Charity

The Mary Budding Trust

Supporting children with special needs

The Mary Budding Trust has been proud to continue its work during the pandemic, helping children with special needs by funding resources and equipment that can help with learning, health and general day-to-day living. What is the Mary Budding Trust?

The Mary Budding Trust supports children with special needs, aged eleven or under, living within the area of Okehampton, Tavistock and surrounding villages, by providing grants and equipment. The trust is a self-funding charity run by unpaid volunteers and was inspired by the vision of the late Dr Mary Budding. In 1984, in association with Mencap, she set up the Mary Budding Centre, then in 1991 the centre moved to a unit in Tavistock Primary School. The Mary Budding Trust was established in 2002 and is organised by a small group of voluntary trustees. All the funds held by the trust go directly to support young children with special needs within the area covered by the trust.

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How do we work?

Trustees meet several times a year to consider applications for young children with special needs, made by their parents, carers, education and healthcare professionals. Many applications are for items and resources not covered by health and education authorities, very often for simple requirements, for example a car seat, a pushchair, a bean bag for a child with learning difficulties, or a weighted blanket to help a child sleep better; an electronic sleep monitor for a child with breathing problems can mean that the whole family then gets a good night’s rest knowing that they don’t have to keep watch in shifts beside the child’s bed. These relatively small items can make the world of difference to the health and wellbeing of a child and also to the whole family. As well as small individual grants, we have also funded larger projects, such as soundfield hearing systems and multisensory rooms in schools. More recently, a multisensory room was built in Lewtrenchard Primary School with funds raised in memory of the late Ann MacDonald OBE, who was the trust’s secretary for many years. As a small, local charity, we have been able to respond to applications extremely quickly and get resources out within just a few days, enabling children to thrive, grow and learn, while providing much needed support for their carers too. This last year, trustees have had Zoom meetings and communicated via our data secure online platform to speed up the application process. Our application forms are very easy to complete and can be done by families or professionals who support a child. (A short supporting statement is required from a professional if a parent or carer is making an application. Forms and further information can be found on our website.)

A multi-sensory room provides a special place where a child feels safe and able to learn

Our challenges

Although life has been difficult for us all this past year, children with special and additional needs are even more vulnerable at the moment and their learning and development have been greatly affected. This need has been particularly great during the lockdowns, while many children have not been able to attend school or other settings, or families have had to shield. As you will have seen in the national press, there has been an urgent need for technology to assist home learning and the Mary Budding Trust has had a significant increase in applications for laptops since last March. In addition, we have enabled Tavistock Community Primary and Nursery School to access Tavistock Town Council funding of £750 for laptops.

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Please help

We urgently need your help to continue our work. Like many small charities over the past year our income through donations has dwindled to almost nothing, but we still want to do as much as we can. Each child has only one chance in life so our aim is to give children as full and rich a life as possible. Making just a small donation can make a huge difference. We know that the children who will be helped by your support will be extremely grateful. Thank you for helping to make a difference to their lives and life chances. • £17 can buy sensory toys • £35 can buy a weighted blanket • £350 can buy a high-quality laptop to aid home learning

To find out how you can make a donation or learn more about the work of the Mary Budding Trust please visit www.marybuddingtrust.org.uk or our Facebook page.

medalist Chelsea Gold RHS