Gardening for people with disabilityDisability

FarmAbility

April 8, 2021By

Transporting people with disabilities to beneficial farm-based tasks and outdoor activities

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £7,000 to FarmAbility will provide minibus, taxi or car transport for a year to ensure co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) can get to FarmAbility’s outreach partner farms, landed estates or gardens in a COVID-safe way.

Here co-farmers, many of whom are who are almost entirely excluded from workplaces and from employment, will engage in an outdoor, purposeful day sessions focusing on their needs and ability levels.

 “We know from our eight years’ experience that a regular weekly outdoor, active session involving practical, farm-based tasks has a lasting, positive impact on the mental and physical health of people with disabilities. So, a HUGE thank you to the Axis Foundation for the donation: it means a great amount to us – particularly during these challenging times. Working day-to-day with co-farmers and the team I know that being able to support the transport needs of co-farmers and staff will have a positive effect on our programme” – Jason Warner, Programme Manager, FarmAbility

More about FarmAbility

FarmAbility enables co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) to develop skills and competencies for purposeful living through participation in programmes on farms, estates and growing spaces. FarmAbility is based in Oxfordshire and runs programmes primarily from the Blenheim Estate in Woodstock and on a number of ‘outreach’ partner farms and growing spaces around the county. These include: FAI Farms (Wytham), Fair Close Community Farm (Wolvercote), FarmEd (Shipton-u-Wychwood) and Harcourt Arboretum.

FarmAbility’s programme is run by experienced, committed Programme Leaders who work with small groups of co-farmers with an approach that focuses more on ‘enabling’ than ‘supporting’ and which is informed by occupational therapy. They offer co-farmers a changing seasonal schedule of farm and gardening activities, guided by personal choice and individual needs, which includes activities such as vegetable gardening and orchard management, an organic egg enterprise, woodworking, basic animal husbandry, woodland work (coppicing, tree planting) and seasonal farm tasks.

More here 

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Fatory of Freedom Power ChairsDisability

Freedom Power Chairs

April 8, 2021By

We fund bespoke power wheelchair for cerebral palsy sufferer

‘H’ is a 65-year-old man who is severely disabled through cerebral palsy. The Axis Foundation’s donation of £1,750 to Freedom Power Chairs will help the charity design and adapt a power chair to H’s near foetal position posture, with a joystick adapted for use by his foot. The chair will feature the supportive and contoured seating ‘H’ requires along with adapted footrests and controls.

With his new chair H can enjoy activities independently. The new power chair will also greatly help his carers who have to lift him from his bed to his chair.

“The Trustees of Freedom Powerchairs are most grateful to have received financial support from the Axis Foundation to enable us to provide a much-needed special powerchair for a client “H” with Cerebral Palsy. It now gives him the freedom to travel; to shop, meet friends, take his companion dog for a walk, and to get on buses to visit other charities where he is himself a volunteer” – Martin Osment, Founder and Trustee, Freedom Power Chairs

More about Freedom Power Chairs

Martin Osment, Freedom Power Chairs Founder and Trustee, is an experienced engineer. As a disabled person, his own lived experience showed that ‘off the peg’ wheelchair solutions were often not adequate, particularly for people with complex mobility issues. So, he used his skills and experience to design a powerchair which met his individual needs. From here he founded Freedom Power Chairs.

At the Sussex-based charity’s workshop, Freedom Power Chairs design produce and supply individually-tailored power wheelchairs at affordable prices. In addition, they adapt manual chairs, scooters and other mobility aids, provide a repair and maintenance service and modify existing chairs to meet the needs of individual clients. Their Community Support Mobile Workshop helps the wider community. They also provide a rental service. By using their recovered, refurbished and adapted stock Freedom Power Chairs provide custom built powerchairs at a fraction of the price of a new one. More here

 

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Adapted accessible toilet facilities for Danemead Scouts Camp SiteDisability

Danemead Scout Camp Site

April 1, 2021By

Increasing accessibility to natural beauty spot and educational facilities

Danemead Scout Camp Site encourages young people and the community to enjoy outdoor recreation, providing training in practical life skills as part of their educational programme here. The site welcomes schools, colleges, youth groups, local community organisations. Indeed, over 3000 people stayed on the site in 2019.

