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NEXT MEETING THURSDAY JANUARY 23, 2PM TO 4PM AT THE WINDKFIELD CENTRE
Please note that we have changed the regular meeting day to Thursday, the 4th Thursday every month. It will be back at the Winkfield Centre from now on – warmer and no chair-
shifting to do! That’s at 33 Winkfield Road, N22 5RP. (near W3 and 243 bus routes turning off Lordship Lane between the court house and Tesco).
Please try to arrive punctually to avoid delaying the start. Doors open from 1.45.
The speaker will probably be Ella Rene, a council officer who is writing Haringey’s new
Strategy for Older People’s Housing and wants our ideas. (We’re awaiting confirmation and
will update you on Whatsapp).
Rajes Bala, a member with much experience in health promotion, will also do a short
presentation on keeping healthy in winter. And of course plenty of time for tea, biscuits
and chat.
RAFFLE
To generate additional income the committee has agreed as a trial to have a raffle at the next meeting on
Thursday 23 January at the Winkfield Centre. Tickets will be available and the draw will take place at the
meeting. We will start with 4 prizes donated by members of the committee. Hopefully this will be a
success which could then become a regular event.

We got some funding – and some useful work to do!
We have been awarded a grant from the Haringey Community Collaborative of £1950 to
run some information meetings for older people. These will be a launch pad for Haringey
Older People’s Alliance (HOPA), and hopefully will be a big service to the community a
people struggle with the cost of living and problems about doing things online.
We will run 4 events in different areas/venues, each targeting at least 30 attenders, to
improve access to advice and support in four areas; key benefits for older people (Pension
Credit, Carer’s Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Council Tax Reduction); avoiding fuel
poverty; affordable healthy food (through lunch clubs, cooking classes, food banks, etc);
digital inclusion (how to save money and get services more easily by doing things online).
Events would offer lunch and advice presentations with take-away handouts.
We’ll need quite a lot of help organising them. If you can assist the committee please let us
know – we need people to help with refreshments, putting up posters when we have dates
and places fixed up, and maybe distributing leaflets, spreading the word on social media
and through other older people’s clubs and events.

AGM NOVEMBER 2024
We had committee elections. The new officers are:-
Rebecca Ellis – Chair
Penny Fraser – Secretary
Dorothy Briffa (who kindly volunteered) – Membership Secretary
Anne Gray – Acting Treasurer
Assistant Treasurer; vacant. Other committee members; Lucretia Baptiste, Clara St John, Satish Kabra, Rajes Bala,
Lourdes Keaver, Shirley Blenman, Alice Olokun.
The retiring chair, James Cowling, gave a report, as did Anne Gray for the secretary and
treasurer roles. We’ll put fuller reports on the web site, but here are some of the main
points:-

Forum Christmas lunch at the Palace Gates sheltered housing scheme Around twenty people attended our Christmas Lunch at
Palace Gates on 11 December. It was food, glorious food!
We had enough chicken, salad, cake, dumplings and
dessert for an army! Thank you everyone for your
contributions. With our party hats on, we got into festive
season by singing a few Christmas carols. We also signed
up seven new members to our free subscription offer (see
page 2). It was a fun afternoon enjoyed by all. Thank you
to Jerome and his staff at Palace Gates for all their support
too. Happy New Year everyone and cheers to 2025.

Step two was following the advice given by Sandra Bonner who drew
plans and made measurements and supplied hints on where to find a
qualified builder. This all done by using google maps and photos online in
a meeting room away from the main hall, plus some of my own records
later sent by email. I followed her suggestions and quickly found a
builder, accepted the quote and date for the work. As I was self-funding,
I’m sure the process was eased.
Step three the work completed. I was safe again to climb the steps, use
my shopping trolley and be confident leaving and returning to the house.
I now have the liberty to go and come as I choose!