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| Fledglings have put together a list of useful websites. Click on the name below to jump to an article with more details and for a link to their website. |
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| Another Way Radar Make-A-Wish-Foundation ScreenReader Steps Abilitynet Unique Bagbooks Turn2us Carers Direct Cool2Care The Couple Connection |
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Care for the Family is a national charity helping to support families. Part of that work includes Another Way, a telephone network for families with children with additional needs, headed up by Richard and Maggie Stapleton, who themselves have a child with additional needs. Maggie writes;
”When you care for a child with additional needs it can be a very challenging journey for the whole family. Another Way provides a telephone befriending service which offers understanding, empathy and support. So how can this help you? You have the opportunity to say what you really feel and talk openly on the phone to a trained befriender, who is in a similar situation to you and can offer insights from their personal experiences. You can also receive encouragement by signing up for our email newsletters.Parents in this challenging and sometimes lonely place need to know that others have been there too and are available to offer understanding and support.”
To find out more about their work visit their website at www.careforthefamily.org.uk/anotherway
read their latest newsletter at www.careforthefamily.org.uk/anotherway/newsletter
or call them on 029 2081 0800
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RADAR, is the leading UK independent pan-disability organisation, representing 11 million disabled people. RADAR stands for the Royal Association of Disability Rights and has 1000 individual and organisational members. Their campaigns influence Government on disability issues, driving positive change. Their vision is a just and equal society whose strength is human difference.
RADAR publishes a range of books which help families living with ill-health, injury or disability lead an independent life such as ‘If Only I’d Known That a Year Ago: A guide for newly disabled people, their families and friends’ and the Doing Life series, providing advice from disabled people on money, work and IT.
They sell a guide to where to find disabled toilets throughtout the UK which are accessed by RADAR keys. These keys can be supplied by Fledglings.
Visit their web site at www.radar.org.uk or call 020 7250 3222 / minicom 020 7250 4119 or email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Make-A-Wish grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.
Visit their website at www.make-a-wish.org.uk
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FREE help for children who are blind or visually impaired is now available from Margaret & Roger Wilson-Hinds. Both are blind themselves and Roger is a former headteacher of a school for blind children. Having experienced the great advantages that computers can bring to blind people it has been Roger's vision for some years that blind children everywhere should also have the opportunity to benefit from them. Although designed for blind children, the software may help children with other difficulties, particularly those with dyslexia.
Visit their website at www.screenreader.net
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By adapting mainstream toys with a special switch, Steps enables children to switch toys on and play independently by using whatever movement the child has, such as squeezing, pressing, bashing, blowing, or sucking the toy. Steps provides a UK-wide free Developmental Toy and Switch Lending Library service to individual children and hospices. They are experts in adaptation techniques and in the matching of toys and switches to the particular needs of each individual child.
Visit their website at www.stepscharity.org
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Abilitynet is a national charity helping disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their technology.
Visit their website at www.abilitynet.co.uk
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Unique is a source of information and support to families and individuals affected by any rare chromosome disorder and to the professionals who work with them. Unique is a UK-based charity but welcomes members worldwide.
Visit their website at www.rarechromo.co.uk/html/home.asp
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Bag Books is the only organisation in the world publishing multi-sensory stories for people with profound learning disabilities. Each year they reach around 15,000 children and adults with learning disabilities.
Bag Books helps to enrich the lives and support the learning and development of children and adults with the most severe learning disabilities.
They design and produce multi-sensory story-packs.
They promote the benefits of multi-sensory storytelling.
They provide specialist multi-sensory storytellers and train others (parents, carers and teachers) in the technique.
They run a small work experience programme in their craft workshop for adults with learning disabilities.
Visit their website at www.bagbooks.org
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Turn2us is a charity that specialises in helping people access the money they need that is available to them - through benefits, grants and other official help. They have a
free, accessible website which is a comprehensive and invaluable resource designed to help
individuals find appropriate sources of financial support, quickly and easily, based on their
particular needs and circumstances.
Visit their website at www.turn2us.org.uk
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The government has created a new website with carers specifically in mind, and it is surprisingly good. Under the Case Studies section is a short video featuring a family who have a young daughter with Downs Syndrome which we think would be particularly helpful to those who have a newborn child with this condition.
Visit their website at www.nhs.uk/Carersdirect
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Cool2Care is an organisation bringing together families with disabled children and people who want to work caring for them. They recruit, screen, train and place care-workers and PAs with the families of disabled children, either to work in the family home or to take the child or young person out and about in the community. The service is available to families living in selected areas throughout the UK with new offices opening all the time. They also offer Workforce Development Training and Volunteer Befriending projects in certain locations. If you are interested in finding a care-worker for your family or would like to work with disabled children, or need some training, then please visit their website or call them on 0845 123 5484 for further information.
Visit their website at www.cool2care.co.uk
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Having a child with special needs can be stressful and place additional pressure on the family. Many couples find that this puts a strain on their relationship. In a Contact A Family survey of parents caring for a child with a disability, 53% believed it had caused either 'some' or 'major' difficulties or the breakdown of their relationship. Fledglings has discovered a useful website on relationships which has a section with help and advice for couples who have a child with special needs. The Couple Connection site has a range of articles, information and links to further information on the subject.
Click here to view the relevant section of their website.
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