The board includes different elements that stimulate the senses and will be suitable for a wide range of children that attend Unique Kidz and Co including those with severe disabilities.
Unique Kidz and Co is a place to play, have fun, make friends and be unique for children and young adults aged 0-30 with disabilities. They do this by providing a number of services including afterschool clubs, holiday clubs, weekend clubs, daytime support for young adults, stay and play sessions for under 5's, a siblings group and a toy library. They were founded in 2009 by two mums of disabled children who were unable to find suitable childcare for their own disabled children.

We visited them today and were shown around by fundraiser Chris and we have to say we were blown away by the work they are doing, and the smiles on everyones faces said it all. This was certainly helped by the lovely smell of cakes baked by some of the young adults, ready for the buses arriving with the children coming to afterschool club.
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They are currently seeking messages of support for a planning application to create vitally needed extra building space and develop the neighbouring field to provide additional activity spaces, alongside an accessible bike track, sensory gardens and dedicated play spaces. Find out more and how to support them on their website https://www.uniquekidzandco.org.uk.

Chris Adams the club president told us that despite being 100 years old the club is very young at heart and always wanting to encourage more people to play tennis and experience the benefits of joining. They have players aged 5 to 85 who can take advantage of the 4 floodlit all-weather courts that were resurfaced in 2017 with a carpet surface. This surface apparently is very comfortable to play on and much kinder on joints so players can continue playing as they get older.

They also provide a breakfast club for residents, but in 2023 they noticed that a lot of homeless and people with complex needs in the area were asking about the breakfast club, so they needed help to scale up the lovely cafe and kitchen facilities they have at Claremont Road. They approached us and the 3R Foundation was delighted to help with number of new appliances for them. This meant that the breakfast club was opened up to anyone at Christmas and it has been very popular and well received.

They run The Red Rose Community Centre, which also hosts a Boxing club (ABA Registered) a Karate club, as well as being used by the wider community for a range of clubs and events. The partition was needed both for Safeguarding, to keep spectators and parents back when the children are training, but still be able to see what's going on, and also so the cafe area is separated from the main hall, and can be used by other community groups without having to try and heat the main hall as well.

They used plexi glass for the viewing area for safety, second hand recycled doors and reclaimed most of the wood they needed from pallets for the frame, with some wood sheets just needed for the top sections. As 3R stands for ReCycle, Reuse, Rehome we thoroughly approve and we were delighted to support them with this small grant.