Dreams 4 Children

Dreams for Children is a special project for children with special needs and life limiting illnesses that gives children who need help and support to go out socially, have fun, learn and take part in challenging events. The activities are designed to widen a child’s horizon both in terms of self discovery and greater social experience outside of their normal lifestyle; to learn new skills from latent talents and gain increased life skills; to empower children to believe in themselves and set higher goals as to what they can achieve in life; and provide lasting memories that can influence their daily lives.

The children who benefit from the Dreams 4 Children project are those who have the highest physical and mental support needs and/or come from families under the greatest emotional and financial stress. Our aim is to identify those children most at risk of social exclusion and those families who need a high level of social support.

We work with children who have multiple and profound disabilities, and/or severe and challenging behaviour. Many of the children who take part require one to one supervision,  medical help and physical support from specialist trained staff. Because of the nature of their disabilities there are few projects that work with these children and so they rarely get the opportunity to take part in social activities, or mix and play with others in a safe and supervised environment.

We believe that all children should have the same chances in life. Sometimes, though, for children with physical or learning disabilities, challenging behaviours, or who come from backgrounds where their parents or carers struggle to make ends meet or may themselves be disabled or unwell, holidays and days out are just not a possibility.

Children told us what matters to them. Most children want similar things: to grow up in a safe and secure environment; to be respected and listened to; to be able to play and have fun with friends; to learn at their own pace and to develop their independence. Children told us how painful it is to be left out of ordinary activities that others take for granted because their needs cannot be met. With your generosity and support, Dreams 4 Children can help children have some of their dreams become reality.

As well as the difference these activities make to children, they also provide vital respite for parents/carers, many of whom rarely get time to themselves where they can relax away from their caring role.