Evaluation Survey
Over the spring and early summer Natalie and Sinead did an evaluation of our clubs with both young people and their parents. They did a very thorough job, many thanks.
13 forms were completed by the young people and they gave us very informative feedback and some good suggestions on how to improve our provision. They all felt safe and comfortable at the club and 70% said they had made new friends as a result of attending. One person wrote “at the club I find it easy to make friends because they are all like me “. The majority of participants felt they could talk to leaders if they had any worries, and think they are better at interpreting how others feel as a result. David believes the surveys with the youngsters will be a most helpful tool when we are training volunteers.
We received 11 replies from parents whose comments were similar to the children- every parent felt that their child now had greater confidence in socialising. They all now were better at communicating their feelings and expressing their views. All parents were confident to recommend our clubs and their main request is for the clubs to go on for a longer series.
We need to spend more time analysing the results because there are many helpful suggestions and ideas. If anyone would like the full results for themselves, please call us on 0121 711 8220. We are likely to use some of the quotes from parents and youngsters when we apply for funding grants
FINANCIAL UPDATE
FUNDRAISING
We received confirmation of a BBC Children In Need grant for our clubs between May 2015 and April 2016. Our first instalment came on 8th June. We have nearly completed an application to the St James Place Foundation to cover expenditure for clubs not covered by Children In Need. We had a very large donation of old mobile phones from a company. Thesorting, checkingand selling of the phones is hard work. Not all the money has been banked yet we believe we will have received over £1000 from the sale of these items.
Many thanks for your support
Family Equip, A Company Limited by Guarantee, Telephone: 0121 711 8220;
Charity Registration No 1112769; Company Registration No 5596057,
David Wort, Manager, 2 Rollswood Drive, Solihull B91 1NL
FAMILY EQUIP NEWSLETTER
JULY 2015
SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES
We have had two parent meetings since Easter. We discussed how to support and help our children understand why some behaviour is inappropriate. We thought about inappropriate touch, gesture and space. One of the big issues for our children with additional needs was the fact that many at school do not ask for help or support, but quietly struggle. They come home exhausted with the emotional challenges and sometimes abuse from peers and unsupportive staff. Possible things to develop are better resilience, social awareness and self-control. With this in mind, on 16th July, the discussion was about how to support youngsters with different social skills, particularly how to initiate social interaction. At the parent support meeting, other charities were recommended including Solihull Information Services, Solihull Library & Arts Centre, Signpost Inclusion, SOLO, Solihull Music Services and Solihull Careers Centre.
Our new team of family support volunteers continue to grow in confidence and have taken on some challenging situations. Most of them have worked in pairs covering 24 new cases from April-July, 2015.
Training 4th Annual Autism Conference
3 of our Parent Befrienders went on a conference entitled,Making a Difference tolives on the Spectrum. There was hardly a dry eye in the room when John shared his traumatic journey of coping with life with autism. The speakers were very open and honest, with 2 mothers Linda and Victoria sharing their challenges and experiences too.
SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Workshops: In June, David and Heather led anUnderstanding Anger Workshop for 4 junior aged girls over 3 weeks and will be doing this with a group of teenage boys during the first week of the school holidays.
Therapeutic Clubs: During April to July we provide four series of clubs. Younger and Older Boys, Siblings and Girls groups. A report from Katie, one of our volunteers, follows
Relating to...This was our summer term theme. It involved relating to various people that we encounter every day i.e. siblings, teachers, school friends and so on. One of the helpers at the club said "As a volunteer, I was impressed by how the youngsters responded; they understood ways that worked for them on how to relate to other people. All the groups were willing to share their strategies with the group, helping everyone else by giving them new techniques to try."
Over the series, our group tried lots of exciting activities. Here are just a few of them:
- We gave each youngster a cocktail stick that they had to hold between their knuckles and placed them in two teams. Each team were given a polo mint and had to pass it from the front of the line to the end from cocktail stick to cocktail stick without using their hands!
- Each team had a packet of chewing gum and a pair of rubber gloves. The youngsters had to wear the rubber gloves and try and get a piece of chewing gum out of the packet. The first team to have all the pieces of chewing gum out of the packet won.
- The volunteers had to hide 100 pennies around the two rooms and the corridor then the youngsters had 5 minutes to find as many as they could! We then discussed how even though some were newer and much shinier, they all had equal value.
- A favourite of the girls and siblings was the crystal maze challenge. The volunteers hung string around the room and hid three different coloured balls around the maze. The girls and siblings were challenged to find one of the balls whilst not hitting any of the string around the room. The fastest time was 4 seconds!
- They had to create egg cases for eggs to help them survive the drop from the staircase
We were delighted to invite Joan, a guest crafter to our clubs again.The girls and siblings groups had the opportunity to do marbling to create beautiful patterned pieces of fabric. They also had lots of fun making salt-jarswhere they layered different coloured salt and chalk, creating wonderful jars. All the groups had lots of fun making and baking their own pizza with whatever toppings they wanted!
Another guest at club was Eddie Lynn, from Colebridge Table tennis club. He had some handy pointers for the older boys and has invited them to an open day at his club.
4 LOST AND FOUND JUNIOR
We start again on 30th September, 2015 and already have 3 families agreeing to receive help through this course. Marilynn and Hannah will be visiting schools during September sharing the availability of this useful intervention.
VISION and PURPOSE
Lost and Found Junior is a series of 12 sessions for junior children aged 7-11 who have experienced major loss through family breakdown or death of a parent. Lost and Found Junior works best with small groups of children. Major loss has a profound and varied effect on each member of a family where this is experienced. Because of their age and inexperience, some children can find it very difficult to understand or come to terms with what has happened or why. Some may find it hard to express their questions or their feelings appropriately. Some may become withdrawn, others may become uncharacteristically angry or un-cooperative.
Lost and Found groups aim to create a safe and caring environment where children can develop their emotional literacy and understanding of themselves and their relationships. The group aims to be part of a process that will help them to work through their grief, to grow in their acceptance for what has happened and to feel an increased sense of security and love as they learn how to adapt to their changing circumstances.
Individual sessions are full and varied, with many enjoyable activities. Each session seeks to address an issue the children may struggle with, such as anger, disappointment and change. The sessions also aim to build the children's sense of worth, an awareness of the God who cares for them and to give hope for their future.
More details are available from Hannah (Lost and Found co-ordinator) 07834 069380