NEWS UPDATE:
More Good News...
The Junior & Senior Youth Clubs restart next Sunday 19th February
It is very important that Janet knows how many are likely to attend so please phone 01280 824871 to book.
Good News at Last.. Finger Crossed!
We would like to express our huge thanks to all those who sent messages of support and wrote on our behalf to help and support us to get all our clubs and activities back on line for children and young people who have special needs and disabilities. We cannot express enough just how much your support means to us. Please feel free to write to us if you would like to share your views about the work we do so that we can put them on our website to share with possible new families.
If you would like to work with Clearly Speaking and Clearly Cool, please get in touch. We are always looking for adults and young people over eighteen years of age who feel they want to get more involved in supporting children and young people who have special needs and, or disabilities. We would also welcome you if you wish to donate a few hours a month to help with the management and running of our very busy charitable organisation.
Thanks to your support and encouragement, we asked the County Council to help us to get our club and events reopened and to help to make sure we can continue to run. We are really pleased to report that on Tuesday 31st January we met with a key Officers of Buckinghamshire County Council, the senior manager of Action4Youth and members of the Buckingham Youth Club Management Committee in order to try and agree more appropriate working relationships. Our key aim was to enable everyone to continue their work with those we all value the most, this being the children and young people who attend clubs and activities on site.
Although we have nothing “set in stone” as of yet, we are really hopeful that we have reached agreement as to how both Clearly Speaking/Clearly Cool Clubs and The Youth Centre Managers can work together with more success. We were able to identify better communication systems, and more appropriate procedures to ensure both parties can ensure good use of the Youth Centre site for local children and young people. It was really promising to be able to agree that the priority for the site should always be the provision of universal services for all children and young people, including our specialists services for children and young people who have special needs and disabilities. We are hopeful that with this focus we will be able to achieve greater success in the future.
We are really pleased to hear of Buckinghamshire County Council’s commitment to ensure that our specialist resources, support, clubs and activities for young people will be able to continue into the future. We have been assured that we will be supported to meet any necessary increased costs experienced as a result of running from the Youth Centre site now it has become a leased site rather than remaining a Bucks CC site. We also received assurances that we would not suffer huge increases in rises in our hire costs at least until April 2012 and that any further rises in charges will be kept to a minimum. This will be monitored by the County Council which is extremely reassuring.
We were informed that information previously shared with us about hire cost rises has changed and that our costs for hire will now remain largely the same. This is extremely welcome news. Following April 2012 although we will have to work harder to raise additional funds to cover the cost of previously free sessions, and a rise from £30.00 to £50.00 a day for the Sunday clubs, we do understand the need for the site to cover its’ costs. However, we remain hopeful that the Buckingham Youth Club Committee will continue to agree to the accessible charges for our holiday activity days and ensure we are able to continue to run the wide range of activities and events we have offered throughout school holidays. We will of course continue to work hard to access local grants to cover the costs of these sessions and would welcome any help and support you may be able to offer to us in this area. We would like to thank Councillor Pollhil for his support to access a local grant which will support our work with young people who are currently out of school and accessing our supportive learning programmes.
As hire fees will clearly need to be covered in the future, we ask that as soon as we are able to confirm the reopening of all the clubs and activities for children and young people 5 – 25 years of age, that you help to support us by assisting and helping all who will enjoy them, or benefit from them to get to the centre and attend regularly. We want to keep all our subs and charges to a minimum and can only do this if we get good attendance. We have asked that we are able to open on the next due Sunday sessions, this being the 19th February.
These clubs and activities are aimed at providing a wide range of opportunities and enjoyable activities for children and young people who have any level of Special Needs and, or, Disability. With your help we can quickly begin to make them, once again the thriving success they had become before this period of closure. If you are interested in volunteering, or have young people in your family aged sixteen and over who may be completing their Duke of Edinburgh Awards, or another community based leadership award, why not ask them to get in touch so they can come and do some volunteering at our centre or clubs. This would be an extremely valuable experience for them and all our young volunteers tell us they have great fun when they are helping out. We will of course give full training and support to anyone who will be committed and feel able to spare a few hours a month to improve the lives of all children and young people.
We hope that as we work to increase opportunities for all children and young people to make friends, enjoy local clubs and activities and participate in specialist schemes such as the Duke Of Edinburgh Awards, Sport Clubs, Art activities and learning opportunities, they feel valued, and welcome. We are still providing weekly learning sessions from our own centre attached to Buckingham Youth Centre, which are also suitable for all young people aged twelve to nineteen years of age.
