Charity Reg. No. 1088281

Luckily noise levels were not too high allowing administration staff to continue to work on the first floor however the situation will be assessed on a daily basis as work continues.

Meanwhile orders have started to "flood" in for our new design Christmas cards. Further details of which can be found by clicking here.

After weeks of frustration work is finally about to begin on the repairs to Support Dogs National Training  Centre almost three months after the floods hit the charity's headquarters. It's a huge boost for staff who have struggled not to become demoralised during the lengthy delay.

Next week work will commence on the removal of the internal structure of the ground floor. All walls, doors, electrical wiring etc will be demolished to make way for the rebuild.

Support Dogs is still considering the opportunities the rebuild presents for the re-structure the training areas which would  improve the centre's facilities in the light of the generous response of donors to the charity's Flood Fund Appeal. We hope to be in a position to provide further information about the rebuild within the next few weeks.

Meanwhile a team of volunteers visited the centre and braved the pre packed coffee drinks and  portaloo to help with the mailing of our latest AURA newsletter. Our thanks go to Margaret & Peter Russell (and Rupert), Kym and Ray Stretton (and Baxter), Trisha Tandy and Doreen Gregory for
their kind assistance.
 

Unfortunately no building work has yet been able to commence as although the charity has received a verbal acceptance of liability from our insurance company, we are still awaiting written confirmation. We are hopeful that this will be available in the next week and then work can commence on removing the internal stucture of the ground floor and professional drying equipment can be moved in before any repair/rebuild begins. We are at present still hopeful that in spite of this delay, the centre will be fully operational once again in October.

Within the last week the charity's Board of Trustees held a very productive meeting with staff to discuss plans for the organisation's recovery. Furhter information about these discussions and developments will be featured in our forthcoming AURA newsletter that will be available from early September. Watch this space!
 

After Tuesday's visit from building company Finnegans, staff faced an uncertain wait to hear whether the company would be able to take on the repairs. After much nail biting and a few additional grey hairs, the all important news came through and much to everyone's relief Finnegans had agreed to take on the job - one which would normally be considered too small a project for such a large company. A further visit will now take place on Friday by various subcontractors to assess in more details the work to be carried out and quotes for the jobs.

Staff called in at the Shirebrook branch of the Derbyshire Building Society to collect a cheque for £311 that staff has raised by selling Support Dogs merchandise in their Nottinghamshire branches. Client Claire Codd and her Support Dog Jack also dropped in to say hello to staff.

The main training room has now been cleared with the help of professional builders who have made safe the rear wall. The structural damage to the rear wall can now clearly be seen but the good news is that the gaps between the walls, floor and door now allows a somewhat refreshing breeze to pass through the building that has much improved the smell! Work has also been continuing on clearing the car park and surrounding external areas.

The internal structure of the downstairs rooms is now scheduled to be ripped out within the next week and staff are in the process of arranging the installation of professional drying equipment.

The main problem now lies with organising the repairs to the rear external wall A crucial site visit is expected tomorrow by original constructors Finnegan's to assess the work to be carried out.

Meanwhile staff managed to gather together what few  fundraising items remain and took at stall at Sunday's South Yorkshire Police Open Day event. Sadly the weather spoilt  things as heavy rain came down for most of the day but those who did brave the weather were lucky enough to watch some fantastic displays by the Police Dog Training team.

Support Dogs will also be attending this weekend's Labrador Welfare Fun Day at Rainbow Kennels.

Work has now been completed on the clean up of the upstairs administration offices and at least two phone lines are working again along with all usual email addresses enabling staff to deal with enquiries and requests as normal.

Staff have been busy liaising with insurance assessors and builders to co-ordinate plans for the repairs. Work will begin cleaning up the main training room tomorrow with the help of professional builders to ensure the rear wall is made safe and will leave no risk of injury to staff until the renovation begins. Followed by an initial drying out period of three to four weeks after which the internal structure of the ground floor will have to be removed and rebuilt.   It is hoped that the rebuild will begin by September at the latest.

