We awarded a grant of £5,000 to the White Lodge Centre for the maintenance of their hydrotherapy pool. The Centre supports disabled children, young people and adults, their families and carers in and around Surrey. They specialise in care for those with a diverse range of disabilities, including cerebral palsy and other similar conditions.

The hydrotherapy pool is used by individuals who have a permanent physical and/or learning disability with conditions that cause continual pain and loss of movement. Individuals are unable to walk, talk, and dress, or even to carry out the simplest of tasks for day-to-day living.

C started coming to White Lodge when he was 6 months old. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, had no movement down one side of his body and no speech.

Hydrotherapy was part of his overall programme of therapy. The warm water in the hydrotherapy pool helped his muscles and limbs to relax, which allowed him to move more freely.

In the pool, C learnt how to kick his legs, relax his shoulders and use the weaker side of his body. Hydrotherapy also improved the overall muscle strength in both his arms. As a result of this, C has learned how to sign words. For the first time ever, we can have a conversation with our son. We talk to him and he replies. It has changed his and our lives.

– C’s mother

We awarded a grant of £2,000 to Voluntary Action Reigate and Banstead (VARB) for their Festive Feast.

VARB supports and promotes the voluntary, community and faith sector, voluntary organisations and volunteering in the Borough of Reigate & Banstead.

This grant will support a Christmas dinner and a celebration event for people on their own at Christmas in Reigate and Banstead. The event brings together the most vulnerable and isolated people within the Borough to celebrate and have fun. The grant will help towards the costs of hiring tables, entertainment, gifts, food and drink, publicity and travel expenses.

We awarded a grant of £1,000 to the Refresh Church Trust (RCT) for a pilot project ‘Sporting Memories’ for isolated older people and those dealing with early onset dementia.

The Trust aims to be a positive resource in the community, and to provide projects which meet spiritual and physical needs. The Refresh Centre is a community and resource space providing spaces for hire to local groups and local businesses and a free venue for community groups offering free activities.

The sporting reminiscence sessions are fun, relaxed and help people rekindle memories and make new friends. The grant was used to set up, promote and deliver a session at the Refresh Centre in Moseley for 20 weeks.

The project has attracted widowers, dementia sufferers, divorcing and isolated people.

One of the elderly dementia sufferers had refused to come out of his house for months. It was the sport element and encouragement from a friend that finally persuaded him to attend. He loved it so much he keeps talking about it at home and looks forward to it every week. With transport he even came without his friend and allowed another to drive him home, which is great progress. The friend who brought him along is so delighted and learns more about him as he reminisces about his childhood sporting career and life.

– Sporting Memories facilitator, the Refresh Church Trust

We awarded a grant of £2,200 to the Mighty Adventurers Association (MAA) for outdoor and Forest School sessions supporting over 1,000 vulnerable children primarily between the age of 5-12.

Mighty Adventurers creates opportunities to fuse the arts with forest school principals, with a largely environmental agenda through their workshops. Each session has a strong symbolic message teaching participants to look after themselves, each other, and the environment around them. Creating junk percussion instruments helps to increase awareness of recycling, the impact of non-sustainable lifestyles and highlights the difference between natural materials and those that should be recycled.

Children that had taken part in the workshops experienced some, if not all of the below;

an increased sense of community through all-inclusive activities such as drumming, feeling more inspired to take risks safely, developed music skills, an increase in teamwork and leadership skills, and increased observation skills in relation to their senses and the natural environment.

Having time outside and working with stories, was so successful that we began a weekly session with our young carers, and decided for these sessions to happen in nearby woods. From this, three of our year 6 young carers have taken up free places at the regular after school forest club, and this has given them an invaluable opportunity to shed their responsibilities and re-ignite their child-like play. One child was particularly struggling with the situation at home, resulting in regular outbursts in school with increasing violence. Having witnessed how well he responded to the session, we ensured he attended the young carers group and facilitated him joining the after school group. This child is developing a sense of belonging, increased his awareness of the local wild areas, and ignited a sense of responsibility to the world in which he lives in. This is a child who never played outside and admitted he preferred to live in the on-line world of computer games.

