Interesting Day

[Tally]

Today I went with my parents to the respite centre where my brother used to work with disabled children. We got a really good look around the facilities and met some of the children, including one of David's special fans. The mother of David's favourite child was there also - her child no longer attends as she has a placement at a residential school, but David had stayed in touch and visited the child.

 

Anyway, we went because we wanted to make a gift to them in memory of David. We've got several ideas, but my favourite idea was to get the kitchen refurbished. The centre has recently started taking older children up to aged 18 years, and teaching independent living skills has become a new issue for them. A new layout could mean younger children could get their own drinks and make sandwiches, but be kept away from the cooker. But the cooker could be accessible at other times for older children to learn how to cook.

 

I like this idea because I think that independent living skills like cooking are extremely important. It also seems appropriate because David was always encouraging the children and his colleagues to learn new things and develop new skills.

 

I think my parents are already tending toward this idea, so it shouldn't be too hard to persuede them to go for it.

[Lynden]

That's a lovely thing to do Tally and really very beneficial to everyone who uses the centre

 

Lynne x

[Sammysnake]

I think it's an excellent idea too. From what you've said about your brother it sounds very suitable, a very practical way of helping lots of the young people he cared about. Bless you. xx

[baddad]

sounds terrific

 

The whole lifeskills thing is a biggy, and I think it's great if those things can be developed in a respite/residential/social setting rather than as a 'lifeskills' course at 16+ college or whatever. A small suggestion if the cookery lessons go ahead: maybe you could provide each participant with a recipe folder, and as they learn to cook each others favourite meals they could print and laminate the individual recipes? That way, when they 'finished' the course they would have a keepsake and a useful cookbook of simple recipes to expand upon. So many potential spinoffs from this too - budgeting skills for menus, washing up/basic food hygeine/maths (measuring ingredients etc)... If there's room maybe you can get a washing machine in the kitchen too so they can do some laundry?

 

very best with it all.

 

L&P

 

BD