel to pick up this information. Now the volunteers can access all the training documents in one place. In addition to this area, communication partners also have a volunteers group where all the volunteers can share their experiences with other volunteers in a safe and secure environment as they would in their quarterly meetings but can now 24/7.
 

Learn more about Communication Partners On Ask My Community

This is such a wonderful group of dedicated people from all backgrounds and age groups that just want to help people affected by stokes in the Rotherham community. I cannot urge you enough to look at their new online home, even if you do not know anyone affected by a stroke because it is great to learn about the wonderful work of such a committed voluntary community group in Rotherham. Click here to go to Communication Partners Online Home