aMAZE
Key Facts
Location
Project Criteria
Project funding
£101,640
Funding round
aMAZE is a Brighton based charity, set up in 1997offering advice and support to parents on matters affecting the well-being of their children with special needs aMAZE is a Brighton based charity, set up in 1997offering advice and support to parents on matters affecting the well-being of their children with special needs and disabilities.
When parents discover that their child has a disability or special needs they tell us that they often need to develop a new set of skills. Many parents say they feel most comfortable learning from other parents of children with special needs. Research is starting to identify that parent-led training can be of great value.
Using the Parenting Fund, we will recruit a parent support worker who will co-ordinate:
- a network of local parent support groups
- identify a small group of parents of children with special needs who will be trained as trainers/parent support group facilitators
- work with parents and professionals to plan content for parenting courses
- draw on Brighton University research expertise through CUPP (Community University Partnership Project) to choose the best models of delivery for the parent support courses
- identify approx. 100 parents of children with special needs and randomly assign them to telephone support or parent support courses.
The courses will be for groups of parents of children with special needs such as:
- parents of children with severe learning difficulties
- parents of teenagers with special needs
- parents of children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
- parents of children with chronic physical and medical needs.
Parents will be involved in deciding what issues their course will cover. All will have modules on the social model of disability and thinking about positive futures for their children, building resilience and working successfully with professionals. Courses will run at times and locations convenient to parents (crèche provision, evening sessions for fathers)
CUPP and aMAZE will produce a training manual. They will publish and publicise the manual together with the findings from the project and be available to advise on setting up similar projects elsewhere.
In addition to improving the parenting skills of parents of children with special needs, and properly evaluating and publicising the approach, other outcomes of this Parenting Fund project will be:
- reaching the hardest to reach parents (parent trainers have a unique ability to do this)
- improving professionals' understanding of the issues of key importance to parents
- professionals get better at recognising parents' expertise
- small parent support groups provided with an infrastructure that will help make individual groups more sustainable and provide a platform for groups to share ideas.