Southwell Care Project (Now called Reach UK)
“We aim to support Adults with Learning Disabilities to achieve and sustain the best possible quality of life within their local community”.
The Southwell Care Project (now Reach UK) was set up in 1999 by a group of parents who had children with learning disabilities. They were concerned as to what would happen to their children when they, the parents, would no longer be there to look after them, and so created this project in order to ensure that this support would be provided.
They do this through a wide array of day activities that are open to all adults with learning disabilities. These include Pottery, Computers, Cookery, Baking, Dancing, Music/Singing, Drama, Communication, Men’s Group, Ladies’ Group, Arts and Crafts, Photography, Signing, Horticulture, Moving on, Bowling, Gym sessions. There is something for everyone in both the Southwell and Newark centres, and in the near future another centre will be opening in Mansfield. For many of those involved in the Project, the activities are a reason to get up in the morning. They provide an opportunity to interact with other people and thereby help to avoid isolation from the community. The activities aim to boost an individual’s self-esteem and to provide them with a safe environment in which to develop.
Certain participants in the project have taken it upon themselves to do their bit for the charity. With very little in the way of funds, one of the Project’s clients, Tonya Hinds, decided that she and her grandmother, Beryl, would have to do something to help the organisation. Together they set up ‘Tonya's Bike Ride’ and, with about 30 riders, they raised £1,000. Since then there have been five ‘bike rides’ each raising up to £2,000 for the Project.
Due to her health, Tonya is now unable to ride her bike and Beryl, not as young as she once was, feels she cannot organise another. Anna Joyce, founder of the Viking Challenge (a national bike ride event in Nottingham) helped to come up with Tonya's Challenge.
With four great trails ranging from five miles to 37 miles they aim for this to be one of the biggest bike rides in the UK in time. The ride takes place in Southwell once a year in the spring or summer, and aims to attract serious riders from all around the country together as well as hundreds of local families.
The future vision of Southwell Care Project is to provide an accommodation unit . They intend to buy or build a property within Southwell so that adults with learning disabilities in the area can access supported living, and don’t have to move away from their home town in order to find this help. Click here to see how this proect is progressing
Southwell Care Project has been a member of Attend since 2005. ‘We appreciate the opportunity to be in contact with organisations that face similar challenges,’ says Steve Shatwell, Project Manager. ‘There’s a feeling of comfort in being part of the organisation as it provides somewhere to turn to.’
Created prior to 2011. Updated 2021
Reach benefits from Attend membership, which includes comprehensive charity insurance cover. For more information, or to join, please click here.
