TOC provide a wide range of opportunities and activities for young people (aged 18 to 35) with learning disabilities to come together to build their skills and help them work towards future independence alongside potentially securing permanent volunteering/employment placements. We work with a range of community partners to help our young people access supported learning/development, health/fitness activities and work experience opportunities. The team work to ensure that each young person attends a work/volunteering placement that is aligned to their aspirations/dreams - they are directly supported at each placement by members of the TOC team. The TOC team aim to provide the right balance of guidance and support at each placement to allow the young person to safely complete work-related activities giving them the chance to build their confidence and skills. The basis of each day is complimented by fitness/wellbeing activities to help our young people recognise the importance of maintaining good health. Our website provides details on the full range of experiences we provide: www.tocommunity.org.uk
Transport is crucial to getting the young people safely to the range of work placements and allow them to access fitness/health activities each day. If we have no bus it would be practically impossible to transport the young people and we would have to reduce the opportunities we provide. The bus is therefore a crucial gateway in allowing the young people to access the opportunities in the community.
Our current bus has no wheel chair access and is now becoming quite costly to keep it on the road as it is very close to the end of its life span - it is constantly in the garage. We are therefore in desperate need of a new fit for purpose mini bus with sufficient capacity to take 12+ young adults with their support staff to their placements and health activities throughout the district each day. We also want to ensure wheel chair users can use the mini bus and have the same range of opportunities. We have been fortunate to secure some funding but require a further £20k to allow us to purchase a new mini bus.
A huge thank you to Sport England who have pledged due to the sport and physical activity opportunities the minibus will unlock. Any funds we receive beyond the target will allow us to purchase optional safety equipment and make the bus as comfortable as possible for the young people. Thank you for considering this request for help!!