Support Dogs would also like to thank neighbours The DL Company and White Rose Hallam Technic who have kindly offered much appreciated toilet facilities to staff working from the training centre. Both companies have themselves suffered flood damage and yet offer constant support to the charity during this difficult period.

After two days of cleaning up and emptying out the ground floor training rooms and filling two large skips, staff are now unable to carry out further clearing downstairs until builders can make safe the damaged wall in the main training room. A date for this is yet to be confirmed by the insurers.

Instead work continued upstairs with the decontamination of the office areas. It is now hoped that this will be completed by Wednesday next week allowing admin staff to become fully operational once again. Naturally the ability to work from these premises will need to be reviewed regularly as the renovations to the site begin. After an initial drying out period, it is hoped that re-building will be able to begin before the end of August.

In two separate incidents in recent days, staff have been faced with looters attempting to salvage items from the skips. Although being on the end of verbal abuse, no members of staff have been physically assaulted when confronting the looters probably thanks to our current wild and dishevelled appearances!
 

As well as training equipment, this room contained many promotional items from display boards to marquees, brochures to pop up banners. Staff also found a special guest who had taken up residence in the damp conditions - a frog! Taking care to move heavy boxes without causing the animal injury, staff managed to capture it in  plastic box before releasing the frog on the banks of the nearby River Don.

Support Dogs are now able to accept post at our  usual office address again: 21 Jessops Riverside, Brightside Lane, Sheffield, S9 2RX.
 

Armed with Wellington boots, rubber gloves and protective face masks, staff cleared the reception, front training room and under stair storage areas. The latter proved the most difficult with dry dog food  now made into a swollen, soggy mass which smelt even worse than it looked!  Carpets and carpet tiles were removed and the contents of all cupboards and cabinets emptied as staff kept track an inventory as the single skip began to fill at an alarming rate.

With more skips due to be delivered tomorrow, work will recommence to clear the remaining training rooms in the morning.
 

A Flood Fund Appeal fundraising pack including details of the Flood Fund Five Hundred Challenge is made available online for supporters wishing to help raise funds to help the charity continue its life transforming work. To download a copy please click here.
 

Staff met with a structural engineer to assess the safety of the Training Centre and any building work that will be required. As a consequence staff have now been given the go-ahead to begin the big clean-up with safety instructions whilst working in the rear training room area.

Contamination of the upstairs offices is minimal and will be addressed as part of the whole cleaning process however it is now evident that the internal structure of the ground floor which was built into the original empty building shell, will have to be ripped out and re-built. The engineer's estimate is 5-6 months for this work to be carried out.
 

Staff were on site early this morning for an initial meeting with an insurance assessor and received a mixture of both good and bad news.

The good news is that liability has now been accepted under the terms of our current insurance policy and staff hope to begin cleaning up next week.

The bad news is that a further meeting must now take place with a structural engineer on Sunday (1st July) regarding the safety of the building. As well as the issue of the physical damage to the rear wall and the flood damage to the downstairs rooms, there is an additional concern that whilst appearing to be "undamaged",  the upstairs offices may be also have now been contaminated by moisture in the air.

Support Dogs featured in today's Times newspaper as part of a feature on several organisations that had been affected by the recent floods.
 

South Yorkshire Police come to the rescue
South Yorkshire Police who have been performing rescue operations all over Sheffield and surrounding areas during the recent flooding, have now also come to the rescue of Support Dogs by offering their own dog training centre in Hillsborough as an alternative venue for the charity's training programme.

Staff have been given access to office space, a classroom area and use of the Niagara Sports and Social Club venue for as long as required which now means the training programme can continue with only minor amendments and disruption to our clients.

"We have always had a very positive relationship with the dog training dept. at South Yorkshire Police as there is a natural empathy between the two organisation's given the nature of their work," commented Angela Gregory, Marketing & Fundraising Officer at Support Dogs. "And SYPD were extremely quick to contact us and invite us to consider their facilities after they found out about the damage to our training centre. We would like to say a huge thank you to them and in particular John Ellis and his staff at Niagara who have gone out of their way and beyond the call  of duty to extend a hand of help in our time of urgent need."

