Youth club praised as 'lifeline' for SEND families

A youth club offering activities to families with children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has been described as a "lifeline" for youngsters who have found accessing other groups difficult.

Together at Trin is run by Wakefield Trinity Community Foundation and holds weekly sessions at the rugby league club's stadium.

The club is part funded by BBC Children in Need and this year received a £53,550 grant.

Holly, 12, from Fitzwilliam, is awaiting a formal diagnosis for autism and ADHD.

Her mum Kirsty says until the diagnosis process is complete there are some SEND groups in the area Holly cannot access.

Coming to the Trinity sessions has made a "huge difference" and given Holly a chance to make friends and try new activities, Kirsty says.

The group is a place where Holly can "feel safe" and "blow off steam" after school.

"We've noticed after she's been she's a lot calmer and a lot happier within herself," Kirsty says.

Holly says she likes the people at the group and thinks they "understand her a lot better".

She can choose which activities to join in and does not feel "forced to do anything".

"You can just talk to anybody," she says.

"It doesn't matter if you know them or if it's your first time meeting them, you can end up making future friendships. It's confidence building for me."

Together at Trin is open to children aged seven to 17.

The project supports local young people through workshops, bespoke development, exercise and social time.

It currently supports 30 young people living with a disability or who have special educational needs. Activities range from sport to arts and crafts and meditation.

Matilda Hazell, who leads the sessions, says the club offers "a space where everyone feels they're listened to and accounted for" and that parents tell her it is making a "massive" difference in the community.

"Some parents have actually said it's a lifeline for them because their young person would not leave the house," she says.

"We've had weeks where we've had a young person refusing to go to school but they still say they want to come here so I think clearly we're doing something right."

Eight-year-olds Polly and Betsy, from Wakefield, are also both neurodiverse.

They met at the youth club and are now firm friends.

Betsy says it's "really fun" and despite only recently joining she feels she's "been here for years" and has lots of friends.

Polly says the club is a place where you can try new activities and "be yourself".

Polly's mum Dee, who also brings four-year-old Alice, says the family has tried lots of clubs but the girls feel "really comfortable" at Together at Trin.

She says it has been difficult to find places the girls enjoy.

"They've got their own personalities and their own quirks and some people don't understand it but here everybody's got them and there's that understanding that you can just be yourself," she says.

"If you need to have a little squeal you can have a little squeal, and probably people are going to join in with you, they're not going to laugh, there's going to be no judgment, you can just be yourself."

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