And, so that even more people can stay and enjoy this 34-acre ancient, coppiced woodland of unspoilt beauty in Hertfordshire, the Axis Foundation donated £3,000 to Danemead Scout Camp Site to help convert an existing external toilet into a purpose-design disabled toilet and washroom.

“We will always be grateful to Axis Foundation for supporting and helping the funding of the installation of the disabled toilet facility.

“The refurbishment of the toilet room to a disabled facility sits firmly in the social model of disability as it allows the inclusion into the site and facilities of wheelchair users and other disabled persons, by the provision of accessible toilet and washing facilities. We are excited about increasing the use of the camp site for further and additional community organisations”  – Mike Hayward, Camp Site Secretary

More about the refurbishment

The toilet required expanding to provide low level toilet and wash basin. Works also included removing the existing waste and water connection piping and diverting the system and subsequent re-connection and the installation of new fixings, safety rails, alarm system, tiling and new anti-slip floor. In addition, an external ramp was constructed and the existing steel door aperture was widened for wheelchair access.

More about Danemead Scout Camp Site

Danemead Scout Camp Site welcomes schools, colleges, youth groups, local community organisations and is run solely by volunteers. In addition, the Camp Site undertakes environmental conservation work involving the preservation of trees, landscapes, wildlife and their habitats.

There’s more about Danemead Scout Camp Site here

 

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Little boy in goggles using assistive technology to communicateDisability

 Lifelites

March 9, 2021By

Donation to Lifelites provides assistive technology for children with life-limiting illnesses

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £5,000 to Lifelites will buy assistive and inclusive for technologies to help children with life-limiting illnesses who attend Demelza Hospice Care for Children, the Axis Foundation’s charity partner.

“Lifelites is incredibly grateful for the support of the Axis Foundation. The Covid-19 pandemic has really highlighted life-limited and disabled children using hospice services as some of the most vulnerable and isolated in our society.

“With this donation from the Axis Foundation, Lifelites will be able to provide life-changing technology so children at Demelza  are able to communicate, play, engage with the world around them and control something for themselves” – CEO Simone Enefer-Doy

Case Study – JJ’s Story

Eyegaze is just one example of Lifelites’ assistive and inclusive technologies. Here’s a first-hand report of how it helped one little boy.

“Before JJ was diagnosed with ALD, he was an able young boy, attending a mainstream school. Once diagnosed he slowly lost the ability to walk and talk. The Eyegaze works really well for JJ as a form of play and interaction. He enjoys using all the apps within the Eyegaze, allowing him to create art, and make different patterns on the screen, just by moving his eyes. It is a great way to socially interact with him.

“JJ enjoys making drum beats on the Eyegaze. This is fantastic as he is able to do it on his own, encouraging his independence, when normally he needs assistance with everything. JJ used to love playing the drums before he became unwell.” – Charlotte, JJ’s care assistant

Our donation to Lifelites will help them procure, install and maintain assistive technology like Eyegaze at Demelza, helping life-limited children as well as their siblings, parents and other family members.

More about Lifelites

Lifelites consults, pilots, procures, installs and supports and maintains bespoke packages of assistive technologies for every children’s hospice service in the British Isles.

They train care staff in its use and application on an on-going basis to ensure the equipment is in constant use for the children for whom every second counts. Lifelites has 60 projects across the British Isles.

Using the power of assistive and inclusive technology Lifelites aims to give every life-limited and disabled child using hospice services the opportunity to play, to communicate effectively, to take part in creative activities and to choose and control things for themselves.

Assistive technology enables life-limited children to communicate and interact with their well siblings as other children, to engage meaningfully with parents and carers and to remain engaged with their world for as long as possible.

