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2024-09-30-accounts

WAVES ADDITIONALNEEDS5UPPORTGRWP Waves Additional Needs Support Group Registered Charity number 1179923 Annual Report 2023-24 ilri Childpen in Need DOGGER BANK WIND FARM - Community Foundation THE BERniciA FOUNDATION r¢undaiion,, MAGIC** LtrrLE GRAMrs

WAVES is an Additional Needs Support Group ran by a group of dedicated volunteers who are all parents of children with "Additional Needs." We are based in South Tyneside.

We offer a range of activities to help build and promote social skills among our children and young adults as well as friendship, advice and support to parents and carer's.

OPENING HOURS: Saturdays 12pm tll 4pm

We offer lots of activities such as:

We offer (if able to secure funding) day trips and outings in the school holidays such as going to the beach, local BBQ event, camping, places of interest in order that the families can spend time together with additional support. Without this support these activities are difficult, if not impossible, for our families to access.

The disabilities the children have are vast and within these all come with difficulties in:

We fully support the siblings within these families as they often need to take a back seat due to their siblings needs/difficulties which can lead to emotional difficulties as well as a feeling of 'second best' which is obviously not the case.

Suzanne Jackson Chair of WAVES Additonal Needs Support Group

Chair Report – 2023 – 2024

Hello to you all and thank you for taking the time to read this year’s annual report. As you will see when reading through, we have had another very busy year. Due to securing funding, we have been able to have many off-site activities as well as on-site. Some of the most memorable ones were:

Families shared many positive quotes from these such as:

I love seeing the children at waves learning different We love paddle ability it’s something we would absolutely ways to explore and enjoy art. miss if we couldn’t do it anymore! Paddlability has given me confidence in water to the Flamingoland and Preston Park were fantastic, being a extent I'm now learning to swim, I also enjoy single disabled parent there’s no way we could have gone helping/encouraging others who feel as I once did by without waves thank you so much 😊😊 gaining their confidence on the water

Surf school - my son absolutely loves the water, and this was ideal! Local and a supportive small session.

Some of the highlights of the year were:

Being nominated for these awards demonstrates that ‘we are on the right track’ and meeting the wishes of the members – which has always been our intention. So, thank you to the members and supporters that nominated WAVES Additional Needs Support Group.

We are delighted to welcome Wayne (Rambo) Groves as an Ambassador to WAVES – I am sure he will support our ventures as we will with him and the Red Bench Project.

Whilst we are disappointed that Steph Law has taken the decision to step down from the Committee to spend time with her precious granddaughter, we are over the moon with our

two new Committee Members – Emma Price and Carole Greener – already they have brought knowledge, expertise and creativity. Welcome to you both.

This year we have been very fortunate to receive funding from various sources such as Sir James Knott, The National Lottery, One Stop Community Partnership, Doggerbank, Durham Province, Bernicia Foundation, The Community Foundation, The Mayor’s Charity, The Toy Fund, Asda, The Rotary Club and more - we thank these businesses for their philanthropy as without this support, we would not be able to cover the cost of running WAVES.

Be Modern approached us early in 2024 and shared that they would like WAVES to be their Charity of the Year. Since this time, they have raised an amazing amount of money through raffles and blind cards. They even provided the food required for a BBQ at Moor House Camping trip. We thank you all for taking the time to support a local charity.

I would also like to thank two outside supporters - Dan Jackson and Camilla Darling for choosing our charity to support whilst undertaking the Sunderland 10K and the Great North Run. Camilla ran in memory of her husband Paul who supported WAVES and raised over £6000. Thank you both so much.

To finish (so you can carry on reading the report), whilst I may be Chair of this Charity, and very proud to be so, it is only due to the commitment, hard work and individual selflessness of the Committee and Volunteers that WAVES Additional Needs Support Group continues to flourish and grow from strength to strength. A heartfelt thankyou to each one of you

Also, thank you to all the supporters of WAVES, we may not actually see you at WAVES, we know you are there and promoting us whenever you can – thank you.

