Full Family Fun & Learning Programme
A story by Feel Fantastic Friday's Parent Carers Group
The group developed from a Parent Support Group delivered by CLaD, providing learning opportunities and support for parents (carers) of children who attend ASN and mainstream schools in the Motherwell locality.
The group is open to parents of children with additional support needs who attend school or reside in this area.
What Full Family Fun & Learning Programme did
The group and their families took part in 3 organised outings to Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh Zoo and Xscape (Snowzone). In addition each family were funded to attend cinema outings over the Christmas period. The group members also got together for a Christmas Planning and Evaluation Session.
In addition the group produced a booklet, "A Day in the Life of a Parent Carer" which details their experiences of being a parent carer, their views on attending the Feel Fantastic Friday's Parent Carer Group and their experiences of the outings that they attended through the funding from SharedCare Better Breaks.
They help a book launch and are in the process of producing packs to be issued to all schools in the Motherwell locality. This work has been instrumental in them winning a SALP Award this year.
The outings were arranged and attended by current members of the Group, however the group membership rose by 7 members during the course of the project. Some of the new members also took part in the outings.
What Feel Fantastic Friday's Parent Carers Group has learned
On a whole the shared experiences of the outings and getting to know each other, children and spouses/partners, has increased the already good relationships with the members of the group. They feel they can now relate better to each other's situations and have a better understanding of the difficulties faced.
One major benefit which wasn't foreseen was the relationship that developed between the siblings on the outings. The improved relationships between families resulted in some meeting up and visiting each other.
One challenge/issue that the group has encountered was were families due to unforeseen circumstances were unable to turn up for the outing. Therefore after the the first outing the group booked approximate numbers at the venues in order to reduce unnecessary costs. In addition all members were asked to let a member of the Management Committee know if they were able to attend, thus reducing the frustrations of waiting for members who didn't show.