Social club for the disabled must shut (From Echo)

Social club for the disabled must shut

6:10pm Monday 28th November 2011 in Billericay By Emma Palmer

A CHARITY has been forced to axe a popular social club for young disabled adults due to a huge drop in donations.

Over the past 12 months the Hamelin Trust in Billericay, has been hit by a dramatic 50 per cent drop in cash coming in.

This has now led to the charity having to scrap its weekly social club for teens and young adults who have physical and mental disabilities.

Families of the group’s members are disappointed at the closure, saying for some of the youngsters it was their only social outlet.

The club has around 13 members who get together every Thursday to go to the cinema, bowling, a restaurant or the theatre.

One father of a group member, who did not want to be named complained families had been given the news of the closure “out of the blue” and called for the charity to re-think its decision.

However, Rachael Rafferty, director of operations at the charity, in Stock Road, said: “The decision to close this group was not under any circumstances taken lightly.

“But there were many factors to this decision.

“The group has been operating as a loss for years and we’ve been subsiding it with about £5,000 a year.”

The social group started off 12 years ago with ten members who met within the safety of the charity’s Hamelin House building.

Now it has expanded and get-togethers are always held in public – bringing health and safety concerns into the frame.

Rachael added: “A lot of the service users are vulnerable and they have a range of disabilities.

“We did a review of the group and established we really did need at least two paid-for trained staff to be at each session.

“We just cannot afford to train and employ another staff member and we can’t allow the group to be run by untrained volunteers.

“We have a duty to think about the safety of the public or our employees and our members.”

The charity has now written to the families of those involved to explain the decision and also the financial burden the charity is having to cope with.

Rachael added: “We are 50 per cent down over the past year – that’s a lot of money.

“This is not indicative of a reduction in our effort to fundraise, which have continued the same as previous years.

“This is sadly due to the economic climate which has hit all charities.”

Since opening in 1983, Hamelin Trust has provided help and support for thousands of families across south Essex.

It offers residential respite care for children between three and 16 years of age and supports adults with learning disabilities with a range of services.

Log on to www.hamelintrust.org.uk if you can support the charity.