Aiming Higher is a unique Charity for disabled Children offering bespoke support and services to families that have a child with additional needs. We aspire to provide a social justice approach when empowering families to achieve their maximum potential in terms of health and wellbeing.
In Blackpool research, has highlighted that there are more disabled children per capita than any other part of the country. Due to austerity cuts and lack of services, we aim to provide the most practical help in various ways:
· Combat isolation; by attracting families to attend events, support sessions, accessing family support services, and, where they desire, embarking in voluntary work within the organisation.
· Increase family’s financial stability; through offering professional advice and information, ensuring that all families are receiving relevant benefits applicable to their needs
· A child’s right to an education; by offering families professional support, advice, and advocacy to have their child educated in an appropriate environment with adequate support. In addition, support families through their journey with health and social care system.
· Inclusivity; by ensuring that all families involved in the charity are included in the creation, running, and, evolution of any services provided by the organisation.
· Increase confidence; by organising exclusive events on a large scale we aim to attract families. By ensuring these events are entirely inclusive, safe, and non-judgmental we hope that in future families will have built up resilience in taking their disabled out into the community.
Our response
To create a soft play and multi-sensory centre, a community hub for parents and a safe place for children to play. Our team is a specialist team comprising of qualified social worker, teachers, and, practice educators. We deliver five specialist services, we are driven by passion, equality and social justice after hearing too many stories from families explaining they were isolated lonely and that there were NO support services available.
Aiming Higher services are:
· The family support service; a holistic service offered to families with a disabled child. We support and empower parents through the complexities of raising a disabled child, offering professional advice, advocacy and emotional well-being on issues associated with the education, housing, benefits, health, and social care systems.
· Stay and play sessions: We run five, two hourly stay and play sessions a week. These sessions are targeted towards pre-school and home educated children. The sessions offer a safe environment and professional advice for families that may have issues associated with receiving support for their child’s disability. It also allows parents to network with other parents in similar circumstances. Our aims and ambitions for this service is to create and increase social confidence in both the children and their parents.
· Counselling service: We provide a counselling service that is held in a relaxing, cathartic environment. This service is intended to promote the families’ emotional wellbeing. Our thought process behind this is that it will then have a direct impact upon their ability to cope with the complexities involved in raising a disabled child.
· Events; We exclusively hire out various venues. We ensure that all venues are inclusive. We adapt the environment within the venues to meet the children’s various needs. This means that families can create fabulous experiences together in safe and non-judgmental surroundings.
Key Personnel:
We have a sound board of trustees who are impressive community citizens that govern the charity. Our Patron is a local business woman who owns Lancashire Magazine and is a tireless supporter of the local community. The Chair of the trustees is a highly influential local businessman and managing director of the Sandcastle a local waterpark he supports many other local charities such as Blackpool carers Centre. Our treasurer has an extensive background in finance spanning over 40 years, she is also the parent of a severely autistic child. Our board is diverse and includes a; successful restaurateur and also the chair of Blackpool Pride; the general manager of one of the most prestigious hotels in Blackpool; local legend ‘lionel vinyl’, specialising in equality and diversity, championing anti bullying campaigns in schools and local colleges. Combined the members bring an array of skill-sets to the charity.
Aiming Higher is a unique Charity for disabled Children offering bespoke support and services to families that have a child with additional needs. We aspire to provide a social justice approach when empowering families to achieve their maximum potential in terms of health and well-being.
Needs
In Blackpool research, has highlighted that there are more disabled children per capita than any other part of the country. Due to austerity cuts and lack of services, we aim to provide the most practical help in various ways:
· Combat isolation; by attracting families to attend events, support sessions, accessing family support services, and, where they desire, embarking in voluntary work within the organisation.
· Increase family’s financial stability; through offering professional advice and information, ensuring that all families are receiving relevant benefits applicable to their needs
· A child’s right to an education; by offering families professional support, advice, and advocacy to have their child educated in an appropriate environment with adequate support. In addition, support families through their journey with health and social care system.
· Inclusivity; by ensuring that all families involved in the charity are included in the creation, running, and, evolution of any services provided by the organisation.
· Increase confidence; by organising exclusive events on a large scale we aim to attract families. By ensuring these events are entirely inclusive, safe, and non-judgmental we hope that in future families will have built up resilience in taking their disabled out into the community.
Our response
To create a soft play and multi-sensory centre, a community hub for parents and a safe place for children to play. Our team is a specialist team comprising of qualified social worker, teachers, and, practice educators. We deliver five specialist services, we are driven by passion, equality and social justice after hearing too many stories from families explaining they were isolated lonely and that there was NO support services available.
Aiming Higher services are:
· The family support service; a holistic service offered to families with a disabled child. We support and empower parents through the complexities of raising a disabled child, offering professional advice, advocacy and emotional well-being on issues associated with the education, housing, benefits, health, and social care systems.
· Short breaks service; We own a fully inclusive caravan situated in the beautiful lake district.
This means we can offer families with a disabled child the opportunity to have a wonderful family experience at subsidised costs.
· Stay and play sessions: We run five, two hourly stay and play sessions a week. These sessions are targeted towards newly diagnosed and home educated children. The sessions offer a safe environment and professional advice for families that may have issues associated with receiving support for their child’s disability. It also allows parents to network with other parents in similar circumstances. Our aims and ambitions for this service is to create and increase social confidence in both the children and their parents.
· Counselling service: We provide a counselling service that is held in a relaxing, cathartic environment. This service is intended to promote the families’ emotional well-being. Our thought process behind this is that it will then have a direct impact upon their ability to cope with the complexities involved in raising a disabled child.
· Events; We exclusively hire out various venues. We ensure that all venues are inclusive. We adapt the environment within the venues to meet the children’s various needs. This means that families can create fabulous experiences together in safe and non-judgmental surroundings.
Key Personnel:
We have a sound board of trustees who are impressive community citizens that govern the charity. Our Patron is a local business woman who owns Lancashire Magazine and is a tireless supporter of the local community. The chair of the trustees is a highly influential local businessman and is managing director of the Sandcastle, a local waterpark. He supports many other local charities such as Blackpool Carers Centre. Our treasurer has an extensive background in finance spanning over 40 years; she is also the parent of a severely autistic child. Our board is diverse and includes ; a successful restaurateur and also the chair of Blackpool Pride; the general manager of one of the most prestigious hotels in Blackpool; local legend ‘Lionel Vinyl’, specialising in equality and diversity, championing anti-bullying campaigns in schools and local colleges. Combined the members bring an array of skill-sets to the charity.
