JIGSAW Thornbury is a charity that works with children and young people aged 0-25 with additional needs or disabilities, and their families. Everyone can join in, with or without a diagnosis. We provide friendship, support, compassion and fun, along with innovative services that empower the whole family to connect, fit in and thrive. Everything we do is driven by the passion of our staff and volunteers.
As well as being life changing for the children, young people and families we support, our services are invaluable for the wider community too. We enhance inclusion by raising awareness to help everyone understand the challenges that those with additional needs or disabilities face and to celebrate the unique strengths and qualities they bring.
We report on how we deliver our charitable purpose to the Charity Commission each year and are pleased to share with you our impact for the period of April 2021 to March 2022. We’ve included some highlights in this blog. If you would like to read the full report and find out more about how we support families, you can access this using the link below:
Impact Report 2021-2
During this period, our focus was re-building services and connections post-lockdown. Our aim was to re-engage with families face-to-face and increase the amount we delivered quickly once restrictions allowed. We moved into our new home in the heart of Thornbury in July and welcomed some new team members between September to October 2021. It was a period of new environments, new people, and new opportunities.
Hattie Clayton, our Interim CEO who was Chair of Trustees from March 2021 to April 2022 says ‘‘The team have worked hard to ensure we are meeting the needs of the families we support coming out of lockdown. This has led to an extremely successful return to face-to-face operations. It has been a joy to watch our families becoming familiar with JIGSAW Thornbury’s new home, with some attending multiple groups per week and making connections with other families to meet up outside of services. I am extremely proud of the impact we have through a variety of services.’’
Services highlights
- 14 activities during the summer holidays of 2021
- 4 different afterschool activities throughout the year
- Re-starting core groups from our new home, including weekly support group, weekly creative wellbeing group, and youth club
- Beginning to build our online Lending Library database
- Young Volunteers re-starting and completing their first aid training
- Training and awareness events for parents and carers on 4 topics: Communication Puzzle: A toolkit for communication; Executive functioning skills; Sensory awareness Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
- Project 5 mental health and resilience programme online and face-to-face
- Successful Project 5 Parent and Child pilot
Member feedback
‘‘The JIGSAW family goes above and beyond to make parents feel special and included. It’s a safe space to be yourself with no judgement, tears or laughter.’’ Parent member
“I remembered to use the breathing techniques when I got angry and people were winding me up and it really helped”. Child attending our Project 5 programme.
We celebrated our new central location by hosting a Fun Palaces event with the community of Thornbury in October 2021. Fun Palaces is a national and international campaign for culture at the heart of communities and celebrating the genius in everyone. There were 12 activities on the day led by people from our team and other local groups. These included crafting, inclusive sports, nature-based activities, therapy dog, hand massage, and youth-led rainbow science and paper airplanes. We developed some good relationships and raised awareness for our cause, which has had a lasting impact.
‘‘My son also helped, ran an activity and had lots of fun taking part. It made me feel really proud to see him engaging and thriving’’ Fun Palace Maker
Strategic Review
The year saw a lot of learning become part of practice for JIGSAW Thornbury. We completed our strategic review in June 2021 and wrote our first ever business plan, which we are now delivering. A lot of work has gone into updating our governance structure to help us work together effectively as a team. This is now based on 3 layers of protection that help us to make sure we are able to achieve our charitable purpose and deliver benefits for the families we support.
Annie Holland, Vice Chair of Trustees, shared her reflections from the year. ‘‘There is an excitement and sense of dynamism in all the teams (staff, volunteers and trustees) evident throughout a year of change and a confidence that goals can be met and that JIGSAW Thornbury will continue to meet its Purpose. The trustees are proud to be a part of JIGSAW Thornbury and are proud of what the CEO, staff and volunteers have achieved.’’
Changes to our Board of Trustees
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Thursday 26th January 2023. This is an opportunity to reflect on the last financial year before submitting our annual report and accounts to the Charity Commission.
At the AGM, the trustees vote to elect a Chair and a Vice Chair. We are pleased that Steve Hyndman has now taken on the reigns of Chair of Trustees for JIGSAW, and Annie Holland will be continuing as Vice Chair, after covering chairing duties for the last 9 months.
“I feel privileged to have been voted in as Chair of Trustees for JIGSAW Thornbury. For anyone that doesn’t know me, I have been a Trustee for a year and half, and I have been amazed by the work that JIGSAW does and the difference the charity makes to children and their families.” Steve Hyndman, Chair of Trustees.
Join our board of Trustees?
For the full list of our current trustees link head over to our Who We Are page on our website. Each year, we review the skills needed on our board to make the best decisions for JIGSAW Thornbury and discuss trustee recruitment based on any gaps. We are looking to recruit some new trustees to our board, and in particular would like a parent member representative. If you are interested in finding out more please contact us at admin@jigsawthornbury.org.uk