There’s more about Lifelites here

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canoes and kayaks on river helping disabled young people enjoy paddlesportsDisability

Basingstoke and Deane Canoe Club

December 17, 2020By

Hoist to help disabled young people get in and out of canoes

Basingstoke and Deane Canoe Club, based on the Basingstoke Canal, provides safe paddlesport activities for disabled young people. Paddlesport activities include recreational kayaking and canoeing.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £2,000 helps buy them a mobile mechanical hoist. This will help paddlers with physical disabilities (in particular wheelchair users) to get on to the water. They can then take part in kayaking and canoeing activities on the canal.

“We are passionate about being able to provide kayaking and canoeing activities to people who would not otherwise be able to participate in paddlesports. The hoist will assist getting paddlers with impaired mobility in and out of kayaks and canoes” – Janella Mansell, Paddlesport Officer

The hoist will help young disabled people from Trealors College, a local school and college for disabled young people. Students currently have to use a swimming pool because of the height of the banks at the club house, Odiham Wharf, Colt Hill in Odiham, Hampshire.

The benefits of paddlesports include independence and better physical and mental wellbeing.

More about Basingstoke and Deane Canoe Club

Basingstoke and Deane Canoe Club is a charity run by volunteers.  The Club is affiliated to British Canoeing. Their specialist coaches are trained and experienced in kayaking with disabled people. They run courses throughout the year, regular taster sessions over the summer and have regular club nights. And, they reach out to their local community offering bespoke taster sessions to youth groups and other voluntary organisations.

More here 

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helping children with autism, child with headphones in front of screenDisability

Time4Autism

December 9, 2020By

Helping children with autism improve motor and cognitive abilities

Time4Autism is run by parents and volunteers to provide activities for children with autism. These activities, which include yoga, drumming and trampoline, help children develop their motor and cognitive abilities.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £600 buys a Soundsory headset. This is a multi-sensory programme of music (processed with neuro-acoustic modifications) and movement-based exercises, designed to help children with autism improve their motor and cognitive abilities.

Time4Autism will lend the Soundsory system to families within their local community in Milton Keynes so they can help their children at home. This is especially vital when face to face sessions are impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Thank you for the generous gift to Time4Autism! We are so happy to have your support. Through your donation, we can continue working towards supporting children with Autism. Your donation is going toward providing headsets for children with sound sensitivities and sensory problems. You have helped us to lend the system to families, so they can help their children at home. This is especially vital when face-to-face sessions are impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions. Thank you again!” – Jabeen Salam, Treasurer

More about Time4Autism

The charity helps parents and carers to understand their child’s sensory needs and behaviours and supports them in dealing with challenging behaviours.

The Soundsory programme which we have donated also helps children and adults with motor delays, balance and coordination issues, sensory and auditory processing disorders, ADD and ADHD as well as whose on the autism spectrum and with developmental issues.

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Group of children learning to develop key communication and motor skills at SkylarksDisability

Skylarks

September 14, 2020By

Helping disadvantaged children with disability gain vital skills

Skylarks provides a supportive and active community for children with disabilities and additional needs. The charity offers inclusive play sessions, therapies and workshops and structured activities. These include Sensory Art, Singing with Percussion, Makaton Sing and Signing. All these activities help the development of key communication, motor and sensory skills.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £1,500 buys sensory equipment and toys to support these structured activities.

“We are delighted to receive a donation from the Axis Foundation. It has enabled us to purchase new equipment for our interactive Sensory Room. The donation has funded new weighted soft furnishings and a range of audio visual equipment including fibre optic lights, colour changing light panels and more. The room creates a relaxing area for the children to use whilst allowing them to enjoy new experiences and develop communication, motor and sensory skills.

“With the support of organisations like the Axis Foundation, Skylarks can continue supporting disadvantaged children and their families for years to come.

“We really appreciate the funding Axis has provided to purchase this equipment. Skylarks closed for the last 6 months due to Covid-19. However we plan to partially re-open soon so more families can use the equipment you have enabled us to purchase” – Aaron Guiver, Development Manager at Skylarks

More about Skylarks

Whilst supporting disadvantaged children with disabilities, Skylarks, based in Twickenham in south west London, also cares for the whole family. The play sessions at Skylarks offer a safe and relaxing haven for the families in a non-judgemental environment. And while children are accessing therapies and supervised play, parents can access a wide range of peer support, relaxation therapies and informative workshops by specialists such as speech and language therapists and the National Autistic Society.

