Accessible For All
Our hugely popular Accessible for AlI initiative is focused on creating sporting opportunities and play activities for children with disabilities. Being the parent/carer of a disabled child can be a very lonely and isolating experience and parents increasingly lose confidence to integrate into mainline activities due to the feeling of being ‘different’.
“Every child deserves the right to play. The DCF enables families to get together in a safe and inclusive environment where our children can just be children without judgement or disapproval.” Emily Sutton
We recognise that children with disabilities often miss out on those valuable experiences that should be abundantly available to all children so we set up Accessible For All. We provide regular events such as soft play, drama and dance, music workshops, exclusive use of skate parks, swimming and water sports, and we even have our own award-winning FA-registered football group. The list is forever growing as we respond actively to the needs of the children we represent.
Accessible for All.
Mental Health and Counselling
The mental health of our families is very important to us as being the parent/carer of a child with additional needs is very isolating and can lead to loneliness and depression. This impacts on all members of the family and the child themselves, we therefore have a dedicated team of mental health advisors and are able to offer cost free one to one counselling sessions. We are also able to signpost and refer to appropriate local agencies. This service is available to both parents and primary carers.
Family Support and Advice
We are passionate about providing an holistic support network to our families and are committed to ensuring they receive the help and support they are entitled to, including financial benefits, care, education and wider support. We have parent advocated who have expertise in dealing with local authority bodies and who can represent our families rights and needs.
Our Trustee James Pantling-Skeet, Community Care Solicitor, Leister Aldridge has prepared a very comprehensive guide to Disability Law, covering key topics such as EHCP’S to personal budgets. James also regularly produces exclusive DCF webinars.
Support Groups
We are delighted to offer our families a range of support groups and we help partially fund independent groups SENturians and Doors Open. They offer guidance, support, information and advice to parent/carers, host weekly meetings and offer events and activities during the holidays for families to attend together in a safe non-judgmental environment.
We run Little Stars a weekly “stay and play” group for pre-school children and also hold regular events for our parent/carers so they can spend time with people who understand.
We have a regular Saturday club for our PMLD wheelchair users.
Disability Equipment
At DCF we recognise that there are many costs associated with raising a disabled child. We understand that these are not always covered by statutory services so we help families find other ways to provide the funds needed.
Where a piece of equipment is needed, we will first try and work with families and statutory services to find a way for equipment to be provided – we are building a stock of popular items that can be accessed on a cost free, long-term loan basis. We will advise families on how to set up and manage fundraising pages and will use our experience to share fundraising ideas.
Disability Awareness and Education
At the DCF we are absolutely passionate about educating people about disability and showing the world how amazing our children are.
We firmly believe that disability awareness should be taught in all primary schools as today’s children will be the driving force toward a more inclusive society. We support Paddy’s Purpose, a fun interactive initiative designed by Gemma, mum of Paddy, to challenge how the world sees disability. Over the last few years they have delivered their powerful message to over 3000 school children.
https://www.facebook.com/paddyspurpose
We also support Awesome Archie On Tour. Archie and his mum Rebecca were present at one of Paddy’s Purpose workshops a few years ago and have been inspired to develop their own awareness workshops talking about living with Autism.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3650909864922453/.
Give Kids The World
The DCF are delighted that we have been accepted as an official Wish Giving Partner for Give Kids The World. This is a nonprofit ‘storybook’ resort in Florida, where children with life-threatening illnesses and their families are treated to a weeklong cost-free holiday.
