One year ago in June 2019 we started on a very exciting journey; to expand our services for Adults with Acquired Brain Injury and their families living in South Essex, with the launch of our Day Service activity sessions. As the newly appointed Service Manager it was both an exciting and equally nervous time.
Located in Benfleet, the South & West Essex Brain Injury Hub brought together activity sessions alongside the support we provide in the community, supporting our objectives to help adults with acquired brain injury to become more confident, independent and to regain lost skills.
This dream could not have become a reality without the help of the National Lottery Community Fund and an amazing team of staff and volunteers who believed in the vision and made it happen.
So, where has the last year gone… I cannot believe that our Brain Injury Hub is one-year-old!
Thank You to our Client’s, Their Families & Our Volunteers
I am so proud of what we have achieved and I wanted to mark the occasion by thanking all our lovely clients, their family members and of course our wonderful volunteers and staff for all their support over the last 12 months.
We had some big plans to mark our Year anniversary but sadly due to the pandemic these have been put on hold. However, we still aim to celebrate so watch this space for further announcements.
Adapting Our Service
Over the last three months we have diversified our service due to the coronavirus pandemic. We are now busy providing virtual activity sessions and support meetings over Zoom which have proved to be a huge success. In fact, this is something that we wish to continue with even when we are allowed to resume service. We can see that by having a virtual Hub alongside our day sessions, we are able to reach out to a bigger audience, allowing individuals who have not previously accessed our Day Services, to do so.
And we are still supporting all our clients in the community with regular welfare calls to make sure they are coping, they have the support they need and their health and well-being is maintained.
Looking to the Future
So, what does the next year have in store for us? One thing I am sure of is that we will develop our Virtual Hub alongside our Day service, why stop something when it has proved to be so successful?
Gemma Baines,
South and West Hub Manager.
