Axis foundation helps to fund specialist bathroom to young girlCare

Bathroom for Isabella

August 3, 2019By

Specialist bathroom for disabled child

Aged two months, Isabella was diagnosed with a serious birth defect – neuronal migration disorder – and epilepsy. Her parents, Nicola and Robert were of course devastated by this news. Now aged four, Isabella has very limited mobility and is confined to a wheelchair. She is unable to speak, and her family, including her young siblings, is on constant guard as the risk of seizure is never far away.

To give their daughter more freedom of movement, Nicola and Robert moved to a bungalow and adapted it – widening the doors for example – with the aid of a grant.

Installing a specialist bathroom for Isabella

Nicola and Robert desperately wanted to install a similar specialist bathroom at their home. Sadly, their local authority was only able to offer a shower: the costs of installation were well beyond Nicola and Robert’s budget.  At this point, the Axis Foundation stepped in, funding a specialist bath costing £10,000, paying for installation and materials, and turning a dream into a reality.

“We can’t believe it! Grateful doesn’t even cover it! You guys will never know how much this means to us! THANK YOU!” – Nicola and Robert, Isabella’s parents

Respite stays at Demelza Hospice for Sick Children provide comfort and practical support too – for all the family. Here Isabella benefits from using the sensory room while their specialist bathroom is both practical and safe for her and her carers. Demelza is the charity partner to the Axis Foundation and parent company Axis Europe plc.

The Axis Foundation has reached a milestone of 10 years of donations to small, local, impactful causes. #10YrsGiving

 

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Children in Scout Group walking down a pathCommunity

First Halesworth Scout Group

July 27, 2019By

Refurbishing Scout Hall for young Scouts

The 70 members of the Suffolk based First Halesworth Scout Group, children and young people aged 6-25, learn many life skills, an appreciation of nature and respect for the world around them.

The Axis Foundation donated £5,000 to help refurbish their Scout Hall. The improvements include replacing the corrugated flat roof – as the kitchen, toilet and kitchen areas are greatly damaged by leaks – fully refurbishing the toilet and cloakroom facilities and replacing rotting flooring.

“The refurbishment to our scout hut will benefit both existing members and future members, greatly improving the time spent in the HQ by members and leaders… The improvements may also enable us to let the hall to other organizations which would give us a small income” – Nigel Busby, Project Manager at First Halesworth Scout Group

More About First Halesworth Scout Group

First Halesworth Scout Group engages in activities including climbing, camping, first aid, Duke of Edinburgh’s awards, archery and air rifle shooting, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, hill walking, international travel, to name but a few. The Scout Group has 70 members in total, all of whom are young people from Halesworth and the surrounding villages.

Seventeen leaders and helpers lead and support the group and all its community activities – they are all volunteers. Some of the current leaders were members of the Scout Group when they were young.

In other news, the Axis Foundation is celebrating its 10th Birthday of donations this year. Share the good news #10YrsGiving

 

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Sensory Log Cabin at Two Rivers special needs schoolDisability

Simon’s Heroes

July 26, 2019By

Sensory log cabin for children at a special school

Simon’s Heroes supports life-limited and disabled children in Tamworth, Staffordshire. They provide, for example, mobility equipment, wheelchairs, frames, profiling beds, sensory equipment, bedroom makeovers and short breaks for families and children when time is short and precious.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £3,000 will help Simon’s Heroes with their project at local special needs school Two Rivers in Tamworth. The donation will contribute to providing a sensory log cabin, where essential therapy sessions will be held.

Here, 120 children whose disabilities range from cystic fibrosis to cerebral palsy, downs syndrome and the full autism spectrum will use the cabin which will continue to improve the experience of children attending the school for years to come.

“The sensory lodge will be a calming and peaceful area for individual children to use to carry out their therapy session. With the sensory equipment and space, this is the perfect area away from the main school building. We can’t thank Axis enough for their generosity. To be able to provide the sensory lodge is a dream come true not only for us, but for the children now and in the future.” Justin Haywood Chairman

The Axis Foundation is celebrating its 10th Birthday this year, signifying ten years of support for small, local, impactful causes. Share the good news #10yrsgiving

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Three people in front of Alcohol and Drug Detoxification Centre with new accessible bathroomCommunity

Equinox Care

July 26, 2019By

Accessible bathroom at drug and alcohol detox centre

Open 24/7, 365 days a year Equinox at Brook Drive provides medically supervised alcohol and drug detoxification programmes for people aged 18+. Many service users have other needs including mental and physical health needs and challenging life circumstances.

