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The Mix That Makes the Difference

Cirencester (UK) 26 May 2013  -  The Cirencester Opportunity Group is delighted that Comstor and the Beat the Boss athletes are fundraising for their centre. As an independent playgroup with little government funding, the centre relies heavily on all donations. “Keeping the centre, the equipment and the facilities up to standards costs a lot of money,” says Lyn Cole, centre manager. Coming from a teaching background, Lyn has been running the centre for 20 years. Together with 13 staff she welcomes 80 local children under the age of 4 and their parents to the different activity groups every week.

The children who visit the centre are of mixed abilities. At the moment the centre welcomes several children with physical disabilities such as hearing impairment, Angelman, Downes and Turner syndromes. Mixing children of varied abilities and integrating the special needs children is what is special about the centre’s approach. “It is the mix that makes the difference,” says Lyn Cole. “All children, with and without special needs benefit from undertaking activities in mixed groups. For example, children that can hear will, almost naturally, start to use sign language to communicate with children of impaired hearing.”

Just 40 % of the funding for the Cirencester Opportunity Group (COG) comes from government, leaving them with 60 % to find themselves. Caroline Carless, the charity’s fundraiser, applies for grants and organises fundraising events together with the Friends of the COG, a group of fundraising parents. “We are delighted that Comstor has chosen to support us by fundraising. We are hoping that the money raised by Comstor will make it less of a struggle to organise activities such as music therapy for which we hire a qualified therapist.”

For more information about the Cirencester Opportunity Group visit their website at  www.opportunity-group.co.uk

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