Centrepoint Trust – 50@50 report
Our Island has some great facilities and clubs available for our children to enjoy
every day. From holiday camps to sports clubs, the options are endless. Sadly, this
is not the same for children with complex and/or additional needs.
There is a distinct lack of provision for these children, and we at Centrepoint are
doing everything we can to help change that because we firmly believe that they
deserve the same opportunities, services and facilities as everyone else.
There are currently only a handful of organisations who are able to offer specialist
holiday care for children with complex needs. Centrepoint has a contract with the
Government to run a specialised holiday scheme for 7 weeks of the school holidays.
Sadly, there is nowhere else for these children to go for the other 7 weeks of the
school holidays.
Centrepoint considers the supported holiday scheme to be a fundamental service,
which should be available for the whole of the school holidays rather than selected
weeks. It is our mission to raise enough money to enable us to offer this service for
the full 14 weeks.
The £10,000 award that Centrepoint received from the 50@50 event was used to
open our Supported Holiday Club in October half term and the second week of the
Christmas holidays.
In October half term, 21 different children accessed a total of 144 x 3 hour sessions.
Of these children, 10 attended all day (6 hours), every day (5 days).
During the second week of the Christmas holidays (3 days), 15 different children
accessed a total of 62 x 3 hour sessions. Of these children, 8 attended all day,
every day.
If Centrepoint had not opened our holiday club for these 2 weeks, these children
would have had nowhere else to go.
