Sports Martial Arts Organisation Hive

Mark Currie - CEO of THE HIVE

So why THE HIVE?

Through Covid we experienced a life changing incident, our daughter took a serious attempt on her life from feeling lonely and isolated. Quite honestly due to not being understood or supported with autism she felt she had no way out!
When your daughter is front of you not breathing turning blue you realise the most important thing in LIFE! is LIFE!

If it was not for Cristina and the amazing emergency services, she wouldn’t be here now. This made Cristina and I reevaluate things and question.......Cidnie has a voice and wasn’t heard, why?
Cidnie is going to tell you in her own words what it’s like to feel isolated living with Autism.

"Hi there, my name is Cidnie, I wanted to tell my story of what Autism is to me and that if I find it difficult to understand and get support, imagine the people that can’t let you know how they feel!
I was an unsupported person not understood who had some really difficult fights in life, still have but things have become easier to manage where I feel there is light shining through and having the strength to speak out.

What can I tell you about Autism? We’ll let me tell you this, it’s not a label on yourself. It’s something that will always be with you. Something I use to say to myself is I want to be accepted in the world as a normal person not with a label. Just because I have needs doesn’t mean I’m not a person. Not feeling like you belong can be very lonely, through Covid things were a lot tougher and such a hard time for me, isolated and lonely causing my mental health to take over leaving me feeling I had no fight and energy resulting in me being suicidal.

I took several attempts on my life, some my family knew about others they didn’t! the last attempt I almost died.
When seeing how it affected my family, I knew this had to change. The problem was none of my friends understood me as a person and I found it very difficult to fit in which made me very vulnerable. With support from my family and finally being contacted by the correct support I understand better now.
You see its ok to have autism I’m proud of it, I can now tell friends and people I meet that I’m Autistic. I’m no longer ashamed of it, I know it’s part of me, I know its ok to be different.
So many people struggle to understand Autism or learning disabilities and don’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes it’s hard because the spectrum can be different scales of Autism because there are people having different needs that may not be obvious.
Just because we may look and come across the same as you, doesn’t mean we understand the same as you or thinking the same as you.
With disabled people it’s easy, you can see.
You only know I’m Autistic if I tell you or you dig deeper!
Through my dad and Cristina, I understand how important it is to have a voice and how they put it, to celebrate me.

The HIVE charity is amazing because they want to  provide a place for people like me and people that have bigger needs, a place to work together, exercise, have fun , learn Martial Arts whilst being able to be us."


Cristina and Mark's words:

This traumatic experience made Cristina and  I question "if it was this bad for Cidnie who had a voice, what about those that don’t?" What can we do to support?
Then we realized we already provide support and help so many children/adults  through Martial Arts Center  we teach. With my experience in Martial Arts and Cristina’s wealth of knowledge working with vulnerable people we can combine our skills to help people like Cidnie and people with extra needs that don’t have a voice.
More importantly we want to give everyone the opportunity to access our services with the confidence that they will have their own identity. Not to be treated like one glove fits all.
Activities will be specific to individual’s needs, with the correct support and activities for each group, allowing a great social platform. 

Therefore, Cristina and I, are creating THE HIVE which is an activity centre for children and adults with learning disabilities, autism and additional needs, where they can participate in foundation Martial Arts, fitness, wellbeing in a safe fun environment. Whilst allowing vulnerable people a platform to express themselves and create a sense of belonging..........''It’s ok to be different!!!''

Service Offering at The Hive 

 Children and adults with learning disabilities, autism and additional needs can access our services:
Monday to Friday 09:00 - 16:00
We will work with local authorities, schools, and charities to achieve this!
We want this to be offered as a local service so it’s our community that will benefit from this.
All members will have the opportunity to participate in Martial Arts receiving guidance and support working in conjunction with their carer where required, incorporating the following:
• Exercises Mobility
• Coordination
• Health and Wellbeing
• A place to socialise and Relax
We aim to provide this service mainly through our non-profitable organisation SMAFO, whilst fundraising and applying for grants.

THE HIVE's Mission Statement is "Bringing Communities Together Because it’s OK to be Different”

Guys we believe THE HIVE is going to be an integral part of the community moving forward, your donations will go a long way in getting this up and running. We will be running many events throughout the year to help hit our target of £60,000.00.

So please please dig deep and support this amazing cause

This Fundraising event is being managed by Services Outreach Support on behalf of the Hive, while the admin and charity registration are underway.
We are registered with the fundraising regulator 
Services Outreach Support LTD FR.ID-255203 .