Over the last three years Skylarks has increased its membership from 550 to over 2,000 children.

Read more here 

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Axis CEO John Hayes handing over mini bus to Maypole charityDisability

The Maypole Project

September 5, 2020By

Support for parents of children with life-threatening illnesses

The long and happy relationship between The Maypole Project and the Axis Foundation dates back to 2016. Then the Foundation donated a minibus to this Bromley-based charity supporting the families of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Christened Mayble, the minibus transports over 500 children a year to different events and activities. Mayble also carries parents who lack transport to support groups, events and activities.

“Everyone at The Maypole Project was absolutely amazed and delighted to hear that we were successful in our bid to gain a minibus. It will make a huge impact on the services we can provide to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families – where transport is frequently a major block to access. We will also be able to develop activities and outings that we have, until this point, put on hold! A winning asset all round – thank you Axis!” – Sally Flatteau Taylor, Founder and CEO of Maypole

“I think it’s brilliant. So many of us struggle just with the day-to-day and to get to a place is difficult. It will be great to get on the minibus and support the child there rather than have the child in the back of a small car, trying to take their seat belt off” – Maypole parent Ros Luff

“We would like to say a massive THANK YOU to the team at Axis for donating our wonderful minibus, Mayble. The Maypole Project organises lots of wonderful outings in their minibus which enable my child with special needs to be alongside their siblings … we think it’s absolutely amazing. Thank you to the team at Axis for donating Mayble, we would be lost without The Maypole Project’s support” Maypole parent

2017: Funding toys and equipment

The Axis Foundation made a further donation (£9,000, 2017) which helped purchase sensory toys and a wheelchair lift.

Sally Flatteau Taylor said: “Those who are chronically ill get great joy out of playing with sensory toys. The wheelchair lift gives direct and easy access to the family support room and the toilet which has been incredibly helpful for the children and their families. It has helped us support so many more children. It gives the children better access inside and outside of the building. The support from the Axis Foundation is amazing  is phenomenal for our charity. We really do appreciate it. It’s been really good to have the Axis Foundation’s support and belief in the work that we do.”

2018: Building a Sensory Barn for Maypole

In 2018 Axis Apprentices created a Sensory Barn in Maypole’s garden. This enabled all Maypole children to play safely in a stimulating and interactive room. It had long been on the wish list at Maypole and Axis was happy to help out. The full story of the Sensory Barn with pictures and video is here!

2019/ 2020: More support for Maypole

In 2019, the Axis Foundation made a further donation of £1,500 to help Maypole with their drumming workshops, which due to COVID-19 became online activities in 2020. A further donation of £5,000 in 2020 purchased more soft toys for the sensory cabin (built by Axis) and supported taking families on outings.

Maypole families said:

“Thanks so much again for accommodating us, it was such a lovely space for the kids. We had great fun and a great break.”

“We came to the horse-grooming/walking activity in Tonbridge and my child thoroughly enjoyed it. The peaceful setting, the one-to-one careful attention he received all helped to make it so memorable and enjoyable for him.”

“Thank you so much for the outing – we had great fun this morning.”

2021: Bespoke play boxes

The Axis Foundation funded 40 play boxes tailored to an individual disabled child’s needs with a donation of £1500 (2021). The Maypole Project recruited a play therapist to work face to face with the children (some of this online) during the Pandemic.

2022: Sensory play equipment

The Axis Foundation donated £6,866 towards sensory equipment, children’s t-shirts, and team sweatshirts. The sensory equipment includes floor mats, wall toys, fibre optic sparkle rugs, liquid floor tiles and light up toys.

“We are so truly appreciative of this generous award from the Axis Foundation to The Maypole Project – and of course all of the support – both financial and practical through the apprentices work in our buildings – you and your team have given us over the years that it’s hard to find the words” – Sally Flatteau Taylor, Founder and CEO of Maypole

Total donations to Maypole

Our donations to Maypole Project, supporting families of children with life-threatening illnesses, came to £66,000 in 2022.

