Aiming Higher

YOU CAN DONATE TO AIMING HIGHER USING THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

WEBSITE | www.aiminghighercharity.org.uk/donate JUST GIVING | www.justgiving/aiminghigher/donate/ PAYPAL | Found on Aiming Higher website or call to make donations by phone POST | Aiming Higher, 231 – 233 Church Street, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 3PB. To see more of what we do please visit our website www.aiminghighercharity.org.uk or follow us on facebook @aiminghighercharity.

Please ring us on 01253 206447 for further information.

EXCITING NEW PROJECT FOR BLACKPOOL CHARITY

Aiming Higher for Disabled Children & their Families is the Blackpool based charity that supports hundreds of local children and their families. The charity has been bringing the families of children with disabilities together for 10 years.

For the last three years, the charity’s Transformation Project has been funded by The National Lottery Communities Fund, providing families with disabled children with support from a team of Family Support Workers and a Development Worker.

Amongst other things, these workers have helped families with diagnoses, provided emotional support, navigated benefit forms and grant applications, find suitable housing and apply for Education & Health Care Plans. They also supported families at meetings with other professionals and suggested strategies to help with the challenges that life throws at them.

The biggest of these challenges, and one which no one could have planned for was obviously Covid-19. The team adapted their way of working completely to continue service delivery throughout lockdown providing support in lots of different ways (see infographic).

The Transformation Project came to an end at the end of November 2021 but Aiming Higher are delighted to announce that they will be working with the National Lottery again with the creation of “The Reaching Resilience Project” which will run for 3 years from January 2022. The project aims to develop on the existing work, providing a real focus on therapeutic interventions and building families’ resilience; enabling them to manage challenges better. They will continue to work with families addressing diagnosis, health and social care, finances, education, mental health and housing.

As well as a Family Support Worker, the team will include a Short-term Intervention Worker and a Resilience Worker.

The Short-term Intervention Worker will focus solely on families who only need short-term help such as help completing a form or general advice. The Family Support Worker will then be able to continue to provide robust, early help for families who may otherwise reach crisis point.

PICTURED ABOVE & LEFT: Children enjoying recent Halloween parties

PICTURED ABOVE: Parents take part in recent paediatric first aid training at Aiming Higher’s Centre PICTURED ABOVE: Parent/carers make Christmas wreaths as part of a Coffee & Chat group

The Resilience Worker will work with parents, carers, siblings and young people with additional needs to highlight and build on their existing strengths and promote feelings of positive self-worth and capability to manage challenges. This will include direct therapeutic work with children and young people with disabled. They will also consult with families and then deliver workshops for parents and carers, or children and young people on topics they feel are currently important. Through this work, the charity aims to: • Improve families’ wellbeing • Reduce isolation • Create healthier communities for children and parents/carers • Build resilient parents/carers and young people • Improve the community’s understanding of disability so they can be part of a wider network of support. Latoya Sykes, Direct Services Manager at Aiming Higher explains that the charity are incredibly grateful to the National Lottery for funding the new project. “The last 2 years have been filled with challenges and uncertainty in regards to funding and service delivery. We are grateful as an organisation to be able to continue supporting the disabled community as we are very aware that sadly other charities across the UK have not been so fortunate to survive the pandemic.”

Like all charities, Aiming Higher saw fund-raising activity decrease in 2020 and 2021, so if you can support them in any way possible, any assistance will be gratefully received. Please send your ideas to: latoyasykes@aiminghighercharity.org.uk