Getting started.

Getting started is one thing. Keeping it going is quite another. Although I had every intention of being a good little blogger I realise now that I am just not cut out for this game. I know I have been neglecting you and I apologise but it's just that I have so much on my plate that I never know quite where to start and how to prioritise and the thought of blogging (which to me is quite an attractive thing to do because I like talking about myself) is just a distraction from getting on with my job....which is to expand this charity...........and raise the money to pay the phone bills. But I do believe in miracles and I'll share a little one from last week. We got a phone bill. A big phone bill. A nine hundred and something pounds phone bill! I said a little prayer (I often do) and said, "please God, let the next thing we open be a cheque" (we haven't had too many of them recently - credit crunch etc) and lo and behold, there was a cheque for £1000!!! No one can tell me that wasn't a prayer answered.
As you know we lost Julie, our Training and Development Manager. But since losing her we have found a few others. We now have Dawn, our Volunteer Coordinator and Tamsin, our volunteer Admin person. What's more this past fortnight we've seen 5 new volunteers join our Support Team (the ones who staff the free phone) so you see it's been a time of miracles!
Earlier this week I visited a great charity called St.Mungo's and spent the morning with their 'Women's Focus Group' (why am I always being asked to woman's groups? perhaps its' the pink lycra tops I wear when on my bike). What a lovely bunch of people. And what great work they do with our homeless people. They sent me a lovely email thanking me for coming along and I sent them one saying that I wish a big, well resourced charity like St.Mungos would take us under their wing.....and give us a place of our own to work from.You can only ask! There's too much to tell to know where to start so I guess the best bet is to sign off and get on with my work. I'll tell you what though. We have been getting so many calls and enquires that we have got to make this whole dream of napac so much bigger. Because in many ways it is a dream. I dream of helping the millions out there who have been absued and need help but I know we can never do that until we get more help. So, it's back to the drawing board, a bit of dreaming...and lots of prayers............PLEASE.
Look after yourself.
Love
Pete
PS Hope to be cycling to Brighton and back on Sunday if anyone cares to join me. I don't advise it though. It will be a very painful experience!

Happy Easter

Wishing you a Happy Easter is about all I have time to say so apologies for this brief blog. Our Training and Development Manager, Julie, left today and we are feeling very sad. Still, we have another wonderful person joining us next week, on a temporary basis and I will tell you all about it soon. I am off to Liverpool in the morning for a meeting with a chap who wants to help us out with fundraising. I'll go anywhere to get money for napac and Liverpoool is as good a place as any. A fine city............and particularly as their football team (well the Red one) are sending napac a signed matchball for us to use as a fundraiser. Up the Reds!

I'll be back in blogging mode soon...............I hope!
God bless
Pete

I warned you!

One of our wonderful Trainers (Sarah) reminded me that I hadn't blogged for ages and she's right. But I did warn you. I tend to either go full blast after something (like setting napac up) or I lose interest and forget about it (like blogging!). But now that I've started this lark, and because quite a few people are reading it, then I must make the effort. So, having not blogged for a month.............this could be a long one! Just warning you.
Well I went to Hyde Park to watch the 7in7in7 team complete their epic adventure (7 ultra marathons in 7 days on 7 different continents) but I couldn't find them! I went to Marble Arch but I either got there too early or too late. And because there was about a million people in the park, further exploration seemed pointless. Not that I would have seen our Oli anyway because he was still on a drip in a hospital in Jo'burg recovering from a nasty virus. Strange that, you wouldn't think running all those 50ks in between sleep deprivation and transcontinental economy class flights would affect you very much would you??? I'm sure I would have managed it. It's the younger generation you see. Can't take the pace!! (I'll come back to the younger generation)
Now some bad news. Our Training and Development Manager (Julie) is leaving napac. She has got herself a job in her locality with a slightly better salary (about £10k per year better!) so whilst we are devastated to be loosing her ( SHE HAS DONE A HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK FOR NAPAC) we completely understand why she has to take the job and we wish her all the very best. BUT, like most people that napac gets its hooks into, we aren't letting her go entirely because she still wants to help the charity in any way she can..........as a volunteer. Well done Julie and THANK YOU. Having you here this past year has been an amazing, educational and uplifting experience for us. How can anyone say they don't like the Welsh?

