Raising

 Disability

  Awareness

Since beginning with some very noble aspirations in 2004, with the help and inspiration of Helen Sage and her disabled son David, the Enable Me Project has continued to go from strength to strength and the last twelve months have been no exception in that regard.

I’m delighted to report that what has been achieved by ‘Enable Me’ during that time has been absolutely incredible - both in terms of the excellent project work that we have been doing with a wide range of partners, but also in terms of our own learning journey as an organisation.

Much of the detail of what has been delivered is set out on other pages in this Report, so I won’t duplicate that here, but to give an overview of the scope and extent what we’ve been doing as an organisation, here’s a useful list:

• Aiming High Disability Sports Project (county-wide)
• Aiming High Workforce Development Training (county-wide)
• Learning 2 Work project (Sussex-wide)
• Schools, Colleges & Youth Groups workshops & activities (county-wide)
• Enable Me Volunteer training (county-wide)
• Partnership events & conferences (county-wide)

As Project Manager of Enable Me, I am very proud of the achievements of our volunteers and staff and am always humbled by their ability to rise to the occasion and produce and deliver work to a consistently high standard that not only meets the requirements of our aims & objectives, but also the various requirements of our funders.  It is because of this commitment to raising disability awareness in the community, that Enable Me has been able to grow each year and keep ‘punching above its weight’ as an organisation.

We are and always have been a ‘learning organisation’ and the journey that we have been on these last 12 months has finally brought our own knowledge and experience full circle. Through the work we have undertaken with disabled children & young people and their families (as part of Aiming High), our understanding of the world in which disabled people live in here in Twenty-First Century Britain - seeing first-hand the challenges and day-to-day ups and downs they face - has been broadened and enhanced enormously. And because of that, I am confident that we will continue to make a significant contribution to the work of the voluntary sector in West Sussex that is still struggling to come to terms with huge changes in the political landscape, such as the ‘Big Society’, reforms in education, health & social care and in the economy.

As we go forward, I would like to thank the many organisations and individuals who have worked with us to raise disability awareness and given us the benefit of their support, their time, their expertise and in some cases, funding. So with apologies to anyone we have left out:

Swasie Turner MBE, Helen & David Sage, Hugh Parrot, West Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Services, West Sussex Parents Forum, West Sussex County Council, Sussex PHAB, You Can Do It!, Freedom Through Fun, The Aldingbourne trust, Powerful Trainers, Parent & Family Care Foundation, PACSO, The Springboard Project, Albion in the Community, West Sussex Grid for Learning, JANET, Littlehampton Town Council, Arun District Council, The Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust, Beverly Smith Associates, DreamVision Media, Great Ballard School, The Body Shop, WSCC Aiming High, Impact Workability, and the many schools and colleges we have worked with this year all of whom have been a joy to work with. Last but not least, our Trustees, Staff and Volunteers..

thank you!

Here’s to the next 12 months and what we can all achieve working together.

Nik Demetriades

Project Manager