Through Axis’ cyclical decorations contract with our client L&Q, Catherine Weedon, Client Liaison Manager at Axis, visited Equinox. She explains: “During my meeting and walk around with Mark Masterson, Equinox Manager, I found out that their bathroom was in need of some TLC: it was not really fit for purpose. I realised the magnitude of help the Equinox drug and alcohol detoxification centre provided. And I saw – by helping – we could give something back and would be exercising all our Axis core values.”

Catherine therefore alerted the Axis Foundation to the needs of the centre: the Foundation provided funds of £5,600 and Axis people volunteered to refurbish the bathroom at Equinox, turning it into a wet room with new tiling and new flooring and also installing a new shower, sink and toilet – all within two weeks!

“When Cathy magically secured funding I was gobsmacked! Accessibility is very important to us. Now we have an accessible bathroom and toilet for all our residents and service users” – Mark Masterson, Equinox Manager

“We’ve worked with Axis for six years now, and during that time they’ve regularly been involved with the CSR projects in our areas. Their involvement here and over the years has been fantastic” – Carolle Downer, Planned Projects Manager at L&Q Group

 

 

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3 people with Speak Easy NOW (a self-advocacy charity) T-shirtsDonations

Speak Easy NOW

July 16, 2019By

Self-advocacy charity makes video for people with learning disabilities

Speak Easy NOW is a self-advocacy charity run by people with learning disabilities. Two hundred members speak up about things that are important to them, representing the unheard voices of 2,000 people in Worcestershire.

In May 2019 some members with learning disabilities hosted an information day for people with learning disabilities and family carers to help them prepare for growing older and end of life. The day included advice on how to stay happy and healthy in older adulthood, information about wills, property and the law and signposting and practical tips. These are difficult topics and People with Learning Difficulties are often totally excluded from conversations pertaining to their life, and death.

The members of the self-advocacy charity used a donation from the Axis Foundation, alongside other fundraising, to commission some professional filmmakers to create a social media film about the event, about the members own experiences of loss, and the steps they have taken to plan ahead for their own future.

“The donation from Axis was very important to us because it helped us make the video. It is very important for people with learning disabilities to understand this information and to feel more secure about the future.”
Pat Roberts, Member of People’s Parliament

“The donation from Axis was vital to making our video. Donations like this make a world of difference to self-advocacy charity like ours, and allow us to put our members’ ideas into action.” Holly Yuille, People’s Parliament Co-ordinator

The video will be used as a vital communication tool delivering important information on this topic. Speak Easy NOW hopes that it will inspire other families to have open and honest conversations around growing older and end of life.

 

 

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Care

Beyond The Streets – Door of Hope

July 1, 2019By

Helping provide routes out of prostitution for women in Tower Hamlets

In 2019, The Axis Foundation’s first donation of £5,000 supported Beyond the Streets’ Door of Hope. This project offers hope, support and routes out of prostitution for women in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London.

“Thank you for the generous donation… Your support will enable our Door of Hope team to continue to provide specialist support and genuine routes out for women involved in prostitution on the streets of the East End. You are ensuring that we can reach more women to offer consistency and a compassionate response to overcome the barriers they face. Thank you for standing with us, we are stronger with your support to tackle sexual exploitation in our community” – Josephine Knowles, Co-Director for Services

In 2023, the Axis Foundation Trustees agreed to make another award – of £1,286 – towards Door of Hope. This second donation will cover the cost of personal alarms (to help the women feel safer when in the area at night), identity documentation (including replacement birth certificates to them to get a Citizens Photo ID card for free which means they can then access vital services such as benefits and housing) and personal toiletries (to ensure that women do not have to sell sex more frequently in order to purchase basic products like toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, deodorant and sanitary towels).

“Thank you so much for this award! It will make a real difference to the women we journey alongside” – Victoria Curtis, Grants Manager

More About Beyond the Streets

For over 20 years Beyond the Streets have been working with women experiencing sexual exploitation as they journey to safer, heathier and happier lives. As a specialist charity they have an in-depth understanding of the complexity’s women face, the underlying causes of entry, and the multiple barriers to exiting. Working directly with women, the Door of Hope project provides a safe space for the women’s voices to be heard and for them to receive support and advocacy via specialist Women’s Support Workers. Using a trauma-informed, person-centred model, women can process feelings and safety plan whilst increasing their confidence and self-agency, so they themselves can identify their own needs and devise their own journeys to a future where they can thrive.

Alongside the Door of Hope project, Beyond the Street delivers a remote, UK-wide, free and confidential call-back service, Beyond Support, that also provides support and advocacy to women involved in selling sex. In both projects they work with local, specialist services to provide holistic and accessible support for women. They also run an affiliate network for 35+ other organisations who work within the theme; develop and deliver training for the third sector and statutory professionals; as well as create practitioner resources and reports that are uniquely informed by up-to-date research, lived experience and practitioner experience.  This is all with the aim of reducing stigma and barriers to support services, and to create much needed systemic change so no women are compelled to sell sex due to poverty, coercion, or violence.

CASE STUDY kindly provided by Beyond the Streets
April’s story

When we met April, she was using crack and heroine, involved in the criminal justice system for drug related offences, and selling sex frequently on the street. Our street outreach team connected with her until she got to a place where she wanted to access our 1:1 daytime support. Our trained Women’s Support Workers (WSW) provided 1:1 non-judgemental specialist listening space. Utilising a trauma-informed and women-centred approach, April had the opportunity to process her feelings and the trauma she had experienced early and later in life. This helped her develop confidence and self-agency in preparation for change. The WSW helped her access services by directly advocating for her with professionals and through partner referral organisations. This prevented her from having to re-tell her ‘story’ and risk re-traumatisation.

This work involved helping her to reduce her drug use through our partnership with a local specialist service and advocating for appropriate housing for her until she was placed in funded supported accommodation. April was also struggling with mental health difficulties,  processing trauma, and had been experiencing domestic abuse by her long-term partner. April’s Women’s Support Worker was able to secure free counselling. She also helped her access Universal Credit to support April and remove her money worries so she could focus on reaching her identified future goals. April was able to maintain zero contact with the perpetrator of the abuse she had previous suffered, who up until this point had remained in her life.

April has since applied for, and successfully secured a new job.

April has shared with us that ‘You never gave up on me and often you were the only support holding me up –I’m a new person and I’m excited about my future.”

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Walsall Wood Colliers Under 12s Football TeamDonations

Walsall Wood Colliers U12s Football Team

April 30, 2019By

League-winning U12s Football Team receives a champion sum

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £370 will help towards buying the Walsall Wood Colliers U12s football team a brand new kit in their home colour, red, for next season. Here are the league winners in their away kit of blue and yellow.

I was absolutely delighted to receive the donation from Axis Foundation on behalf of Walsall Wood Colliers. This will help us kit out our team for next season. The coaches put in a lot of hours running a team and every bit of help is welcome as we rely on donations and sponsorship for all our kit and equipment which enable the kids to train and play” – Julian Worrall, Coach and Manager

More about Walsall Wood Colliers

Walsall Wood Colliers Under 12s is one of Walsall Wood FC’s many junior youth teams. The Colliers’ Manager and Coach is Julian Worrall who has been in this role for six years. Julian volunteers a large amount of his ‘spare’ time to coach and manage his junior youth team which numbers 18 in all.

“We are very focused on the community at Walsall Wood FC,” Julian says. “Our aim in the Junior Youth League is to encourage and develop children to play sport and to be part of a team. We get them off their computers and outside.”

As Julian’s son used to play for the Colliers too, he is in a good position to know the benefits of playing in a youth squad for young people. He says: “I like seeing how the children develop over the years. Some of them started in our Academy and have the opportunity to go right on through to the Senior team on their footballing journey. They are like an extended family.”

There are over 30 teams at Walsall Wood FC which is a registered charity and Chartered FA Club: from the Academy 5-7s to the Under 18s including girls teams and (soon) a team for people with disability. All the coaches/managers are FA licensed and all are volunteers.

 

 

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Young Man at the Fluence Foundation being helped with his communication skillsDonations

Fluence Foundation

April 30, 2019By

Literacy skills lead to education and employment

Fluence Foundation helps vulnerable adults and young people, including the homeless and ex-offenders, improve communication skills leading to education and employment.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £2,400 will purchase the licence for the Communicate software to help 30 more people gain literacy and communication skills so they can receive formal education and gain employment.

“On behalf of the Fluence Foundation, I would like to thank Axis Foundation for their kind donation to our project. With your help we will be able to help the homeless clients of Birmingham Crisis by diagnosing any literacy difficulties they might have and provide practical support to overcome these difficulties. Doing so will ensure they have the skills needed to access the other services Crisis provide and stand a better chance of being able to improve their situation” – Paul Bruton, Project Co-Ordinator

More About Fluence Foundation

Those without basic communication (reading, writing, talking) skills become vulnerable, dependent and isolated, finding it hard to connect with others, to engage with society. They are often unable to access employment, training or education to improve their lot. West Midlands-based Fluence runs support sessions using a catch-up, one-to-one intervention called Communicate. They report a significant beneficial impact on the confidence and literacy/communication skills of the people they help in a very short time.

Communicate diagnoses areas of weakness, then focuses on teaching high-frequency language and key grammar rules. Its learning structure uses repetition and achievable successes to ensure the learner grows in confidence and masters the language. Training in speaking clearly and making eye contact, answering a phone or being interviewed is also given – all are examples of communication that, when mastered, lead ultimately to independence.

The Fluence Foundation has successfully run three projects: two helped ex-offenders towards employment; the third gave unemployed adults the literacy skills to access training and employment.

 

 

 

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Care

HOPE

April 3, 2019By

Support for children with epilepsy and their families

The Axis Foundation’s £2,000 donation to HOPE will buy Anti-Suffocation Pillows for children with Epilepsy. Anti Suffocation Pillows help those lying face down with convulsive seizures to breathe more easily thereby helping to prevent brain damage and death.

“The HOPE Team are absolutely thrilled that the Axis Foundation has agreed to make a donation to help HOPE fund Anti Suffocation Pillows for children with Complex Epilepsy. From the bottom of my heart thank you to you all at the Axis Foundation for this generous donation! We can help so many children now with our Anti Suffocation Pillow Project. It’s truly amazing and We are over the moon. Once again, thank you Axis Foundation for assisting us carrying on our work”
Dr Nadine Gurr – Chair

“We are extremely grateful to the Axis Foundation for their kind donation to HOPE. Childhood epilepsy can be stressful for the whole family, particularly as many children with epilepsy also have additional needs. This generous donation will help us in our aim to support children with epilepsy and their families. It will be used to buy Anti-Suffocation Pillows, which families tell us can help to reduce their worries about their children sleeping in their own bedrooms at night”
Dr Sophie Bennett – Vice Chair

More About HOPE

At HOPE children with epilepsy can meet each other, have fun, learn to “enjoy life” and not feel so alone. Volunteers play with the children and their siblings and provide respite for the parents. HOPE encourages parents of children with epilepsy and carers to meet, relax over refreshments, share information and build relationships. This helps reduce stress and anxiety enabling them to be better emotionally equipped to support their child.

Overall, HOPE aims to promote awareness regarding the problems and circumstances of families living with epilepsy. The children who attend London-based HOPE suffer from complex epilepsy with different seizure types. Many have other conditions associated with complex epilepsy such as autism, developmental delay, ADHD and physical disabilities.

HOPE’s Anti Sudden Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) Project provides Anti Suffocation Pillows free of charge to any child living in the Greater London area who suffers from convulsive seizures

 

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Swimming lessons funding being given to young boyDonations

Support Tommy Brown Fund

March 29, 2019By

Providing swimming lessons for little Tommy

In March 2012 Tommy Brown contracted the ‘B strain’ of meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia. The disease was so aggressive and extensive that he was given only a 5 per cent chance of survival. Despite this, he defied the odds and did survive; but his parents were given the devastating news that he was going have to lose all four of his limbs. In total, Tommy spent a total of three months in hospital undergoing surgery, including six weeks in the intensive care unit.

Julie Tuckley, Tommy’s mum said: “It makes me cry to see Tommy alert and looking about, then looking at where his hands and legs used to be, as if he is wondering where they are. It was so painful to see him suffer and go through the operations – we’re very lucky to still have our beautiful boy.”

Seven years later, Tommy is now a courageous young boy who adapts remarkably well to everyday life and the challenges thrown at him. He loves swimming; and has swimming lessons at local swimming baths. When he is swimming Tommy says he feels free.

Our donation of £1,600 is funding Tommy’s swimming lessons for a year.

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