Talking of amazing women. We've just had a visit from another one called Martha Jesty. Peruvian born Martha has lived in the UK for over 20 years and has written a book about overcoming her experiences of a traumatic birthing experience. Her book is called 'Real Healing after Caesarean' and it's definately worth the read if that's happened to you......or if you are the partner of that person. To obtain a copy and to read about some of the other stuff this lovely lady does visit her website www.helpwomenandchildren.com. And tell her napac sent you!

What else have I been up to? Despite giving up booze for Lent (over 4 weeks now without so much as a sip of vino!) my memory still needs a kick start..........so a quick peek in the diary. Oh yes. Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Survivors Trust in Newark. Most of the dicussion was around the funding crisis in our charity sector, not sure we can call it a crisis though as I'm not sure we've ever not been in a funding crisis! If you know what I mean? napac has definately seen a drop in donations recently but we are not worried..........yet. When the Big Lottery finally comes to its senses and give us a grant and when Government realise the utter common economic sense in supporting us our worries will be over! Oh yeh!

One of our Support Team members is taking part in the Marie Curie Swimathon and will be swimming 2.5 kilometres at the Arches Leisure Centre in Greenwich on 16th April. Good luck to her. Marie Curie is a great charity, worthy of our support.

I forgot to mention. Our Office Manager Helen was in a pantomime at her church at the end of February. Julie and I went along (out of loyalty to Helen really we weren't that bothered about a panto) BUT it was FANTASTIC! I was singing and dancing in the ailes and we had a thoroughy fabulous evening. And guess who the star of the show was? You guessed it.....me! only joking............it was our Helen! She was brilliant. If she ever tires of napac (if she dare) she won't have any difficulty making it in the West End!

During the first week of March I went to Bognor Regis for the day. No, it wasn't to sit on the beach (it poured down anyway) it was to attend an event at the Butlins Conference centre organised by Littlehampton Community College. And what a great day it turned out to be. The theme was 'Peace One Day' and it was attended by 120 sixth formers and about 15 other charities. The day started with an hour long film about one mans struggle to establish an annual day of world peace. A day when everyone, everywhere put their guns down and gave peace a chance. What a fantastic prospect. One of the things my bitter, twisted and cynical brain was going to say was "until the trillion dollar arms industry gives up it's evil ways there will always be war" And I sadly know that's true. But I didn't! I said peace is in all our hands and we have to vote for people who will insist that the arms trade be turned into an unarms trade. As long as there are people making money out of death then war will be promoted. We live in a world that's lost its way don't we? We wonder why there is so much violence in society because when we don't like what people are doing in other parts of the world..............we bomb them. What's the difference.............. knifing your neighbour or firing a cruise missile at a school? The outcome of both events is highly likely to be the same.............................................more violence.
However, what made me leave the event feeling really good were the dozens of young people I spoke with. How they filled me with hope. I hate the way society always seems to pick on the younger generation. They didn't start the wars, they didn't create the atom bombs and ICBMs, they didn't institute our culture of greed (that was Mrs T wasn't it!!)? But we seem to blame them for everything. The loons who almost run me down on my bike as I cycle home from work tonight are not kids, the chief executives of tobacco and booze companies are not kids and the bankers and estate agents (some now richly rewarded) who have lead our economy to ruin..........are not kids. So let's leave them alone. God forbid I should side with David Cameron and exult us all to 'hug a hoodie' BUT I actually think he has a good point. As a famous song once said "what the world needs now is love, sweet love............not just for some but for everyone". Of course these words were penned by the greatest hero of all time...........about two thousand years ago. I like them. What a world we could have if we all lived by them? As someone else pointed out..............with love capitalism could not exist and communism would not be needed! John Lennon agreed with JC. "All you need is love".
I agree with them both!
Unil the next time!
Love one another.
Pete