Here is what Sally Flatteau Taylor said to us in 2021:

We can’t thank you enough for the wonderful donations you have provided us across the years. They are all in constant use:
Minibus – used in lockdown to make visits to families and in full use every day during the summer holidays when we had had our fullest programme of outings and excitement yet  including visits to the beach, riding, sailing, bowling, climbing and even to a shopping centre
Stairlift for back office – well in use: as the pandemic lifted we found families were desperately in need of new spaces, new activities, new toys and sensations for the children so we turned the back office into a soft and sensory play space initially used by one family alone (cleaned between sessions by one of our team) and now more families can meet there.
Garden – in full use, as it was when your team wonderfully transformed it!
Sensory Cabin – we have added much sensory equipment in there to make it a play therapy centre for children, and a quiet and calming space for adults
Play Therapy and Play Boxes: The children LOVE THEM and they are a definite and permanent feature of our work.

There’s more about Maypole here

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black pony standing in treesDisability

Barrow Farm

September 3, 2020By

Our pony provides riding for adults and children with disabilities

Barrow Farm offers subsidised riding, including to those with limited means, bringing fitness, fulfilment, friendship and fun to adults and children with disabilities.

The Axis Foundation’s donation of £5,500 went towards purchasing a handsome new pony, Murphy, who can offer riding and driving experiences to at least five more people every week. A further donation in 2023 of £1,200 bought Murphy a new saddle!

Dr Karen Lehner, Vice Chairman of the Trustees, said: “We are truly indebted to the Axis Foundation enabling us to help more disabled children and adults. Murphy is a real people-loving horse and likes nothing better than to be petted for as long as you can stand there!”

More about Barrow Farm

Every week 130 riders and 11 carriage drivers with a range of difficulties enjoy the riding at this specialist centre in Essex where 13 horses and ponies, along with four paid coaches and over 80 volunteers offer support in a safe environment.

The father of one driver described his daughter’s riding session as  “the highlight of her week” while his daughter added: “ I am constantly striving to improve. It’s something new that I haven’t done before; I learn something new every time. Having a hobby outside of my work life distracts me from work and helps with stress.”

Barrow Farm loves welcoming new visitors  – find out more here – and when you drop in, do say hello to Murphy!

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Patient using an FES machine in therapyDisability

Berkshire MS Therapy Centre

December 12, 2019By

Donation of Functional Electrical Stimulation machine helps MS sufferers

The Berkshire MS Therapy Centre has supported people with Multiple Sclerosis for over 30 years. Our donation means that the centre can buy a four-channel Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) machine, and the accompanying electrodes. The machine stimulates four muscles simultaneously, alleviating symptoms such as impaired limb movement and muscle weakness.

I feel like I did before I had MS – Candice, patient

Being able to exercise properly is vital for MS sufferers because exercise rebuilds muscle strength. It also benefits fatigue and balance, decreasing the risk of falls.

Candice, who uses the machine said: “It is amazing how this small piece of equipment can make me grin like a love-struck teenager! I just can’t explain enough how it feels to suddenly have so much improvement in my movements. I feel like I did before I had MS. A simple thank you just doesn’t seem enough to convey what a difference this has made.”

The Berkshire Centre has used FES therapy for years but usually this therapy is a treatment for foot drop. The centre now uses a four-channel machine to aid people with wider movement issues, helping even more MS sufferers. FES applies electrical charges to muscles that have been paralysed or weakened because of brain or spinal cord damage. Leading physiotherapist Henriette said the machine “is a great addition because we can offer more support for people with MS”.

She adds: “On behalf of everyone at the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre thank for your help and generosity.”

More about MS

MS is an unpredictable condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people across the UK. It can cause a range of debilitating symptoms; the centre uses treatments to make life with MS easier. To find out more, visit https://www.bmstc.org/.

Watch Candice with an FES machine in action below.

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