Suzanne Jackson

Chair of WAVES Additional Needs Support Group

Waves Commitee/Trustee’s

• Suzanne Jackson Chair/ Safeguarding Ofcer
• Gaynor Tate Co-Vice Chair/Secretary
• Rachel Moreton Treasurer/Shop Lead
• Helen Wallace Co-Vice Chair/Fundraiser & Events Co-Ordinator
• Patsi Campbell Arts and Crafs/Shop Lead
• Stu Wallace Equipment Maintenance/Volunteer Co-Ordinator
• Jonny Stephen Lead Sports Co-Ordinator
• John Paul Bagley Cookery Lead/ Sports Support
• Leoni Taylor Lead Events Team
• Alison Denny Events Team
• Carrie Tate Volunteer Co-Ordinator
• Leanne Bagley Events Team
• Charlie Torrance First Aid/Health and Safety Champion
• Carole Greener Bids/Early Years Lead
• Sarah Devlin Bids/Shop Lead

Waves Patron

“Waves is a great example of hardworking volunteers coming together to form a terrific selfhelp group to support children with additional needs and their families. In these days of austerity, it has never been more important to support such groups who do so much for the vulnerable members of our community. Their drive and determination to do their very best for our ‘bairns’ is to be commended. In life we can either make Waves or calm troubled waters; they do both making sure their voice is heard and causes championed while giving their members a place in which to belong…I am honoured to have been asked to become their Patron”.

Ray Spencer MBE

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Fundraising and Events Oct 23-Sep 24

Helen Wallace & Leoni White are both leads of Events & Fundraising. We have a dedicated team to support & help run all our events.

Oct 23

This month sees our yearly Halloween party. All our committee & volunteers dress up to ensure the children have an amazing time. We have games, dancing & a massive raffle. Every child gets to take home a spooky gift. It's always a fantastic time.

Nov 23

This year we took over 100 members for an activity weekend at The Calvert Trust in Kielder. Our members took part in some brilliant activities from axe throwing, wall climbing, rifle shooting to doing a zip wire through the treetops! What an amazing weekend was had by all.

Dec 23

This is always the busiest time of the year for out events team. Every week in Dec leading up to our Christmas party at the end of the month, we have some sort of Christmas activity. This year the theme was Elfmas. We had a movie day with the best hot chocolate & cookies, Christmas face paints, amazing holiday hairstyles, arts & crafts making Elf decorations to name just a few of the things we did.

Every year we have our very own Christmas dinner at Waves. We served over 90 this year. It's always such a lovely day, prepping from very early in the morning to finally serving our members with Christmas songs playing in the background.

We took part in the South Tyneside Christmas parade, again taking part in workshops provided by The Cultural Spring to create flags, costumes & banners. Amazing to see our children walking the parade representing our group.

Singing Christmas carols to the residents of a local care home is always a heartwarming warming day with lots of laughter.

A cold visit to Beamish open air museum is again a yearly trip for us. We all visit Santa, have hot choc & spend the day exploring the world as it was many years ago.

We end December with our Christmas party. This is the biggest party we have of the year. Santa pays us a visit & all the children get a present from him. Our event team always put on a surprise Christmas dance & are all dressed up as Elves. The children love this! We have a massive raffle with a Christmas family hamper as 1 of the prizes. This is always so big & heavy it must be wheeled into the room! It's the best way to end the year.

Jan 24

We start the year off arranging coffee mornings for our parents/carers. This is a chance for them to get support/ guidance & just a time to make friendships within the group.

In January we also hold our annual Paddleability presentation night. Every year we celebrate with certificates given out to all members that took part the previous summer. We have food, bingo, raffle & end the night with a sing on the karaoke.

Feb 24

Mr Lip Lee comes to visit us every Chinese New Year & brings in lots of arts & crafts for the children to take part in. This year they created Chinese lanterns & decorations. He even brings in a Chinese dragon for the children to dance around in.

Easter 24

During waves we held an Easter egg & bonnet competition, egg scavenger hunt & all activities that day are all Easter themed. We even have a visit from a real bunny called Stanley who the children could hold. Every child gets an Easter egg from the Easter bunny who pays us a visit.

April 24

We arranged a visit to a local ice rink at Whitley Bay. We did a private hire so only our members on the ice at the time. This is a massive help to some of our members who struggle with anxiety. Here the children were able to explore, skate & just have fun on the ice. Some even managed jumps & moves they had never done before. Well done kids!

July 23

Waves held their 2nd ever auction night. We had been collecting donations/prizes all year & had quite a good selection on the night. We had items ranging from

bikes, clothes, bags, homemade pies & items donated from local businesses. We ordered in pizza, kebabs, chips for the members. We held some bingo games then the main auction. It was an amazing night & lots of people were happy with items they won. This will become a yearly event due to it being such a good night.