PS To the lady I nearly ran down in New Cross a couple of weeks ago. Sorry! You called me an idiot and from your perspective you were right. The trouble is, when lights change you can't stop on a bike like you can in a car and whilst I never go through red lights (unlike some cyclists and hundreds of car drivers) had I tried to brake hard in the wet I would have somesaulted and cracked my skull open. As it was I kept going and missed you by about ten feet! In nearly 40 years of cycling I've never hit a pedestrian (or a car for that matter - they've always hit me) so I must be due a bump soon. So, dear friends, if you see a fat git riding towards you along the Old Kent Road and it looks like me..........................stay well clear!

Seven marathons/seven days/seven continents/bonkers!

Anyone who has braved the Atlantic and rowed from one side to the other is hardly going to be fazed by running seven marathons in a row on seven different continents. And of course, that man is.......Oliver Dudley.

But don't listen to me. Visit his plans on Facebook (you'll know how to get there) and offer your support. He's not doing it for napac this time but for another fantastic charity called Kids Company.

If I'm not working (some of us have to Oli!) I'll keep him comapny on the final leg which is in London and by my reckoning that will be about 21/22 March - yes - this March! (Mind, I'll be on my bike!)
But I'll let you investigate this lunacy yourself. One thing I do know is that if anyone can achieve such a feat it's our Oli. And what's more he'll finish with a smile on his face. I witnessed that when he landed in Barbados just over a year ago having rowed, non stop from Spain!!

Well I really do have to get on with some work now. I'm thinking of writing to that chap who presided over the billion pound losses at RBS. Apparently they've retired him off at 50 on a pension of £650K per year. He must be gutted. I'll see if he wants to come and do a bit of volunteering at napac............. but don't worry we won't let him in charge of the petty cash!

On a sombre note. All of us here at napac send our condolences to the Cameron family. The death of their son is a blow no parent should have to suffer. It's times like this that I thank God that I am a Christian because I know that little Ivan is now safely in the arms of Jesus.

Keep going everyone! Support Oli........... but don't forget napac!
Pete

Duffy.

Duffy for NAPAC.
Apparently she won a load of awards at the BRITS last night. Good for her. Well done Duffy. Quite a few pop stars write songs that would seem to indicate that they know about abuse. I wish some of them would give napac a bit of support. Our freephone line is being deluged with calls and until we get the resources to expand we are restricted in how many people we can help. One thing that does my head in is when I read about some charities which not only pay massive salaries but even manage to make huge golden handshakes. I could hardly believe that Age Concern recently handed a former employee £800,000. Yes..........I repeat £800,000. That sort of money would run napac for the best part of 8 years. No wonder some people are wary of 'giving to charity'. Next time the local Age Concern rep knocks on my door I will have words. But I would clarify that much work done at local level by all sorts of charities, including Age Concern, is done voluntarily and with the very best of motives. But it also smacks of one of the many things wrong in this country. Those at the top taking the rest of us for a ride. Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO (Nat. Council for Voluntary Organisations) was on BBC news yesterday morning and he pointed out how it is generally the poor who give most to charity. He's right of course. In the same way the poor pay more tax, pay more for everything they also give more to charity. NOT that I am knocking the better off people who support NAPAC !!! (they know who they are) ...we just need a lot more like you. Of course if every person in this country who suffered childhood abuse was to donate a pound to NAPAC, that would be the end of our financial worries.
As I sit here blogging I am conscious that my colleagues (sitting just accross from me) are beavering away at our second Big Lottery application. They are working their guts out while I'm sitting here having fun. So ....time to get back to work. We recently advertised for some new supervisors for our Support Line volunteer team and we were stunned at the level and the quality of the interest shown. We've just had to spend a lot of time sorting through the many applications we received to decide on candidates to interview. Not a task any of us enjoyed because it showed that there are a lot of people out there looking for work. Well, we've selected who we feel are some excellent candidates and I will let you know how they get on.
In the meantime..........don't forget to order your CDs (mentioned in earlier blogs) and if you live anywhere near The Standard Venue in Blackhorse Road, E17 then get along there on Thursday 2nd April (late evening) to watch Secret Mission perform live. You won't regret it! See you there?
Pete

