Headway, East London - review 2010

www.headwayeastlondon.org

A brief re-cap. Headway (East London) is basically a day centre for people who have had brain injuries. Attendees visit the centre for 1 to 2 days each week. They take part in different activities from art classes to music therapy, but above all the centre allows them social interaction which most would otherwise lack; living alone without the confidence to meet new people or cooped up with their carers. For more background on Headway click here: Headway (East London)

In 2009 our money continued to support events and little extras that are not covered by their regular funding. In the summer the centre put on BBQs for all the attendees and our money helped to cover some of the expenses for that; we have continued to subsidize transport and entrance costs to regular events such as sailing at Southwark Sailing Centre and trips to museums such as the Natural History Museum – allowing less well off attendees to take part. These 'extras' may seem relatively insignificant to us, but are a key part of what Headway does. They help attendees to gain confidence, interact with people from outside the centre and providing them with memorable and fun experiences they may not get elsewhere.

I caught up with Phillipa Paine, who manages the day to day running of the centre before Christmas to see how things were going. Despite the recent move to bigger premises the centre is starting to reach capacity with around 20-30 attendees visiting the centre daily. There are also several exciting new projects starting up aimed at targeting different groups. These include a Young Persons Network, a peer group of younger people who have suffered from brain injury who meet on Saturdays; and The Discovery Club, a club for some of the more able attendees, aimed at building skills and confidence through projects managed by the group. One of the first projects for 2010 looks likely to be filming and producing a short documentary about brain injury.

What our money would be spent on in 2010
Should we choose to carry on supporting Headway this year we have a choice of what we spend our money on. We can either continue to support the events and trips as we have done in 2009 or choose to support a series of open days that Headway are planning for later this year.

The open days will be for the benefit of family members and carers of brain injury victims. They will provide information and activites on the issue of brain injury but are primarily designed simply to connect people dealing with the same issues.

As always it was great to spend a little time at the centre. They have been in their new building for just over a year now and are very settled - it is a very relaxed and friendly place with big windows looking out over the canal. It is brilliant to think that it all started just over 10 years ago with one volunteer, a borrowed a room for one afternoon a week and a handful of attendees.

John Arnold
January 2010