Kidz Aware

Kidz Aware Who We Are

Kidz Aware is not-for-profit charity/ social enterprise with 3 core values at our heart: Equality; Inspiring; Embracing. We exist to ensure that all children and adults with a disability have the opportunities to achieve their aspirations in life.

We understand first-hand what it means to be a family caring for a disabled child: Gillian Archbold created Kidz Aware in 2006 after her experience of fundraising for medical treatment for her own disabled child, Sabrina. 

Despite successfully raising the funds required, Sabrina was not able to undergo the treatment and therefore Gillian gifted the money to other disabled children who were suitable for treatments that the NHS could not provide. 

It was through this experience that Gillian recognised the need for a charity that could support the families of disabled children/Adults and that’s what Kidz Aware has been doing ever since. Gillian and Sabrina still run Kidz Aware together.

We believe that everyone can make a valuable contribution to society, but people with disabilities face greater challenges. We want all individuals with any kind of disability to have a voice and be part of a wider solution that supports disability at every level of society.

Our Services

Within our objective of ensuring that all children and adults with a disability have the opportunities to achieve their aspirations in life, we provide services for disabled children/adults, and their families and their support networks that help to achieve this. 

Information, Advice and Guidance           Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness

Debt Advice/ Benefit Entitlements            Attend PIP/ESA Appeals 

Signposting and Referrals                         Family Support - person centred planning/short and long-term support

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Educational Training workshops

Whether you require emotional support or practical help in sorting issues out, we have the experience and knowledge to help you.

Why come to Kidz Aware for support?

We know what you’re going through because we’ve been there ourselves or we’ve supported other families through the same issues. We see people first rather than their disability and we want to help people achieve everything they can in life. 

So far we have reached over 800 families and educated over 42,000 children through our educational workshops. We have also achieved a 90% success rate in benefits assessments and appeals.

Contact us now to see how we can support you and your family.

Training Workshops and Consultancy for Organisations

For a disabled individual being able to achieve their potential does not exist in a bubble; support, encouragement, empathy and opportunity can be provided by a number of people in our communities. Our training programme and consultancy services aim to connect with people in wider society who can help affect change.

We work with public sector organisations, commercial businesses and not-for-profit organisations to design and deliver workshops to inform and educate people on a range of issues around disability including accessibility, inclusivity and mental health

We have delivered training and worked with West Yorkshire Police, schools, Yorkshire Housing, disability organisations  and child care workers.

Workshops can be designed specifically for your organisation. Contact us for further details and costs.

Educational Programmes 

We have educated over 42,000 children through schools or other groups around the topics of disability, inclusivity, equality and diversity. We believe that disabled children have an important role to play in mainstream environments and thrive when accepted as equals by their peers. 

We use a range of methods and tools to cover areas such as bullying, mental health and accepting people for their differences.

Count Me In puppet programme – this uses puppets to help achieve greater understanding of a range of disabilities, both physical and mental.

Accepting Difference - this covers issues and attitudes of disability and differences including bullying behaviour.

Mental Health and wellbeing - this is for young people to understand the impact that mental health can have and how to manage.

We can work with schools and community groups to deliver both established and bespoke workshops. Our facilitators are qualified and fully DBS checked and we follow all procedures for addressing child protection/safeguarding concerns and the boundaries of confidentiality in all settings.

Contact us for more details and costs of our educational workshops.