NAPAC Un-muted

I mentioned a CD a couple of blogs back that you really should get hold of. It's called NAPAC Un-muted and it is very special - especially as it makes money for NAPAC. We have a stack of them in the office so get your pen out, write a cheque for £12 to 'NAPAC' and pop in post to me here at the office. The CD will reach you by return and you will be very happy with it. And we will be very happy with your £12. That's a lot of money to us as we are a very lean, keen and efficient organisation, unlike the banks!

For more details of the CD visit www.napac.org.uk and scroll down.

On an equally light note it has come to my attention that I keep popping up on Paul O'Grady's 'Outtake TV'. I haven't actually seen it myself but I remember the occasion well. I was interviewed by BBC News 24 and at the end the interviewer (who was in a different studio and hence couldn't actually see me) said "Thanks Mr Blunkett". Blunkett was the then Home Secretary. I said something to the effect that I would accept the promotion and this apparently has tickled someone at Outtake TV to keep playing it..............or maybe we have a NAPAC supporter on the inside? We certainly didn't have a supporter on the inside when I did Wogan's Perfect Recall a few weeks back. They managed to cut all my mentions of NAPAC out of the programme...............which of course was the reason I was there......to get NAPAC mentioned. Never mind, you can't win them all. But I'll keep trying!
Keep going. Support NAPAC. Buy them CDs!!!
Pete

Out of Blog out of mind

I should have warned you that as addictive as my personality is to DOING things it is equally addictive to NOT doing things and I nearly forgot to blog this week. And this is my last day at work for a few days as I'm taking a little break.............so here's a very brief account of the last few days. Well the immediate last few days have been dominated by the weather. As you know it only takes a bit of snow (particularly here in the Soft South of England) for the country to grind to halt..........and NAPAC was no different. That's not entirely true. Helen managed to battle through the elements as did some of our wonderful volunteers but yours truly was content to be snowed in for a couple of days although the resultant housework I was instructed to undertake was far more irritating than battling the snow storms. But we all learn from our mistakes. I have now invested in a set of huskies and a slay............bring it on.
To more serious matters. Last week I visited Manchester Prison, Manchester Drug Service and Radio Key 103. All very different experiences but each, very productive. The lads I visited in the prison reminded me of why we are here.......to help one another. I won't go into their stuff , suffice to say they all suffered childhood abuse and ended up in the slammer as a direct result of their cruel upbringing. Let me emphasise - NAPAC does not visit child abusers.........just their victims. And the folk at the Drug Service and KEY 103 reminded me that there are a lot of good folk out there who want to help. Same with the prison officers in Manchester. They are a great bunch of people doing a difficult job with minimal resources but one by one they tell you that they know many of the people inside simply should not be there. Don't get me wrong. We're not soft on crime here at NAPAC but as one of our Trustees commented not so long ago........some people should be locked up for much longer BUT many more should not be there at all. Everyone, from Home Secretaries upwards seem to agree that prison, as a means of effective rehabilitation, just doesn't work and I will be writing to the current Home Secretary (and friend to NAPAC) Jacqui Smith to arrange a meeting. There is much work to be done in our prisons and given how much they cost us to run it's madness not to go there.

This is going to be a very brief blog because I'm about to dash for a train, but something else I did when I went to KEY 103 Radio was to hand over a few CDs by Secret Mission. The reporter there snapped them up and I think they will get some airtime quite soon. If you haven't got your Secret Mission album yet I suggest you visit their website without hesitation and buy one. The website is awesome.........as is the band. AND some of the profits from sales come to NAPAC. But apart from this it's perfectly true that it is guaranteed "you have never seen or heard anything like this band" We love 'em. Go to http://www.secretmissionband.com ...............now!

Stay warm. Keep the faith!
Support NAPAC.
Pete