Summary
Our project was for Parents Carers in Renfrewshire looking after a child/young person under 20 with disabilities. We offered a range of social activities to Parent Carers to meet up with other parents and get support from one another. We held a Fun Day for children with Autism, where a fabulous day was had by everyone who attended.
What Fun Time Out did
Our project was unfortunately not able to fulfil all of the activities we had hoped to provide due to lack of staff and had to improvise with the activities provided. Because we did not have a worker to take the activities forward and which also meant a temporary stop to our 3 support groups for Parent Carers.
We had to adapt and unfortunately were unable to offer the outings during the school holidays to both the Parents and their children.
We went back to the Parents to see what else we could provide to support them in getting a break- Relieving stress, time out and peer support were highlighted as most important, therefore we improvised and activities provided included: Personal and group training sessions, stress management and Health and wellness activities, social activities and a Fun day held at Autastic for parents and children with Autism to enjoy.
What Renfrewshire Carers Centre has learned
We have learned that this funding needs to be supported by a direct worker within the Centre. While we tried our best to put on activities this put pressure on other staff - whereas if we had the dedicated worker they would have been able to do this as part of their job to assist Parent Carers. Because of this we were unable to target new carers other than through our social media.
We did develop a good piece of partnership working with Autastic who organised the Fun Day for us. We recognise that we are not experts in this area to provide direct services and we hope this joint piece of work is only the start of a new strong partnership.
How Renfrewshire Carers Centre has benefitted from the funding
We were able to offer Parent Carers activities which we would have otherwise not been able to provide. There is a great lack of services for Parent Carers and Parents were really appreciative of the events we were able to provide. The information gained from the parents will also be useful to our new Autism worker.
We were are to establish links with new organisations in the area such as daring greatly and also able to work to partnership with organisations such as our work with Austastic, which we hope will continue into the future.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
165 children/young people will have had the opportunity to take part in 3 outings and 4 social events
Outcome
165 children/young people will have had the opportunity to take part in 3 outings and 4 social events
Results
This outcome was achieved for carers.
Case study
I'm a stay-at-home mum. I have two little boys who are 9 and 4. My 9-year-old has Autism and ADHD and it's been a difficult journey navigating this new "normal" for both him and me and my husband. I was involved in the 1:1 personal training sessions and it was so good to have some time to myself concentrating on my own wellbeing and fitness. I had four one-hour sessions where I did a mixture of Pilates and yoga. I have a chronic pain condition and the exercises actually helped to make my body stronger. It has made such a massive difference to my physical health as well as my mental health. I felt the sessions gave me the confidence to join a gym. I applied for a Short Breaks grant via the Carers Centre and that paid for my annual membership.
Outcome
n/a
Outcome
Children/young people and carers will form friendships and support from one another
Results
The outcome was achieved for carers as the carers through the various group activities they participated in, formed peer support networks through coming together and supporting one another. These bonds have continued out with the Centre.
This is not so true for the children/young people as they only got the opportunity to participate in the fun day
Case study
I was lucky enough to join the fun day the Centre organised with Autastic Club. I had never attended their sessions before, what an amazing time my little boy had. I felt at ease and not judged as all the other parents were in the same situation as me. For the first time, I felt I could relax a little while my son had fun. The Carers Centre has been such an amazing support for me.