These sessions included, learning to learn, helping young people with high functioning autism and associated learning difficulties, and, or mental health difficulties to enjoy participation in adapted learning opportunities. Young people are currently enjoying horticulture, cookery, sport, art and craft and a wide range of curriculum based learning opportunities. Group sizes are kept very small to enable young people to feel safe and comfortable and learning takes place at a pace and level to suit the individual learner. If you are interested in this opportunity and you are home-schooling your child, or they are out of school for an extended period of time and need a gentle, supported reintroduction to learning to help with their return to a new school placement or indeed a return to their existing placement, please call us so we can arrange a visit.
We are hopeful that having received reassurances from our new key contact from Buckinghamshire County Council that Clearly Speaking and Clearly Cool will be supported to continue to run all our clubs and activities and that they will continue our much valued and very helpful grant into the next financial year. We also hope to continue to work with those who have supported our resources and clubs for younger children so that they are also able to return to Clearly Speaking and the Clearly Cool, attending their specialist clubs, enjoy regularly meeting with their friends and continue to learn essential social communication and play skills.
We look forward to welcoming you all at our clubs and activities soon and wish to express again our enormous gratitude for all your support and good wishes. This has enabled us to continue to work hard on behalf of all those who come to “Clearly” for help, intervention, support, advice and guidance. We really enjoy working with you and look forward to being able to do so again as we welcome you all back and hopefully move forward together.
Please keep an eye on our websites, and our notice-boards at the centre to hear of the return of your clubs etc. Please remember to book places so we are able to welcome your children, you or family members to clubs and activities or lessons with appropriate support in place to ensure success, fun and a great time for everyone. Call for further news or to book on: 01280 824871
Legal assistance - can you help?
From time to time legal questions arise and; while we have a great deal of experience on a range of issues, it would be useful if any solicitors or others in the legal profession would be able to give us pro bono support. If you can help then please contact Janet at the centre
Thank you
Visit our new Duke of Edinburgh Award page and find out how you can take part in this exciting programme 
Please visit our News & Updates Page
About Clearly Speaking
Clearly Speaking is a charitable, approachable, professional and caring support service for all families and front line professionals.
We provide an holistic approach to care and support for all children & young people 0-25 yrs of age with any level of Special Educational Needs or Disability.
We are often asked who children and young people make so much progress when they come to Clearly Speaking, or the Clearly Cool Clubs. Our aim is to Find a child or young person’s area of interest and helping them to come and enjoy time with others who have similar interests. Help to make friends, learn new skills, relax and have fun.
Contact us by telephone on:
01280 824871 for General Enquiries
or
01280 824699 for the Confidential Helpline
Or by e-mail: office@clearlyspeaking.org.uk
We are now also on Facebook so please visit our page, tell your friends and family about us and join in (or start) a discussion.
More information is on our News & Updates Page
IMPORTANT NOTICE -
ABOUT CLUBS
Clubs may be cancelled because of the lack of confirmed bookings.
Parents/Carers/Young People: You MUST book your place 2 or 3 days before the date that the club that you wish to attend would normally be running.
The managers of the Buckingham Youth Centre have declared their intention to charge ‘commercial rates’ for the majority of our hire of the building which means that we can no longer afford to run clubs and activities if we only have a few people confirming that they will be attending.
We need you to help us to help you !
We are very sad that this situation has arisen and want to be able to maintain our activities but we cannot run clubs and incur costs if we cannot be sure that people will be attending - and the only way that we know that you WILL be attending is by YOU booking your place.
As the County Council decides upon the future of the Buckingham Youth Centre (which Clearly Speaking - and YOU) rely upon, we hope that the County Council will show support for our activities and for the young people attending those activities.
Please voice your opinions to Laura Nankin of Bucks County Council, to Bucks County Council in general and to Councillor Adams.
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NEWS UPDATE:
Don’t forget to visit our News & Updates Page
We would love to have your help..
In order to develop and maintain the support and services that Clearly Speaking offers to families and individuals we would like to encourage more volunteers and session leaders to join us.
As you would expect, in the best interest of everyone visiting and being involved with Clearly Speaking, there are certain formalities that need to be followed before becoming involved with Clearly Speaking’s activities but if you think that you might like to become involved the please visit our Vacancies & Volunteering Page to find out more …Thank You.
Thank you to Aiming High for supporting the work of Clearly Speaking with funding for some activities... everyone at Clearly Speaking greatly appreciates your help.
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