Webwatch

Robert McKee, a screenwriter and lecturer, is quoted as saying 'Stories are how we remember, we tend to forget lists and bullet points'. We all at some time have been subjected to busy and / or illegible Powerpoint slides at events, without really taking any learning away from them. Stories are different. It can be argued that the art of telling and listening to stories is at the heart of what it means to be human, how we articulate our experiences of the world and and make sense of it.

The routines and rituals that surround food - shopping, preparing, cooking, serving, cleaning up - are important parts of our lives, yet often we fail to recognise their symbolic or hidden meanings.

Busy modern life can make it difficult to remember everything. And there always seems to be quite a lot to remember, not only in our daily working lives, but also in our private lives. It can be an endless stream of paper to-do lists, notes and ideas tucked into bags, coat pockets, on desks - anywhere to make it easier to remember! However, a web tool that can help put paper lists to bed is Evernote. Evernote provides an easy and effective way to manage notes and ideas using one tool.

For the last four years, Iriss has been involved in creating a daily social services news feed and email newsletter. We like to keep up to date with what's new in social media and are very open to using it to improve how we do things. And our news service has evolved over time. Until Google killed it off in July 2013 were using Google Reader, a tool for reading news feeds (or RSS as it is often called).

The Life Changes Trust (LCT) has been founded to transform the life chances of:

Learning with Care, published by by HM Inspectors of Schools and the Social Work Service Inspectorate in 2001, highlighted the importance of improving the learning and development opportunities for those working with looked after children and care leavers. The Learning with Care training materials were developed and launched in 2003.

Fire can have a devastating effect on people's lives, yet most fires are preventable. In 2009, a report [1] from the Scotland's Fire and Rescue Services [2] highlighted the groups most at risk from fire:

According to Alzheimer Scotland figures, there are approximately 86,000 people who have dementia in Scotland, and around 3,200 of these people are under the age of 65. Access to information on the disease - what is is, how it manifests, how it can be treated, and what supports are available - is therefore crucial to ensure best possible care and support.

Radio is a great way of sharing stories, research and experience. It's almost a year since Iriss launched Iriss.FM, an internet radio station for the social services in Scotland, and we now air a regular schedule of varied programmes: Foetal Alcohol Disorder Syndrome; young people's safety on the internet; bi-polar disorder; women's imprisonment. Able Radio is another example of how effective this medium can be.

Generations Working Together, managed by the Scottish Mentoring Network and supported by the Beth Johnston Foundation, is an initiative that provides information, offers support and encourages involvement to benefit all of Scotland's generations.

The organisation aims to: