We have had a fun filled summer with lots of activities for families. We have been to Washbrooks Farm, Thames Valley Adventure Playground, Fisher’s Farm Park, Bluebell Railway, Tilgate Park, Cirque Show at the Brighton Centre, Pizza & Bowling, Knockhatch Adventure Playground and the favourite – a boat trip from Brighton Marina!

47 families have been on one or more of these trips over the summer – the boat trip alone catered for 23 families (39 people on one trip and 44 on a second as there were too many people for a single trip!)

We have also held our group holiday to Kench Hill in Kent. This was another big success with 13 families getting the opportunity to experience a fun filled break away. We split it into two groups, with the first doing Monday to Friday and the second doing Friday to Monday. This enabled us to offer a holiday to a greater number of families. We were very lucky with the weather which helped. We organised day trips whilst away, had fun in the garden, made fires, and enjoyed the lovely cooking of Marina and her Mum Val, who gave us some delicious meals.

Here’s what one family told us about the holiday: “The Kench Hill Summer Residential is the highlight of our school summer holiday. My grandson T-J spent all year talking about the people he met and the experiences he had and couldn’t wait for the independence this holiday affords him. He has made forever friends, sauntered downstairs to meet them for breakfast cereal, developed a penchant for squirty cream on jelly, cake and ice cream!, basked on beaches, climbed up castle turrets, got up close and personal at a petting zoo, travelled on steam trains, toasted marshmallows over a fire he helped to build, been brave and bold battling with ligt sabres, disco danced and laughed out loud, living his best life. And me? I found comfort and solace, knowing I’m not alone in this topsy turvy SEND world whist filled with abundant joy as I watched our group blossom and grow as beautiful as the flower filled gardens that surrounded us. T-J was not the only one with tears in his eyes as we had to say goodbye … hopefully to do it all again next year.”

We are very grateful for the continued support from everyone at Brighton & Hove Mencap – your grants have helped us deliver these magical experiences for our families. Thank you!

We would all like to say a massive thank you to Mencap for the £2,000 grant in supporting us have a very successful Hindleap residential this year.
With the grant we were able to have enough staff to support our children and pull in extra staff to manage a high ratio of staff to pupil for the residential visits to Hindleap, which was needed.
The grant meant that the costs of the staff being on the trip were not added to the families to keep costs down. Furthermore, we were able to support families financially to enable all pupils could access the trip.
Following the trip we have had some really positive feedback from the staff and pupils. The children got to do the obstacle course, attempt high ropes, archery, climbing wall, catching various creatures including many newts in the pond dipping before having hot chocolates and marshmallows around a campfire in the evening. The activities challenged our pupils in many ways and with the specialist staff and equipment, allowed all our children to access the activities. It also help develop their social communication skills, as they continued to share their excitement alongside their peers and key workers many hours after. Without the grant, our school simply would not have been able to make this visit happen.

From all of us at Hill Park, thank you soo much for your support!

We just wanted to say thank you to Brighton and Hove Mencap for the £1,000 you gave us in 2022.
We used the funding to help subsidise the trips we had planned over the summer holidays. 44 families were able to take part in at least one of these trips, the most popular being the boats trips from Brighton Marina where 25 families (88 people) came along!
Here is some of the lovely feedback we received:
“We are so grateful for the activities that we were able to take part in because of Pebbles this summer. We struggle to get out with our son, who has complex needs, and his siblings, partly due to his needs and partly because I have had to give up work to care for him over the last couple of years and as a family of 5 it makes outings too expensive. One thing that can’t be understated is how nice it is to do an activity with other special needs families. It makes the whole experience so much more fun when you are with other families who can understand your child’s behaviours and you don’t have to worry about looks or comments. I think it also helped my son to feel more relaxed and he had a wonderful time. And if he’s having a wonderful time, so do the rest of us! Thanks for all Pebbles are doing for families like mine. It makes a world of difference.” Gemma
“We so appreciate the days out we are able to do through Pebbles, they’re often the only family trips out we get as we don’t have much spare cash and can’t afford to ‘risk’ it not going well if we spend money on things. These subsidised trips mean we can access places we just wouldn’t be able to normally go to, and it also takes the stress and pressure off in case it doesn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped. The trips we’ve done with Pebbles have been our most memorable family times during holidays for the last few years, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who fundraises and donates as these trips mean such a lot to our family. The boat trip… the most fun our kids had the whole holidays I think! Honestly, for Daisy, I’ve not seen her that happy and excited in such a long time, it was very special to see, and the boys had a great time too!” Jen

Thank you so much for the wonderful grant that you gave to the children for some days out. We are very grateful. Best wishes Marie-Clare, J, B and R xxxxx

Julie and I wanted to write to you and say a HUGE THANK YOU for your generosity and care. The £200 you sent to us means we are able to travel up to Manchester in September to take Julie to our other sister’s house, where she will be cared for whilst I have a longed for break at my daughter’s home with my daughter and my grandchildren. Not only will it be a holidary for her – she also loves to spend time with our other sister.

It would have been a real struggle to arrange this without you help and we truly appreciate it. I have also given out the forms you sent to me to a group of carers at my local community centre and if you need any other help or raising of awareness from me, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you again for your wonderful kindness. Hope you have a lovely summer.

A very grateful phone call from Patricia.A, whose children Katie & Nicholas received grants. She has said the grant has made all the difference and wanted to say thank you to Brighton & Hove Mencap.

Brighton & Hove Mencap,

Thank you so much for our cheque it really helped and made a big difference. We used the money to help pay off our short break holiday to Butlins as we were finding it hard to get the rest of the money together and doing this has also helped us start getting ready to enjoy the build up to our holiday. I know if my son Wyatt understood a little more how much this money has helped he would be very grateful.

Thank you again for all your help.