Headway Leicester have been awarded £31,738 from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Government.
The grant has been awarded specifically to support our Circles of Support project which is a new initiative for Headway Leicester. In June we launched our Digital Day Centre (DDC) which has enabled the brain injury survivors and their families we support to continue to access specialist support and rehabilitation services over Zoom despite being in lockdown.
The new digital support will remain a permanent fixture within our service model, even when we can safely re-open our doors. Members who are more independent and are further along their rehab journey, will still be able to access support via the DDC instead of coming into the centre. It is also acting as a temporary session for new referrals to help them feel less isolated at a time when they are experiencing a range of feelings including sadness and frustration after sustaining their injury.
As well as connecting with our members over Zoom, we also wanted to increase individual’s independence through voice recognition technology. The grant will also allow us to purchase 100 Echo Dots which will help our members feel less isolated whilst promoting empowerment.
Many of our members are struggling with not being able to access their usual services, so we felt it essential to encourage digital interaction whilst keeping the brain injury survivors we support connected to the outside world. Being able to use their voice instead of searching for an answer online is hugely beneficial for our members, reducing stress, offering them an opportunity to be creative and increasing their attention span whilst working on their memory skills.
You can read our full Press Release here
