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The driving factor behind food bank use is poverty says, Food Banks Canada as it launches the HungerCount report. 

They organization also blames economic disruptions, low incomes, and government policies that don’t provide adequate support.

Each March, Food Banks Canada surveys thousands of food banks across Canada to provide a snapshot of current food bank use. The HungerCount report downloadable below establishes an up to date understanding of hunger in Canada in order to support advocacy for change.

For HungerCount 2018, Food Banks Canada has updated its methodology and is reporting visits, not individuals, as the core metric to better demonstrate food bank use and the need for food banks across Canada. This is a new baseline number for 2018 and should not be compared to previous HungerCount reports says Food Banks Canada as these numbers aren’t comparable.

You can read the report below. Sadly, as so often is the case, it seems it is children that are a major Candian food bank recipient.

ABC Note: Food Banks Canada is a charitable organization representing the food bank community across Canada. Founded in 1987, Food Banks Canada’s network is made up of 10 Provincial Associations and over 500 local food banks.

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The UK population growth is stalling shows new data from the Office of National Statistics

The population of the UK in mid-2018 was estimated to be 66,436,000.

The UK population grew by 0.6% between mid-2017 and mid-2018, the same rate of growth as in the previous year; growth in the years to mid-2017 and mid-2018 was slower than in any year since mid-2004.

In the year to mid-2018, there were fewer births (negative 2%) and more deaths (positive 3%) than in the last year; natural change was at its lowest since 2004.

Net international migration in the year to mid-2018 was 275,000, which was 6,000 higher than the average for the past five years and 45,000 higher than last year.

In the 12 months to mid-2018, the four local authorities with the fastest-growing populations were all in central London (City of London, Westminster, Camden and Tower Hamlets); the relatively high level of population growth in these areas is partly a reflection of the increase in net international migration between mid-2017 and mid-2018.

Neil Park, Head of Population Estimates Unit, Office for National Statistics said:

“In the last two years population growth in the UK has been at its lowest rate since 2004.

“For the fifth year in a row, net international migration was a bigger driver of population change than births and deaths.

“However, overall population change to the year mid-2018 has remained fairly stable as an increase in net international migration has been roughly matched by the fewest births in over a decade and the highest number of deaths since the turn of the century.”

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A business supported by Innovate UK has designed a wheelchair with suspension that is improving the comfort of users across the globe.

Wheelchair design has evolved in recent years, but users can still find it demanding to propel themselves. That can be especially difficult and uncomfortable on rough surfaces such as cobbles and paving stones.

Wife-and-husband design and manufacturing business Jelly Products has come up with a way to make life better and more comfortable for wheelchair-users with its innovative ‘loopwheel’.

Traditional spokes have been replaced with a new design that integrates suspension into the wheel and makes for a smoother passage over uneven surfaces.

Image: Loopwheels in action.

Co-founder and managing director Gemma Pearce said:

Loopwheels reduce vibration by up to 70% compared to a spoked wheel so the amount of vibration transferred into the person in the chair is significantly reduced.

There is a lot of research to show that ‘whole body vibration’ is associated with fatigue and lower back pain, increased spasticity (muscle contraction), and an increase in pressure sores and has an impact on bladder control.

The loopwheel was designed by company founder Sam Pearce, a product designer and mechanical engineer. The spokes have been replaced by a new interior that makes it easier to go over uneven or bumpy ground and removes vibration.

Innovative design means the wheel has a stiff structure but an element of compression. The springs within the wheel are made of a carbon composite material.

Gemma said:

People have tried to make a wheel with suspension before, but they have never had the right combination of design and materials.

Company’s sales growing 50% a year

Jelly Products, based in Newark, Nottinghamshire, first tried the wheel out on a folding bicycle, but people very soon started asking if they could be made for wheelchairs.

It is now making 100 wheels a month, and sales are growing 50% year on year. It has distributors across the world including in mainland Europe, Australia, Japan, Brazil and South Africa.

Gemma added:

About 1% of the population in the developed world uses a wheelchair. We have hardly scratched the surface of that market yet. People in wheelchairs are living longer and healthier lives, they are more active at home and in the workplace, and some are using electric motors. There is a real need for loopwheels.

We’re growing rapidly now. We’ve got good distributors in important export markets. We plan to expand into our current market and to look at taking our technology into other areas. This could be for use in other vehicles including for lightweight electric vehicles in our congested cities.

Awards helped business get product to market

Jelly Products was started in 2006 by Sam for design work for other companies and to develop his own intellectual property.

After coming up with the design for the loopwheel, he and wife Gemma realised that it was a risky venture and they would need to prove the product worked and manufacture it themselves to get it to market.

