Discovering You is a project to provide Short Breaks for families who have a child or young adult aged up to 25, who has complex needs or disabilities. This project is funded by a time and finance limited grant provided by Barnwood Trust, lasting a maximum of 8 months and is only available to families living in Gloucestershire. Short breaks may include support to attend activities outside of the home, or activities that come to the child/young person – something they want to do but cannot access without this support. The provision must provide the parent carer with a complete break from their caring role.
Too often short breaks have been too restrictive – in the activities that are offered, in the time of day/day of the week, in their location and duration, and in environments that can be overwhelming for many.
Discovering You aims to give disabled children and young people a voice and a choice. It’s about recognising and celebrating their different interests, their passions, and their own uniqueness.
Discovering you aims for flexibility, rather than providing a set ‘menu’ of limited options, children and young people will be supported to express their wishes.
Discovering you is about having options for the same life experiences as their peers, as well as a completely bespoke package tailored completely to the individual.
Forms to request a short break will be available after 9 am on the launch date of 19th October 2023.
If you are unable to complete the request forms without help please contact us.
Click here to request a short break for a child/young person, aged 18 or younger, who has complex needs or disabilities.
Click here to request a short break for a young adult aged 18 to 25 who has complex needs or disabilities
Please provide as much information as possible so we can assess and prioritise the applications
Wherever possible please ensure that you have the consent of the child/young person to share this information with the Parent and Carer Alliance C.I.C. before proceeding any further, and give your details at the end of the form. Once you have submitted this form we will be in touch to explain how we might help as soon as possible.
We appreciate that completing forms, such as this, is challenging and are sorry that, due to the time and finance limitations, we will not be able to meet everyone’s needs through this project. We hope that evidence learned through this project can go on to improve provision for more families in the future.
By applying you are acknowledging that you understand and accept these limitations and that you know there is no guarantee that your application will be successful.