CitiSEN 4u supports families across Birmingham and Solihull who have children with disabilities and additional needs. We have been running for roughly three years. We originally only covered north Birmingham but we have grew and grew to meet the need across the city and Solihull. We have over 400 families on our books at the moment. We are currently self funded and voluntary run. There are three of us that run it on a day to day basis. Myself Valine and Kayleigh. We are all neuro divergent being autistic and have adhd ourselves. We all have children ourselves who have various disabilities and additional needs.
We do this by using a whole family approach. We don’t just provide activities and events for the children who have the disability and additional need we involve the rest of the family as well. In the past we have organised day trips to West Midlands Safari Park, Barry Island Beach, Black Country Living Museum, Ash End Farm and many more. We also provide activities and parties for Easter, summer, Halloween, and Christmas.
We also organise parent carer wellbeing events as well as coffee mornings and meals out so they get time away to ask advice, help with form filling or just to have a good chat.
This year we have had a New Year’s day party, and had a parent carer information fun day. We have planned so far an Easter party, a visit to the farm, Minecraft gaming party, spa day for mothers day, a visit to Blackpool and we have an animal man coming to see the children. We are still planning for more activities this year. We have a few fundraising ideas.
We have a very wide range of service users across the city. Mainly children between 2 and 15 but we do not turn anyone away. Most of the children have a neuro divergent disability but we have children who are wheelchair bound, some who are deaf and blind and some non speaking or very limited children.
We are always expanding our knowledge with courses and training in order to support the families better.
Thank you for reading
Gemma Fenton, Valine Wood & Kayleigh Poole