They won a £24,000 Innovate UK grant in 2013 that helped them to develop the loopwheel for wheelchairs. A further £240,000 grant in 2017 allowed them to work with 2 companies, Strategic Simulation and Analysis (SSA) and Composite Braiding, to further develop the loopwheel to go faster and for use off road and on rough terrain

Please contact Jelly Products here:

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One novel approach to helping the homeless is the formation of the Emmanuel Street Ministry by Chichi Armstrong and her co-founder writer and musician John.

The pair are using the power of music to help raise funds and to provide deposits to get homeless people into accommodation.

Chichi Armstrong is a very accomplished professional singer/songwriter who was born and brought up in Colchester, attending the well-known local Gilberd school before moving on the Colchester Tech.   

Chichi didn’t really sing at school. It wasn’t until she was about 15 that she started, and then years later began writing her own songs.

Image: With love Chichi Armstrong. 

The singer moved to London in her early 20s where she went on to perform with several different soul and funk bands, meeting soul singer James Brown after sitting next to his driver at a concert. Sadly, the great James Brown died just two months later.

It was her love of soul and funk that first got her started on the London music scene and then she joined the London Community Gospel Choir in 2003. Two years later Chichi was singing with Madonna on the track, Like a Prayer in front of half a million people in Hyde Park at the, Live 8 concert.

This led to her singing on various tours with Seventies group Boney M including a tour of Russia and other Eastern European countries.

The band had a falling out with some local Mafia heavies on one occasion, and it proved to be rather more exciting tour than the band might have hoped for, as they had to make their excuses and leave in a hurry!! 

As well as Live 8, with the London Community Gospel Choir Chichi got to play Barcelona and Ghana, where she took part in the Abolition of Slavery Celebration.    

Today Chichi is developing her career as an artist while running her Ministry. 

Chichi can be booked via her website: https://www.chichiarmstrong.com/about and there is more information on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Chichi-Armstrong-317132274967676/

ABC Note: Do check out her videos and music tracks. She's hot!

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See below: Boney M in the 70's. 

'It's Hot in the Hot Tub' as James Brown would say. As we all bask in the heat and humidity of a European heatwave we have added a few more images from last weeks two events. The the ALSTO ‘Rocktoberfest’ And spectacular vistas from Russia Todays studios in Milbank Tower.

Band wise we became a bit lost with who was who but we may add this later.

All in a good cause as the say.

Image: ALSTO's charity fund raiser. 

This is the view from Russia Todays offices.

Photographed through glass as we certainly were not going to be opening any windows.

Image: Looking towards Parliament and the London Eye. 

 Image: Across the River Thames to the South Bank.

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ABC Founder Simon Collyer appeared on RT (Russian) TV on the early evening news 19/06/2019 with legendary news anchor, presenter Bill Dod. 

This was the ‘ABC’s first TV appearance and our four minutes of fame included talking about DWP bonuses and controversial DWP advertising placed recently in the Metro newspaper. Advertising that has attracted a massive number of complaints from over eighty disability organisations. The DWP are not making it clear enough in these adverts that these are government funded.  That Universal Credit ‘Advances’ were really ‘loans’ repayable over a very short period.

Simon also had a robust chat with Bill about Universal Credit and the harm it is causing to claimant’s mental health. 

Prior to going on Simon shared seating with Johnathan Fryer, former, Lib Dem MEP candidate, writer lecturer and broadcaster - there to talk about the Tory leadership race. 

The team at RT TV were fantastic. The view from the 16th Floor of Milbank Tower, Westminster overlooking the London Eye, Parliament and the Thames was stunning; although you need a head for heights just to be able to look out of the window. 

Image: RT (Russian) TV's News Anchor Bill Dod.

Following this debut, Simon headed to ‘Rocktoberfest’ and event being run by ALSTO, a charity that provides artificial limbs for children in Asia and Africa. At £150 a ticket, with as much food and drink as you could consume, the joint was packed out and absolutely rocking. The bands were going for it with the volume up in the ‘beyond loud’ category. Some very fine musicians putting in as much energy as the crowd. 

You could feel the love in the room with bands knocking out tunes from Led Zeppelin's ‘Rock and Roll’ to Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’. There were sponsors stands in an adjoining room. Rock memorabilia to glow sticks on sale.You needed to be 'something in the City' to splash the cash, but the event should enable ALSTO to continue their brilliant work. 

Special thanks must go to Aryna Kastavetskaya, Senior Account Director  Communications Group www.peregrinecommunications.com and to Stephanie Stapleton, the producer at RT TV. 

ABC Note: ALTSO is a non-profit organization providing free orthopedic care to children with limb disabilities in the developing world. A Leg To Stand On https://www.altso.org/

We hope to have some images up later.

This is a short bio on Bill.

Bill Dod is the news presenter on the RT UK News Channel based in Westminster, London.