July/Aug 24

Every week in the summer holidays we put on a trip or activity. This year we had the following, Preston Park Ridley ParkPlessy woods Sunderland Aquatic Centre

In Aug we had a camping trip at Moorhouse Activity Centre for 2 nights. Our members did lots of activities from den building, rock climbing to singing

round the biggest campfire we have ever seen singing songs together. It was an amazing weekend.

We also worked with outside organisations Paddleability with sessions held monthly from April - Oct at Morpeth riverside & South Shields Surf school with sessions held at the beach during the summer holidays.

Sept 24

We held our annual adult’s hotel sleepover. This year the theme was Grease & we had a great time dressed as T-Birds & pink ladies. The hotel package includes use of pool, overnight stay, pizza & breakfast the next morning. We have games, bingo & dancing till the early hours, it's great!

Throughout the year we have lots of activities on, below is just a few of the things we so,

Bowling, Tree top golf, Trampolining, Sensory Den visits, Teen nights, 6-12 age nights, Panto visits at Easter, Christmas & so much more.

Waves will always try to do activities that members request or show an interest in, we will continue to do the very best we can.

Equipment

Stu Wallace’s main role within WAVES is to maintain equipment and repair / replace when necessary.

Volunteer co-ordinators

Stu Wallace and Carrie Tate are WAVES volunteer coordinators, our volunteers help the committee run WAVES. All our volunteers are fully DBS checked and undertake annual safeguarding training.

Paddle Ability

Each year we run 6 monthly sessions of Paddle ability as well as sessions with the local sea cadets. These sessions are organised by Stu Wallace with various water activities which include powerboating and sailing.

These sessions are very popular with the members and are a lot of fun whilst also gaining new skills on the water.

Surf School

Stu also organises our surf sessions which run during the summer holidays at south Shields beach.

Health and Safety

Charlie Torrence is Waves health and safety lead. He is responsible for ensuring all risk assessments are carried out and up to date, including trips and activities as well as inhouse on a Saturday.

Charlie also runs staff first aid training and gives safety advice to our members.

I.T.

Emma Price is responsible maintaining the Waves Additional Needs Support Group website (www.waves-support-group.com). This is used as a professional way to deliver information on our group in addition to our community Facebook page, while also offering an alternative source of information to those without Facebook. The regular maintenance of the website includes:

Sports

Jonny Stephen - is our sports coordinator. His responsibilities include organising and running onsite and offsite sporting activities and ensuring the safety of our members whilst doing this. We offer a range of sporting activities during Waves and outside of Waves for our members and parents/carers. Our sporting activities promote social interaction, communication, listening skills, teamwork, problem solving and building confidence. We listen to our members’ suggestions, and we have started offering more sporting activities.

Some of our activities include: -

Smile through Sport - we have been fortunate enough to secure multi-sport sessions on a fortnightly basis with Smile through sport. We have been working with Smile Through Sport for several months and we will be continuing with the sessions every month. This is a fantastic opportunity for our members to try new sports and to learn both practical and theory about a variety of sports and nutrition. We have two sessions available to our members, under ten and over 10’s.

Pool/Snooker and Darts - we have our pool table where members can participate in killer pool, matches and/or practice with advice always on hand. This is a big hit with our members, including the adults, who appreciate a bit of healthy competition. We have continued our monthly pool nights, which continue to be a great night. Some of our members enjoyed trying snooker. The members’ confidence has grown so much since running these nights. The progress our members have made has been fantastic and this is a great way to meet new members and to get to know other families. Darts are also new, and our teens love to play a variety of dart games. Darts are excellent for social interaction and working as a team.

Swimming - we have continued to offer our popular monthly swimming sessions. The staff always give advice and support to our members such as helping them to dive, swim underwater, different strokes and building confidence to jump in or put their face under the water. Our younger members have made great progress over the last year and are now confident swimmers. We also show our members what to do if they get in danger following RNLI advice.

Football - is a popular activity with our members. We continue to upgrade our football equipment so we can practice more skills and build on the skills the members already have. We play football matches, training skills, football tennis and small team games.

Rugby skills - learning new skills by learning how to hold, throw and catch a rugby ball, learning the basics of the game and playing friendly tag matches. We have had a couple of visits from a local rugby team who delivered a great training session to our members.

Basketball - is a great game and encourages our members to work on motor skills and coordination. We practice short, long and bounce passing, dribbling, and shooting and have games to finish off. Basketball is great for working in a team and builds confidence. Dodgeball - can be played indoors or outdoors, we have soft foam balls to ensure the safety of our members, and we have parents/carers who also join in. Everyone enjoys a game of dodgeball.

