Spectrum – Case Study
A multi-award winning, parent-led and family focused children’s charity providing events, sessions, and support for families of children with autism, additional needs, learning difficulties, and disabilities. Spectrum currently supports over 560 families across Suffolk and continues to receive around 150 referrals a month from GP’s, NHS, schools, local authorities, existing members, and social media. Before the coronavirus pandemic, many of the families supported by Spectrum were already in a fragile position. This has been exacerbated by the added stress of job security and the financial implications of furlough, redundancy or reduced hours. During the lockdown, Spectrum has seen a large increase in demand from both existing and new clients.
Spectrum were awarded a grant from the Suffolk Coronavirus Community Fund towards the salary costs of a new Family Support Worker to meet the increased demand. The Family Support Worker will be involved with family and behaviour support work and supporting Education Health Care Plans, claims for Disability Living Allowance, PIP and related benefits (Universal Credit, Family Fund) at a local level.
Spectrum is truly delighted to work closely with Suffolk Community Foundation in supporting families of children with Autism, additional needs and disabilities. It has been a true pleasure to work with them at each step of deploying different components of our Digital Reach project. This enables the families we work with to get continued and increased levels of support, physically with us, as events and sessions return, but also at a digital level, online from the comfort of their own home. Through this we can provide areas of family work and child psychology support for parents but also creative engagement for children in a more expansive way, alongside a range of new volunteering positions. We are hugely looking forward to our time ahead with the foundation and working with them on many new areas of development also. They really are a perfect match for Spectrum with their passion to make a difference and support the community.
