Kitchen Elegance supports Coping with CHAOS
Kitchen Elegance are delighted to be able to help this worthwhile charity with a £10,000 donation. www.copingwithchaos.org has been set up to offer advice and support to parents with autistic children.
Coping with CHAOS provide fun and friendship for families caring for children with disabilities. We believing in supporting the whole family - providing trained, experienced staff (the CHAOS Crew) and lots of opportunities for play and activities suitable for all ages and abilities.
Many families caring for disabled children become isolated, either they can't get out easily because of the need for a helper, or they are just too frightened by the comments, looks and ignorance shown about their children by the public. This also affects the siblings of the disabled child and they can also end up being anxious or resentful, either way it's not a good feeling.
The incidence of relationship breakdown and separation is far higher than average in families caring for disabled children and often one parent ends up shouldering the burden. This in turn leads to financial pressures and linked with everything else many parents end up suffering with long term mental and physical health problems.
Through the play opportunities and the other activities we provide we give families the chance to go out and enjoy themselves, we provide the activity, the location and the staff, the parents, siblings and disabled child or children come along and join in.
As the young people grow up they can come along to our youth project 'Awesome Nights'. This gives young disabled people the chance to experience things that other young people take for granted, and we try to do it in a way that everyone can take part, support is provided by mainstream young people who volunteer to help and for many disabled young people it's the first time they've had a 'club' of their own.
The other major service we provide is access for our families to our own Counsellor. Parent and older siblings were finding it very difficult to find a Counsellor who understood their home situations, so we found one for them. Our Counsellor has worked with families caring for disabled children, and those with children who have life limiting conditions. To be able to refer parents, or have them refer themselves has been of tremendous benefit for our families and siblings, and we can honestly say that this service saves lives and relationships - just being able to talk to someone who understands can be enough to make families stay together.
We support 225 families across Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole.
We have to raise in excess of £100,000 per annum to maintain our level of support, this money is fundraised every year.