Hockey - we have smaller goals that we use to play hockey, and we use tennis balls or light plastic balls for safety. We practice how to pass, how to hold a hockey stick, dribbling and shooting in a safe environment. We then finish with team games or all v all.

Cricket/ Tennis/ Badminton/ Rounders and Squash - some of our members have not played these sports before but are always willing to try new activities. We try to involve as many members as possible in participating and help is always on hand if needed. These activities really help our members with motor skills, coordination, and communication.

Water fghts - during the warmer sessions we like to get the water guns and water bombs out. Everyone gets involved, from children, adults, and staff. Great fun for all.

Young Voices

Jonny Stephen organises our Young Voices meetings. Young Voices play an important role within Waves and they are

there to bring suggestions,

improvements, things that are going well, things members would like to see and

health and safety to meetings where we will discuss and vote. We discuss topics on bullying, respect, consent, and inclusion and make sure we as a group have things in place to help others. The young voices have made suggestion boxes and QR codes for suggestions and you said we did. We are also going to be working with other community groups who have asked us for feedback on their services. Young Voices promotes working in a team, good listening and communication skills, problem solving, planning, and following instructions.

Waves Minibus

Having our own minibus has meant we have been able to offer transport for our members who do not have their own transport and to reduce the cost of travel for our members. We have been able to put on more trips such as paddle ability, Supertramp, bowling, inflata-nation, crazy golf, Beamish, Kielder, sensory den to name a few. We have been able to organise more days out in school holidays, evenings, and residential trips.

Arts and Crafs

September

we used different Crafts/ materials to help with co-ordination and sensory

October we started preparations for the Christmas Parade, alongside this, we made magic potion.

We purchased 120 pumpkins for the children to carve and take home.

November we made over 300 poppies alongside the youth club of Bilton Hall, and we made an outdoor display for Remembrance Day.

December we did various Crafts which were Christmas themed

January we asked the children to give us ideas on what they'd like to do, we done these throughout the month. We made a list and have been using their ideas throughout the year.

February

We made Valentine Hearts and cards

March

This brought us Mother’s Day, Waves purchased loads of Fresh Flowers for the children, the children made baskets then arranged the flowers, they went on to make cards to go with their flower baskets.

April

We filled the tables with everything possible to make all things Bling and Easter, some made bonnets, and some entered their creations into the Waves Easter competition

May

We started preparations for the summer parade, this would carry on throughout each week alongside a small craft. June

We made Father’s Day gifts and cards

July

we finished the parade preparations

August

We made mini books. We also bought some jewellery kits. The Wavelets enjoyed making the jewellery and made some amazing items. We also teamed up with Fred Worrell, the children were asked to create a piece of Art, spray painted, to hang in Bilton Halls gym hall. This was truly amazing, watching them build up their creations weekly and finally seeing them hung on the wall. Waves had their creations transferred onto t shirts so they could wear their art.

Cookery

Waves run cooking classes at Bilton hall. We mix between savoury and sweet food and is always a very popular activity.

This year we have made cookies, cheesecakes, pizzas among other things.

Going forward we will continue to make more great food and have lots of fun.

The members always enjoy the cooking sessions, these help the children try new things while having fun and learning a good life skill.

Sensory and Therapy Room

We opened our sensory and therapy room at waves on the 14th august 2021. This was opened by our patron Ray Spenser MBE, Lee’s family, Leah Denny (member) and the chair of waves Suzanne Jackson. The sensory room had been named after Lee Neo Ternent after his family donated a collection at Lee’s funeral and donated the funds to waves, Lee passed away in 2019 at just 17 years old, a plaque and photo have been placed in the room in memory of Lee. The total cost of the room was about £6500, this was used out of our unrestricted funds that was raised by events and raffles to raise the money. The sensory room is used as a calm, quiet and relaxing environment for the members to feel at ease. Each piece of equipment in the room is designed to stimulate the members. The sensory room is used every Saturday 12/3 and enjoyed by our members of all ages.

Our therapy room is used by our therapist Nicola she offers back massages, feet and hand massages, facials, as well as reiki. All treatment is done fully clothed and lasts 10/15 minutes, only non-perfumed massage cream is used. The treatments are carried out either on a massage chair or table. Nicola also offers crystal healing and mindfulness group sessions for our members in a calming relaxing environment and when funds are available, she can offer parent and carer sessions. Some children from waves have given their views about the sensory room. The children had said that it’s “relaxing and calming” and somewhere they can relax, while other children said that they like to create music.