FREE PR for local charities from Seeker News

Helen Alexander - Dear Steve

I hear with interest that you are generously offering three charities your PR support. This is incredibly exciting to hear, as Diverse Abilities Plus is newly embarking on lots of activities, events and publicity to try to raise the charity’s profile.

This is vital as, despite the fact that the charity was founded 55 years ago, very few people have heard of the improtant work of Diverse Abilities Plus here in Poole, Bournemouth and across Dorset.

We really need an enhanced profile in order to generate increased income annually as it costs a great deal to run all the chjarity’s projects, and although we receive some local authority funding it is not enough to support our work let alone expand to reach the demand for our services and to meet the needs of more children, adults and families.

In addition to raising funds and support we are also really keen to be able to reach more people and families who may benefit from our support. Increased awareness of the charity’s work would hopefully direct more people to our services.

To give a brief summary of the work of Diverse Abilities Plus, we work closely with families to help meet the needs of people of all ages with physical and/or learning disabilities and tehir families too.

The charity provides a range of vital support and services for children and adults with disabilities, many of which are profound or complex. We’re different because we endeavour to be a ‘lifetime partner’ – working with individuals and their families throughout every stage of their lives to empower them and offer the best level of assistance, support and education

Diverse Abilities Plus services for children and young people include:

- Langside School, an independent, non-maintained specialist day school for children aged 2-19 with profound and multiple learning disabilities and physical disabilities. The school provides a holistic education, integrating academic learning with a full range of therapy and care. This enables pupils to reach their full potential and learn to be as communicative and as independent as possible.

- Smithers, an overnight and short stay residential home with fully equipped bedrooms which offers a home-from-home for children and a welcome break for families managing the challenges of providing full-time care for their child.

- Shapes, which provide individually tailored, flexible domiciliary care at home to help children develop as independent and social people, while offering support to parents.

- Project My Time, which provides holiday activities that give young people with disabilities the same leisure and fun opportunities that their peers enjoy.

Diverse Abilities Plus services for adults include:

- Barnabas Day Opportunities, a well-equipped day opportunities centre where adults with disabilities can socialise, make new friends, acquire valuable skills and enjoy a wide range of experiences.

- Supported Living, a valuable service that enables people with disabilities to live their lives to the full, in their own home, with up to 24/7 support and assistance provided by a dedicated staff team.

I sincerely hope that working with Diverse Abilities Plus is of interest to Seeker Photography, as the support, insight, contacts and photography skills you have would certainly be of great benefit to the charity.

If you would like any furtehr information at all then please let me know. I would happily meet with you to tell you more about the work of Diverse Abilities Plus if that would be helpful?

I understand that you are hoping to attend the Dorset County Show with your family on 4th September, in which case it wil be great to see you at our stand, which is just one example of the new energy we are putting into raising awareness of Diverse Abilities Plus.

Many thanks for the opprotunity to apply to be part of this exciting Public Relations initiative that you are running with charities.

Kind regards

Helen Alexander
Fundraiser