£10,000 boost for Harrogate charity supporting BAME caregivers

Harrogate charity boost: 10,000 worth of National Lottery funding is going to support Whispers of Comfort's work with BAME caregivers and parents of children living with disabilities.

Whispers of Comfort, will use the cash to run more activities for Black, Asian, and Minority ethnic caregivers and to provide further support sessions for Advocacy.

Whispers of Comfort has been running since 2014 and is staffed by six volunteers.

It was founded by Tina Norbury after she realised that the community was struggling to provide culture specific support to local BAME families and their children.

Tina said: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way.

"Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to press on with our plans to broaden the range of opportunities available to local BAME children with disabilities and their caregivers.

"This is important because it helps both the Caregivers and the children to build relationships with others facing similar challenges and to create their own supportive circles of friends and peers.”

The group will run weekly sessions from June 29, to be attended by 20 local caregivers/parents where they join in with various activities such as ways to overcome society and culture challenges, nutrition and wellbeing and behaviour management online and face to face.

The sessions will help the caregivers to make friends, while learning new skills and having fun. While enjoyable, the caregivers are also gaining greater confidence, self-belief and important collaboration skills.

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The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see these sessions expanded to 48.

This means that the number of caregivers able to participate will be 250.

At the same time, the group will be able to press on with plans to introduce support sessions for teachers and community support workers supporting BAMEs.

These will help them to build relationships with others experiencing the same challenges and hopefully enable them to develop their own support network.

A charitable trust and non profit organisation that provides support to people with Learning Disabilities (Silent disabilities) their parents, guardians, caregivers and friends, Whispers of Comfort focuses mainly on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia.

Sibongile Sibanda, a volunteer at Whispers of Comfort, said: “Culture Specific support helps caregivers embrace the uniqueness of the people they care for. ”

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