Dear Friends,
Time is really flying by this year and we remain at full capacity as more and more families are referred to us weekly. It is concerning just how many families are coming to us already at a total crisis, having been let down by other services, so there is a real pressure on our practitioners to provide as much support as possible.
Despite the challenges we are seeing some real progress with our families, as they begin to improve their housing, financial and confidence issues. Sadly it is still very hard to get appropriate support for the many families whose children have additional educational needs, but we are not giving up and continue to press other agencies for the right help. One parent recently wrote to her practitioner to say:
Despite the challenges we are seeing some real progress with our families, as they begin to improve their housing, financial and confidence issues. Sadly it is still very hard to get appropriate support for the many families whose children have additional educational needs, but we are not giving up and continue to press other agencies for the right help. One parent recently wrote to her practitioner to say:
“Without your commitment, understanding and sometimes firm words when needed we honestly do not know where we would be. All three of the children have got their autism diagnoses and even though this is a little depressing for us, it was answers and being believed - something that was never in doubt.”
Our family activity events are now in full swing – the Easter holidays included our first trip of the year to Arundel Castle cricket foundation and a farm trip in Midhurst where children could bottle feed lambs and take ponies for walks. Our first Dalesdown residential weekend of the year will take place in the middle of April, which we know will be another fantastic opportunity for some of our families.
I’m delighted to let you know about our new fundraising event for this year – the Cuckmere pilgrim path sponsored walk. Replacing our longstanding Easter Monday walk, this event will take place in the May half term holidays and allows participants to take in the 7 historic churches in the Cuckmere valley as well as the fantastic scenery. The attached poster gives further details, and we hope to see lots of you there.
February’s work in numbers
245 individual visits and 1105 calls with families supporting
257 adults and 209 children
34 supported meetings with other agencies
50 group sessions held supporting 1010 parents and 436 children
123 food deliveries made
Nikki Kerr
FSW Director of Fundraising and Marketing