Support Dogs would like to thank Rainbow Kennels and Dogs Trust Leeds who also offered alternative training venues. 

Temporary Offices
Staff are currently still unable to access the upper floor of the training centre for Health & Safety reasons (the smell alone is almost lethal now!) and so continue to work both "on the road" and at home in the evenings dealing with telephone enquiries/emails and assessing several offers of temporary office space.

This process has been complicated by concerns that the internal structure of the ground floor which was built into the original empty building shell, may need to be taken out and re-built. This means that we are unable to estimate how long temporary office space may be required.

We are however hopeful that arrangements may be finalised by by end of this week and that our administration staff (all three of us!) will be able to relocate early next week this enabling us to respond much more effectively to current requests and also co-ordinate a full Flood Fund Appeal campaign.

Support Dog Training Programme
Staff spent the day assessing several potential venues for relocation of our training programme as well as liaising with clients about alternative arrangements for next week's training schedule.

We are confident that arrangements will be finalised by the end of this week enabling us to continue both our Seizure Alert Dog® and Disability Assistance Dog programme with limited disruption to our clients.

Support Dogs was hit by a further blow today when Norwich Union Insurance informed staff that it would be Saturday 30th June before any insurance claim survey would be undertaken. The charity has been informed that should it re-locate or begin the clean up process prior to this review, any future insurance claim could be negated. This unfortunately means we are at present unable to relocate to temporary premises however  some arrangements have now been made for the immediate future.

Temporary Mailing  Address
A temporary mailing address waqas set up today after we received numerous offers of financial assistance. Anyone wishing to make a donation to our disaster appeal that they can now do so thanks to the kindness of our neighbours The DL Company.

Cheques should be made out to Support Dogs and forwarded to :

Support Dogs Flood Fund Appeal
c/o The DL Company
20 Jessops Riverside
Brightside Lane
Sheffield
S9 2RX

Sadly, it may not be possible to issue our usual thank you letters to everyone who donates at this present time, but we will endeavour to update and thank everyone once our administrative department is fully operational once again.

Support Dog Training Programme

We have also now received several offers of help with regard to dog training facilities.

Rita Howson Head of Training will be assessing several venues this week and we are confident that arrangements will be finalised within the next 48 hours that will enable us to continue both our Seizure Alert Dog® and Disability Assistance Dog programme with limited disruption to our clients.

The Devastation

Not only did the premises suffer over four feet of flood water but a wall surrounding the nearby Forgemasters factory collapsed causing structural damage to the charity's Head Quarters. Fortunately no staff, clients or dogs were injured during the destruction. Staff were able to remove all dogs from the premises yesterday lunchtime but were then unable to return to the centre having to leave their own vehicles to the forces of nature.

Inside the building the ground floor is a scene of devastation with everything hit by flood water and tens of thousands of pounds of fundraising merchandise and training equipment has been ruined.

All future events/plans have had to be put on hold and staff ask clients not to contact the emergency number except in the event of genuine emergencies.

"It is heartbreaking to see the damage," commented Angela Gregory, Marketing & Fundraising Officer. "The charity has worked so hard in recent years to establish this wonderful facility and now literally  overnight we are back to square one. In fact, it's even worse than that. It will take weeks probably even months to clear up."

The charity is now desperate to find alternative temporary premises to try and ensure services to current clients can be maintained.

General Manager Amanda Hutt was the first on site and was shocked by the destruction confronting her.

"It is a surreal feeling. In recent years we've seen many natural  disasters on television and now we feel as if we are one of them. Obviously our priority is how to keep the charity going in such extreme circumstances.

We are asking our clients and supporters to be patient and bear with us as we try to make alternative arrangements for mail and telephones."

Anyone able to offer financial assistance or help in any other way should make initial contact via email to angela@support-dogs.org.uk. Media enquiries should also be made to the same address.

Support Dogs politely request that this number is used only in the event of emergencies:

Emergency Contact No: 07854  323  164