FAIRWAY FIFE 

This group will use funding to continue their Peer Mentor Support Project for young people (aged16-25 years of age) with disabilities. The service helps integrate young people with complex needs into ....more

This group will use funding to continue their Peer Mentor Support Project for young people (aged16-25 years of age) with disabilities. The service helps integrate young people with complex needs into the community with the support of suited peer mentor volunteers.

To support a new programme of sport and exercise activity for young people with learning disabilities in Fife.

Weston Youth Grant

The group will use funding to deliver a project in partnership with Lochore Meadows Outdoor Education Department. This will involve a programme of supported activities for their young people with ....more

The group will use funding to deliver a project in partnership with Lochore Meadows Outdoor Education Department. This will involve a programme of supported activities for their young people with disabilities one day each week for 12 months with approximately 20 young people taking part.

Weston Youth Grant

This group will continue to deliver a peer mentor project which matches people with disabilities, aged between 16 and 25, with non-disabled mentors. The mentor will befriend and support the young ....more

This group will continue to deliver a peer mentor project which matches people with disabilities, aged between 16 and 25, with non-disabled mentors. The mentor will befriend and support the young person to take part in various social activities. Over three years 54 young people with complex needs from Dunfermline and the surrounding area will take part in the project.

We want to run a series of healthy living and fitness activities to improve the health and welfare of young people with disabilities.

Towards the cost of a part -time Facilitator post and to close the appeal.

This group will deliver a series of music, drama and craftwork workshops for young people with disabilities. All the young people taking part will be able to work towards a Youth Achievement Award.

YOYP Access to Community Sports

We are asking SCVO to fund the expansion of our operation so that we may push beyond our current level of service, achieving even greater things for our beneficiaries. Through this development we ....more

We are asking SCVO to fund the expansion of our operation so that we may push beyond our current level of service, achieving even greater things for our beneficiaries. Through this development we hope to extend our capabilities and create a more comprehensive and improved service. As part of this we are particularly interested in furthering our engagement with the carers, allowing us to consider their needs to the same degree that we consider the needs of young people with disabilities. More recently we gained access to our own premises which has provided the opportunity to expand our capabilities, including the range and type of services we offer our beneficiaries. Our premises can operate as both office space and as a social-hub for young adults with disabilities. As part of the social-hub there are kitchen facilities, lounge space and a games room. Our building can provide a safe space in the community where young adults with disabilities can meet, learn and socialise. The need for our service to expand is unfortunately stronger than ever, with recent public sector cuts in social care and voluntary organisations overstretched with people desperate for provision, there are few opportunities available for vulnerable families in need. In an area where the local authority and community alike have limited spending power we stand out as one of the few service providers that come at little or no cost to those benefiting from it. In the following months we aim to refine, develop and expand our current service so that we are in a better position to improve the way we help young people with disabilities. We will do this by using SCVO funding to grow our service and implement improvements which will make our service more accessible to a higher volume of people, help us to identify and work with those most in need, establish a stronger relationship with carers, become more in tune with the needs of our beneficiaries and redesign our activity portfolio to help us address a wider range of issues. The funding will enable us to increase our service hours offered per week, take on new service users with disabilities and train new peer mentor volunteers. 13/10 - confirmed they will train 10 peer mentors and support 10 more people. We create opportunities for people with disabilities to form a social pairing or grouping with people their own age. Together they participate in social outings which directly reduce their isolation by getting them out the house on a regular basis to mix with people and participate in fun activities. The concept of peer support has shown itself to be an effective service model, capable of reaching higher social outcomes than generic support services. Using this system we have managed to deliver a more valuable social experience that cannot be replicated by parents and carers. Our programme helps build stronger relationships, as young people with disabilities mix with peers who share life experiences and common interests. Our work helps people with complex needs and difficulties integrate into the community where they build confidence, life skills, become independent and know they have a place. Through the same initiative we recently started to address the physical health issues of young people with learning disabilities by introducing a healthy living approach to our service. We have now integrated new activities such as dance, aerobics and healthy eating workshops in to our regular portfolio. There is a strong message that people with disabilities view opportunities to exercise in the context of wider social factors such as the opportunity to develop friendships, as seen in the development of the 'You Can Do It!' DVD produced by The Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability. These findings offered us an opportunity to use the social structure that we created to influence our beneficiary's attitudes towards health and exercise. This has been a very successful new development as it has allowed us to tackle an additional, unrelated, issue without altering the premise of our original service. The people who will benefit from this grant are young people with disabilities who are socially isolated and their parents who are struggling to endure the unrelenting day to day challenges they face managing the needs of a disabled child. The young people with disabilities are restricted from functioning more fully in society as a result of the many conditions attributed to their disability such as underdeveloped life skills, low self-esteem, low level social abilities and anxieties. These inhibitors, along with a lack of accessible supported services available in our community leave them without anything or anyone to fulfil their social needs. Their inability to develop a social structure and fulfilling lifestyle outside the family home leads to an existence of isolation and dependence. As well as the detrimental effect on their emotional health, their inactive lifestyles can also lead to physical health concerns, most predominantly obesity. Many people with disabilities have fewer opportunities to make choices and decisions that impact on their health and wellbeing. This statement has become more apparent to us in recent years, as the number of people with disabilities that we work with increases, the problems have become more visible. We witness first-hand the disproportionate health circumstances present amongst our beneficiaries. Refocusing the nature of our activities to become more in tune with the health needs of young people with disabilities has allowed us to provide a more comprehensive service which tackles both mental and physical health issues. Our own experiences are also backed up by supporting government research. A recent NHS report revealed that people with disabilities have some of the poorest health of any group in Scotland. It has also been reported that many people with disabilities face challenges with weight and are likely to be either underweight or overweight. The increased rates of obesity in children with a disability, compared to children who do not have a disability, are already present by the age of three years old and adults with disabilities aged 16-24 experience higher rates of obesity than adults over 50 who do not have a disability. This causes them, and their families, severe distress and hardship as they struggle to cope under these unfortunate circumstances. Our work has, and will continue to fill that void by facilitating social development and health & wellbeing initiatives that give purpose and structure to our beneficiary's lives. The families caring for the young disabled people we work with are often consumed with the responsibilities related to that role. It can severely restrict their own ability to leave the home, pursue their own social relationships and adhere to a normal work pattern. The respite that a single evening of relief each week offers can make a world of difference. In addition to the lack of free opportunities to engage in their own pursuits they can regularly become overwhelmed with the stress involved in the uncertainties surrounding their child's life circumstances. The future prospects for their children will be relatively unknown, parents will worry about finding the right provision and about ensuring they are well connected with adequate support structures in place. Fairway Fife acts as a valuable support structure amongst the many that these parents will encounter over the course of their lifetime and our role is help make their lives easier and to help make them feel that they are not alone.

towards the costs of the Facilitator for the older persons mentor project