Bill fronts four daily 30 minute prime-time news programmes from 7pm that include live interviews with politicians, national newspaper columnists, lobby groups and those caught up in the daily news agenda. In 2009, while presenting in Moscow for RT International, he hosted 12 hours of live coverage from Red Square of President Obama’s visit. The output was nominated in New York for the 2010 International Emmy Award for Best News & Current Affairs along with Al Jazeera and Sky News. Since then Bill has been invited to participate as a judge for the awards. He also presented coverage of the meteorite crashing into central Russia and it won the Best International News Coverage award at the 2013 Monte Carlo TV Festival competing against Sky News, CNN and Al Jazeera. Then in 2015 he fronted another nomination for Best International News Award… again at the Monte Carlo TV Festival, competing against Sky News, CNN and CBC.

Although Bill qualified as a teacher, his first job was working for BBC Local Radio for 4 years where he hosted numerous shows, including a news and current affairs morning programme. He then moved to television to present many regional programmes for ITV Anglia and Meridian before fronting Timekeepers, a general knowledge daytime quiz show for BBC One.

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SNP MP Chris Stephens will today (Tuesday 18th June) present a bill in the House of Commons that, if passed, would change the law to end sanctions for Universal Credit claimants who refuse zero-hour contracts.
 
Under the legacy system, claimants were not sanctioned for refusing to work a zero-hours contract but this came to an end under Universal Credit.
 
The MP for Glasgow South West warned that sanctioning claimants on the basis of refusing to work zero-hours contracts risks pushing them into an exploitative and insecure work situations with little to no ability to progress.
 
Zero-hours contracts can also make it difficult for families and individuals to plan financially, and see many people fall into situations where they are waiting weeks for a Universal Credit payment which reflects a month in which they have not worked many hours.
 
Commenting ahead of presenting his bill, Chris Stephens MP said:
 
“The UK government must support my bill and scrap the punitive policy of sanctioning people for refusing a job that would place them in a precarious and exploitative situation – allowing this to become policy under Universal Credit was a reckless move by this callous Tory government.
 
“Zero-hours contracts can be used to exploit workers which fundamentally goes against the DWP’s stated intention of making Universal Credit mirror the world of work.
 
“Mandating that claimants take up or stay in a job with fluctuating hours, and therefore pay, is the height of irresponsibility.
 
“It is time this Tory government took a leaf out of Scotland’s social security book and treated all social security claimants with dignity and respect.”

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Will Quince MP, DWP minister replied a question in the Houses of Parliament recently.

Over time someone’s house is likely to increase in value, so it is reasonable to expect those who have received taxpayers’ help towards their mortgage to repay from the equity released when the property is sold. However, the repayment of the loan should not be a barrier to people improving their lives. We have considered this and I am pleased to announce that we will be introducing the option for home-owners to defer repayment of their SMI Support for Mortgage Interest loan when moving to a new home. This means that claimants who need to move, for example, because of the changing nature of a disability or for better career opportunities, are not prevented from doing so. These new arrangements require changes to regulations which I will bring forward as soon as the Parliamentary timetable allows.

ABC Note: Those in receipt of Universal Credit may also be entitled to SMI.

 The waiting time for help increased on 1 April 2016 from 13 weeks to 39 weeks. The cost of the benefit was £205 million in 2017. With SMI ending in April 2018, saving the government about £170 million a year, the Department of Work and Pensions is offering a loan, secured on the recipient's property, a move criticised because it would put properties of people on low incomes at risk; the cessation affects about 124,000 people.

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This summary provides the key labour market results from the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey for the year ending 31 December 2018. Headline employment, unemployment and economic inactivity are included, and the summary also contains updates for two of the Outcomes Delivery Plan (ODP 16 & ODP 17) indicators for Northern Ireland.

Key Points

• The Northern Ireland (NI) unemployment rate (16+) in 2018 was 3.7%. The unemployment rate decreased from the previous year (4.4%) by 0.7 percentage points (pps). The change was not statistically significant.
• The NI employment rate (the proportion of people aged 16-64 in work) in 2018 was 70.0%. The NI employment rate increased from the previous year (69.1%) by 0.9pps. The change was not statistically significant.
• The NI economic inactivity rate (the proportion of people aged 16-64 who were not working nor seeking or available to work) in 2018 was 27.2%. The inactivity rate decreased from the previous year (27.6%) by 0.4pps. The change was not statistically significant.

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Please see the report below:

Essex County Football Association are organising 'kickabouts' to help those recovering from drugs and alcohol abuse. 

The sessions are held on Thursdays 3:30pm-4:30pm at Leisure World, Colchester, CO1 1YH.

 Adults Aged 18+ and it costs £2 a session. 

For more information contact Cindi Chatha on:

Tel: (01245) 393090 or,

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Web: www.essexfa.com

Image: The beautiful game.

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