Since being involved in forest school his violent outbursts have significantly reduced. Through the club he has made a strong friendship with another young carer, and it is noticeable how carefully they look after each other during the sessions. Initially anxious and reluctant to engage in activities due to the fear of getting muddy, his confidence is growing each week and a sense of freedom is returning to his play. Thank you!

– Chris Holland, session facilitator, musician and workshop leader 

We awarded a grant of £1,034 to local theatre group Peer Productions to help support the tour of their play, titled ‘Hidden.’ This funding supported the group in touring over 30 schools throughout the year across Surrey to educate audiences on the important issues surrounding self-worth, mental health and self-harm.

Peer Productions deliver many theatrical shows which raise awareness regarding three areas; identity, crime prevention and health, with a greater focus on educating vulnerable young people on important issues such as self-harming within secondary schools.

‘Hidden’ aimed to dismantle the barrier and the taboos that often prevent these issues from being discussed openly, freely and without stigma. 90% of the students who saw the play acknowledged that they learned a variety of new things through watching this production, with 3 in every 4 students now feeling more confident in supporting a friend who is self-harming, as well as knowing where to seek help if they or someone they know are experiencing mental health problems. This equates to, with an average audience size of 200 students and 35 performances delivered, 7,000 vulnerable young people who have watched the play, over 5,250 of whom are now better equipped with the knowledge and confidence necessary to tackle mental health issues as they grow into adults.

With 1 in 4 people experiencing a mental health issue in the UK every year and 1 in 10 young people enacting self-harm during their teenage years, Peer Productions have toured ‘Hidden’ for the past four years. These 120 performances will have helped change the perceptions of almost 18,000 young people across the South East of England.

We very much value the contribution that Peer Productions make to the delivery of sensitive issues such as mental health, self-harm and teenage pregnancy, as their effective use of theatre maximises the importance of the messages in a clear and engaging way. It is important also as their work has had a direct effect on our learners. After the performance of ‘Hidden’, two of our Year 8 girls felt confident enough to talk about their own issues with self-harm and they are now receiving the appropriate support. The work of Peer Productions instigated this. All of the actors and directors who deliver the performances and workshops are professional, friendly and totally committed to the core values of using theatre to affect positive change.

– Senior Leadership Team, Thamesmead School, recipients of the play

We are delighted to have awarded a grant of £2,500 to Limpsfield Grange School for their Gold Duke of Edinburgh at Thames Barge Voyage project, which was undertaken by 8 schoolgirls between ages 16-18, who all struggle with a learning disability, medical condition or mental health illness.

The girls who participated had never sailed before and had no idea of what to expect. This sailing trip fulfilled the girls’ expedition section within the Duke of Edinburgh Gold criteria.

Two of the girls who took part in the voyage were a pair of twins who had never been on a boat before and were extremely nervous and anxious. Their conditions make them hypersensitive to virtually everything and to undertake something like this was going to be a huge challenge for them. Bearing in mind they are both 17 years old, they are very young for their age and were very apprehensive. Over the course of the week they grew in confidence and by the end of the week they were doing everything the other girls were doing and more. When we handed them back to their parents they both said it was the best thing they had ever done and asked when they could go again. Hopefully this experience has instilled them with the ‘can do’ attitude that will stand them in good stead throughout their lives.

– Limpsfield Grange School

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award is regarded as equivalent to an A-level by employers and will help participants in their journey towards finding a job. The award indicates many achievements, such as; reliability, commitment, responsibility, confidence and team work – some skills which can be challenging for people with autism and other learning disabilities. Over the course of the year that is will take for the girls to complete their awards, they will understand how to work together, support one another and commit to the project.

It is expected that the girls have now successfully completed the other sections within their Duke of Edinburgh Award and have collected their awards by the Duke himself at St James’ Palace earlier this year.