We are a parent-led organisation passionate about supporting our community, and as parents and carers ourselves, we understand that life at different stages can be very challenging when you have a child/young person with SEN/disabilities. We provide a range of support services and drop-in events to help you overcome these challenges, and signpost to further help where necessary. We will help you get together with other parent and carers who have been through similar experiences. You will feel inspired and reassured to know how to cope and thrive. We will help you discover your ‘new normal’ and ways to enrich your life and overcome challenges that are personal to you and your family.

OUR PROJECT ‘EMPOWERING SEND PARENT CARERS’ HAS RECENTLY BEEN AWARDED FUNDS FROM THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND TO FURTHER OUR WORK TO SUPPORT AND EMPOWER MORE PARENTS.

The funds will helps us deliver a range of activities and support to help parents understand their rights, upskill them and enable them to use web base applications to find and access information and more support elsewhere.

The project has 4 main areas:

• Workshop and Personal development training (IT literacy programmes, Apps and web applications, to help find information online)
• ‘My Special Needs File’ (A creative and helpful way to organise all SEND related information to ensure important meetings more successful) (Click HERE for more information on the files)
• Evening Networking & Theraputic activities (drop-ins, pamper sessions and socialising) (see our WELLBEING page)
• Dad’s Group (a separate opportunity for male parent carers to connect to their peers and support eachother)

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Short Breaks is the name given to a range of services which allows children/young people with SEN/disability to play while their parent/carer can take a break. These include afterschool clubs, holiday playschemes, overnight respite. We work with a range of providers, to bring you information of a range of provision locally and in neighbouring boroughs. We can also put you in touch with carers for individual care and support for your child/young person.

INCLUSIVE & ALL-ABILITY ADVENTURE PLAYGROUNDS

Every child needs space to play, but the more disabled your child, the fewer opportunities they have to use normal playground equipment in your local park or open space.Together, we can improve the play facilities in your local park by working with the park management and various support agencies and funding organisations. Find out more about our vision for more inclusive and accessible parks and open spaces in Harrow and throughout London.

WELL-BEING & SOCIAL EVENTS

The physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of parent carers is important to us because
we understand that when they take care of themselves, stay healthy, doing activities that
they enjoy and that are fun, it can make it easier to cope when things are difficult. We aim to run a range of social evenings, pamper parties and general get-togethers for parents to meet and support eachother. (visit our WELLBEING page)

CONSULTANCY & SUPPORT SERVICES FOR PROFESSIONALS

Our collective years of experience of running the local parent carer forum, other local projects and business experience means we have the expertise to support other professionals and organisations in fulfilling their engagement project requirements.  We can provide one-to-one mentoring for families from hard to reach groups. Our position and networks gives us an innovative perspective and understanding to solving local community SEND related issues. This includes our current work on the Harrow Local Offer Services Map, which is a birds-eye-view of all the local SEND related services and organisations. 

To find out more about how we can help, please email us at info@specialneedscommunity.org.uk

APPLY FOR YOUR MAX CARD

The Max Card is a national special needs discount card scheme run by a non profit organisation jsut for families of children and young people with SEN or disability (SEND) from birth to 25 years old.

We are the official distributors of Max Card in Harrow. For more information about the Max Card, click here. To apply online for the Max Card, click here. To download the application form, click here or the image below.