KIDS Family Activities – The Salvation Army Church & Comm Hub

For more than 50 years, KIDS has provided a wide range of services nationally for disabled children, young people and their families. Our services cover three main areas: information, advice & family support; play and social; and learning and development.

KIDS acts with disabled children, young people and their families to change the system and secure the resources to which they are entitled. We also create opportunities for them to take part in play, learning, leisure, skills training and social activities.

Above all, we empower disabled children and young people to achieve equal rights and opportunities, creating a more inclusive society for all.

Kids provide a safe and secure environment for young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities to come and express themselves and have fun. Kids ensure all the activities on offer are suitable to those with SEND and try to ensure that all needs can be met across our activities. With Kids staff on hand to support families as required, families are able to attend our service and can relax, knowing that there will be no judgement for any behaviours, only support. This provides families the opportunity to attend community activities together and have fun as a whole family. We have planned our programme of activities so that there is something for everyone. We have ensured that the majority of our activities have a level of physical activity, suitable to the young people in attendance. For some activities, physical activity is the main focus, in others young people have the opportunity to engage in some kind of physical activity through play and exploration. We ensure all our activities are tailored to the sensory needs of the young people. We will ensure lighting and noise levels are appropriate, we will private hire venues so we can monitor how busy it is and we ensure we have sensory enriching activities to meet the needs of the young people. This means that families can attend our services, safe in the knowledge that the environment will be a calming one and everything will have been done to ensure it accommodates the needs of the moderate to severe young people who may struggle to access community venues at any other time. This breeds confidence and relaxes families to be able to enjoy the activities without all the usual worries attending a community venue can bring.

We offer sessions for children with SEND needs, their siblings and parents / carers.
KIDS have skilled, compassionate staff and they are always on hand to support families’ attendance and access to sessions. Sometimes, having an extra pair of hands and a willing, non-judgemental offer of help and support goes a long way. Our sessions are relaxed, and we will always welcome a friendly chat with parents prior to sessions so that we can ensure our planning and preparation makes all attendees feel comfortable.

Kids specialise in SEND and all of our activities are tailored to meet the needs of families with a child with any kind of additional need and their siblings. We put a lot of thought into our activities to ensure we meet the vast needs that our young people present, whilst trying to encourage them to do new things and gently push their boundaries to open up new opportunities for them. Kids staff are knowledgeable and are available to offer a helping hand and a supportive ear.

Kids offers bespoke SEND provision where all activities have been designed to meet the needs of young people with any kind of special educational needs and/or disabilities. All our events are family events, where parents and carers remain on site with the young people and are responsible for their young person throughout. However, Kids staff will be on hand to support parents if they are having difficulties, they will be there to help engage the young people in any activities, using any number of communication styles both verbal and non-verbal, and using a child centred approach to get the most out of every engagement.