Chairs report for Down Right Worthy
July 2024-June2025 AGM 24[th] July 2025
This has been my 6[th] year as Chair of this wonderful group. We have tried really hard to organise a range of activities throughout the year for all of our members covering a wide range of age groups. Unfortunately, we are struggling to get many people to attend some of the events and are finding ourselves having to cancel due to low numbers. This is a real shame as there is a lot of work that goes into the planning and not something that can continue in the long term. We have, however, continued trying to increase engagement across our social media channels as well as our website. We do have some plans in place to keep this going and more moving forward. These plans can hopefully see the charity continuing on to provide vital support to our members and their families.
July
Kicking off the start of a new financial year we organised a soft play session to Rheged in Penrith. Everybody had a great time and as we hadn’t been there in a while it was nice to see how much the littles ones had advanced in their development and how much more they could access independently.
August
As it is the school summer holidays we don’t usually organise many activities as we have found in the past lots of families are off on their own holidays and the events are not well attended.
We did however arrange a soft play date at Wee Rascalz. So much fun was had by all that attended.
September
At the start of the month we organised a trip to Watchtree Nature Reserve for a walk/cycle and picnic. We had a good turnout for it and thankfully the weather was on our side. There was a mix of bikes hired and some even went around the track more than once.
At the end of the month we also had our monthly soft play session again at Wee Rascalz, it was well attended and lots of giggles were had.
October
It’s Halloween month so we organised something a little different this year and went with Coffee, Cake, Crafts and Carving. We had lots of pumpkins being carved, biscuits decorated, ceramics painted, pictures coloured in and of course cake was eaten. There was lots of spooky outfits worn and even some cheeky dancing at the end.
November
This month we only had our monthly soft play session as Wee Rascalz, so much fun was had by all that attended.
December
Its Christmas!! Always a fun time of year. Our annual Christmas party is always our most well attended event of the year. This year was no exception. Lots of dancing, singing, party games, yummy food and of course a visit from Santa Claus himself.
Our older members attended the Green Room Club for a theatre showing of Hansel and Gretel. Lots of people attended and they all had a fantastic time.
January
Our monthly soft play session to Wee Rascalz was thoroughly enjoyed by all that attended.
February
Again we had our monthly soft play session to Wee Rascalz, everyone had a great time.
We had booked a Fun Swim session at Woggle Goggle in Penrith for all of our members but this unfortunately had to be cancelled due to a very low volume of numbers. we hope to revisit this in the future.
Our Secretary Sam has been having discussions with the LA regarding EHCP’s and SALT . She attended a ‘chat with Emma Hamer session’ on behalf od Down Right Worthy. They had a lot of discussions around EHCP’s and the lack of SALT provision in our area. She has also engaged in follow up discussions with Emma Hamer (Assistant Director Education, SEND and Inclusion), Tania Desborough (Strategic Head of Commissioning North Cumbria Local Delivery Team and Dr Helen Howlett (Head of Community and CYP Women’s Health Champion and FASD Specialist). It is excellent news that Sam has now managed to create some professional contacts with those stated above and as a group we are very grateful for your perseverance and dedication to always fight for the provisions our children need and deserve.
March
We started this month off with a parent social event. Sadly there was only 3 of us that went, we had a great time nevertheless. Hopefully the next one will be better attended.
We had our usual visit to Wee Rascalz soft play, where lots of energy was burned and lots of fun was had by all.
For World Down Syndrome Day, we hosted a UV Glow party in celebration. It was a huge success and everyone had a brilliant time and danced their socks off. Lots of people dressed up, there was UV tattoos and facepainting, glow sticks, light up glasses, light up whistles and lots of other fun things. Everyone got to take a glow baton home with them at the end.
For our social media platforms Sam put together a video showcasing pictures of all of our members.
April
We did have a trip to Watchtree planned for this month but the great Cumbrian weather was not on our side and we unfortunately had to cancel.
May
As the weather was lovely we decided to go to Bitts Park for our monthly play session rather than soft play. Even though there was only 3 families we had a fab time and look forward to doing it again.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank each member of the committee for their continued dedication and commitment to the charity. I would like to thank Sam (secretary) for always being on hand for help and support in more ways than one. This has been your first year as Secretary and you have jumped in with both feet and been the main source of social media, communication, emails, networking, and generally keeping the charity going. Thank you to Louise W (treasurer) for always keeping the accounts up to date, you’ve taken to the new role like a duck to water. Kellie (vice chair) had to step down from the role early on due to some very difficult and upsetting family times, we have all been thinking of you and your family. We are hoping to see you at some events again soon.
A special thank you to those that have helped fundraise this year, all donations are much appreciated and very gratefully received.