Happy Winter VIVA Community!
This month your VIVA Team is focusing on staying warm, getting active and sharing good times with our community. Just because it’s VERY COLD* doesn’t mean we can’t still live the lives of our choosing, every day.
*Of course, VIVA Co-Founder Guy says it’s not VERY COLD until one has lived in the Shetland Islands (Scotland, as he has) where the summer high temperature is 13C, and it rains on 250 days of the year!
In this e-Newsletter we’re covering:
VIVA’s Winter Warmers evening
Fun and food at VIVA’s Winter Warmers evening
NDIS pricing changes
Plastic-free July
In the VIVA Spotlight
Invitations to the VIVA community to support MNDSA
VIVA’s current support capacities.
VIVA's Winter Warmers
On the 30th June VIVA invited our community to share in a Winter Feast and a tot of Laura’s warming Mulled Wine, enjoy some laughs, meet new people and get out of our houses for a while.
Our guests said…
“OMG that roast pork on the spit was sooo gooood… have I eaten too much? I think I’ll go back for seconds!” – RED Worker
“That’s a spicy little drop … I could sit here and drink this all night” – VIVA Client
“Let me hold that baby! Get out of the way people, I MUST hold that baby!!” – VIVA Worker (upon seeing a colleague’s brand new little one!)
If you missed this free event for our VIVA Community, or your invitation to it, please head over to our website to sign up for our communications. Sign up your Support and Work Team too so they can join in on the fun at VIVA!
For those who want to make their own, or try out something new, here’s VIVA Laura’s excellent Warming Winter Mulled Wine recipe (it can be made with alcoholic or non-alcoholic red wine):
Laura's Mulled Wine Recipe
- 2x 4L casks red wine (we used a Dolce Rosso)
- 4x cinnamon quills, whole
- 10x star anise
- 1x small packet of cloves
- 2x whole nutmeg
- 300g honey
- 3x large oranges, sliced
NDIS Delivers new Pricing Arrangements, effective 1 July 2024
Following Community Consultation and a Formal Review, the NDIS has updated its Pricing Arrangements, effective from the beginning of July. The updated Arrangements are on the NDIS site, and here’s the link below.
Not all services and activities have increased limits, and if affected, Participants’ Plans will be updated (i.e. adjusted for price increases) by the NDIS, by 13 July 2024.
VIVA Mutual recommends you speak with your Support Coordinator and/or Plan Manager or contact our VIVA Support Centre for more details about how your NDIS Plan may be affected as a result of the new Pricing Arrangements.
Make a difference during Plastic-Free July!
Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people to be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can enjoy cleaner streets, oceans and more beautiful communities.
This month, take their challenge and reduce the single-use plastics in your life, if you can. There’s heaps more information on how you can help our environment and how to reduce plastics on the Plastic Free July website.
For instance, the VIVA Team are aiming to make little changes to create a big difference, such as:
- Bringing our own re-usable mugs to cafes
- Wrapping our food in reusable wraps or bags
- Refilling our water bottles to keep hydrated and avoiding using new ones
- Bringing our reusable bags shopping
- Using compostable bags instead of regular plastic ones
… the list goes on as we try to help the planet in our own, unique ways
In the VIVA Spotlight!
In this – eNews, we’re delighted to share the thoughtful and moving work of Jenny Benham, a poet, writer, micro-enterprise founder, and valued member of the VIVA community.
Jenny shares her poems and runs workshops with the purpose of encouraging people to use their lived experience to create “Words of Wisdom” (coincidentally, that’s the name of Jenny’s enterprise!).
Here’s Jenny’s poem encouraging us all to seek energy in the lovely things that surround us:
ENERGY RECHARGE
In darkness, the sun comes to rest
It takes in the energy, recharging its essence
Bringing forth its power
The power it offers us as it guides us through the symphony called life
Daylight is the Universe’s gift to us as it recognises that each one of us matters, each one of us have our own melody to add to this symphony
The sun always breaks through the darkness
So no matter how deep the pitch
How dark our world at this moment may seem
It does not mean we shall forever be alone
The universe acknowledges our presence
Believing in our strengths having faith in our essence
Diamonds are not found scattered on the surface
One must dig deep into the chaos that is
The deeper we see into our soul the more precious the gem to be found.
Jenny Benham 1/6/2024
Our thanks to Jenny and VIVA Home Nurse Lisa for sharing these Words of Wisdom with us all.
If you’d like to know more about Jenny and her prolific and moving creativity, check out her website below.
Join VIVA Mutual in raising $15,000 for MNDSA
Part of VIVA’s Mutual’s valued social mission is to collaborate with other organisations and support causes which enable people to live the lives of their choosing.
This year, VIVA Mutual is supporting MNDSA by aiming to raise $15,000 to fund vital research and provision of supports to South Australians living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).
For those not familiar with MND – Motor neurone disease (MND) is the name given to a group of diseases that affect the nerve cells (neurones) controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow. With MND, these neurones fail to work as they should. The VIVA Mutual team supports people living with MND and their stories have driven our passion to raise these much-needed funds.
“If you were to design the cruellest of diseases imaginable, this would be it… It robs you of your ability to walk, to use your hands, wipe your bum, scratch your nose, swallow, hug your loved ones. Yet it leaves intact all your intellect and your special sense – sight, hearing, smell – so you’re able to watch your body waste away.” –Professor Dominic Rowe, MND SA Website
More information from us will soon be arriving in your inboxes and all of our wonderful VIVA community is invited to support this worthy cause in any way, including:
- Buying tickets to our “Dis-is-Cabaret” show featuring comedy, burlesque, storytelling and much more from SA’s Fringe Performers who are donating their performances to support this cause. All ticket revenue is going direct to MNDSA. Buy tickets here!
- Sponsoring VIVA Co-Founder Guy as he embarks on a gruelling 4-day trek in Tassie’s Bay of Fires. Watch the video below and follow Guy’s training and preparation on VIVA’s social media below
Seeking great support from a friendly team of trained professionals?
VIVA’s service and support Capacity Chart is updated and circulated weekly and this week’s support opportunities are below:
For a confidential chat with one of VIVA Mutual’s understanding and supportive folks, please call 08 8877 8000 or email us via admin@vivamutual.org