News
September 2008
ATTENTION!
We are running a Half Term scheme in October! If you would like to book a place, please click the link below and fill out the booking form! HURRY places are limited!
Please fill out my form.
Directors Blog
I am writing this as we enter the fifth week of our summer schemes. It has been an outstanding summer with a new scheme running in Haringey and a total of 14 weeks of play on offer with very few families receiving more than one week as we were so over subscribed.
The children and young people have been on boats up the Thames, to visit the BBC and Wembley Stadium, gone to parks, swimming and playgrounds and done everything that any child might expect to do over a fun filled summer holiday. The only difference was that they have been enabled to do so by highly trained and experienced key workers supporting them all the way.
I have felt enormous pride in our play team who have worked together brilliantly dealing with dreadful weather as well as a large number of children who were with us for the first time.
Our adults have also had an expansion in service with a second adult scheme up and running on a Monday afternoon to complement our Tuesday afternoon art group. This has proved extremely popular and I will continue to look at extending the services we offer for adults.
I am delighted to welcome our new, full time music therapist to Resources. Steve is joining Clare our existing part time therapist. Both Clare and Steve offer one-to-one music therapy for adults and children and with the extra time now available will hopefully be able to offer a wider range of time slots including more evening slots to help lower our waiting list.
Reach Out has just received a promise of £10,000 from Brent to help us to continue to offer services to families there. We already serve many families in Brent, Barnet, Haringey, Camden, Islington and other North London boroughs and Hertfordshire as well as a couple from South London. Our only difficulty in extending this further is lack of appropriate volunteers so if you know anyone who is prepared to take on the challenge of supporting an autistic child, teenager or adult, is flexible in their approach, willing to learn and can offer a few hours a week then please suggest they get in contact with us.
We are aware that with the current ‘credit-crunch’ funding is likely to be a problem for us and one funder has already said they are going to delay funding for a year until they see how the financial climate develops so we are on the look out for new and innovative ways of funding our services. Although many individuals and parents contribute something towards their provision this rarely covers the full costs and most people pay less than a quarter of the real cost of a service. We never turn anyone away if they cannot afford to pay and quality services cost a great deal to run. To this end I was delighted to get the kind offer of a wonderful item to auction to help us keep the money flowing. Thanks to Mark Dunne of Chefs On The Move for suggesting the idea of a dinner party for eight catered by him and his staff. More information on this is available on the site. Bids need to be in by the end of September so if you are interested act now.
Finally thanks to everyone who has sent in evaluations of our play and reach out services. We will be reviewing them and publishing the results on the web site soon. Watch this space.
Chefs on the Move - Auction in aid of Resources for Autism!
Chefs On The Move are delighted to offer to the highest bidder the services of a chef for a lunch/dinner party for up to eight people! The chef will do the shopping, cooking and serve the meal in the comfort of the host’s home.
Chefs on The Move is a creative catering and event management company run by Mark Dunne and his team.
Flexibility and experience are key, so whether the event is a weekend’s catering in the South of France, an executive lunch in the city of London or a surprise 18th birthday party with model waiters this company can handle it!
Click here to enter the auction!
Resources for Autism is a company limited by guarantee.
Registered in England: No. 3326332 Charity Registration No. 1061253