NEW SHORT BREAKS BUILDING FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
Donation protected
My name is Paige Stokes, and I am one of the Managing Directors for C2I Chapter One CIC.
Chapter One CIC is a Community Interest Company established in January 2022 providing short breaks for SEN young people throughout Gloucestershire.
Company Number: 13733486
Chapter One, since opening in 2022 has been operating from SAND schools, both Willow & Milestones Schools. This has come with many challenges along the way, as you can imagine sharing a building with a school is not always ideal, as we both operate very differently and have a wide range of young people we support.
We want our young people to feel comfortable, safe and have a place they can access many areas and not have limited space with so many other young people.
Chapter One started with only 10 young people; and we now have over 100! This has been a huge increase, and this has simply meant we have outgrown our locations. Sadly, as a result, we cannot offer anymore additional support to current families or welcome new families to access our amazing short breaks provision.
So with this being said, Chapter One HAS NOW BEEN OFFERED OUR OWN BUILDING!!!
(this is currently subject to planning permission with the local council to change the use of the building to suit our business needs) This new building is located in the heart of Gloucester in an easily accessible location, with secure fencing and accessible parking.
The new building will cost Chapter One over £100,000, so we are having to do lots of fundraising over the next 6 months to ensure we can continue to provide the BEST SHORT BREAKS provision in Gloucestershire.
We have brilliant ideas for the renovation of this building to suit the needs of all of our children and young people; including but not limited to...
5 classrooms
6 break-out / quiet rooms
sensory room
3 storey soft play
large sports hall
outdoor play area
fully equip changing room with showers
kitchen
This is amazing news, for us, for all our 100+ children and young people, all our parents and carers, for Gloucestershire and the community as a whole!
We will be inviting all our parents and carers, Gloucestershire County Council, PBS (Positive Behaviour Support) Teams and the NHS teams to come and visit and help with all our planning to ensure our young people recieve the best building that is inclusive, safe, secure and somewhere everyone can feel happy and socialise with friends and staff.
We have recently received an amazing grant to fund our project from The National Lottery Community Fund, which we are so grateful for. We are now awaiting our planning permission (for change of use) to be accepted!
However, I’m writing to ask you to support us and our business, not only for us but for the children and their families. Just a small bit of recognition and donations of any size can help us to continue to support our young people as best as possible, to ensure the greatest care can be given, and to ensure our building is accessible and appropriate for all SEN children with their varying needs. Gloucester, in particular, is massively lacking in SEN short breaks provisions with their own location and we aspire for Chapter One to be able to continue to grow to support as many families as possible!
Your support will go towards hopefully being able to create our own building to run our short breaks centre from, so our children can be familiar with this setting and lessen an immense transition in their lives.
Thank you in advance for your support. You have no idea how much it means to us, our young people and their families!
Please visit some of our feedback from parents!
Visit our facebook to see all our children and young people accessing Chapter One!
Organizer
Paige Stokes
Organizer
England