Our Charity of the Year

In 2023, we are delighted to be supporting Amaze as our official Charity of the Year!

Who are Amaze?

Amaze is a Sussex based charity that provides information, advice and support to families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Amaze was set up in 1997 by a group of parent carers to support other parent carers through the challenges of bringing up a disabled child. 25 years later and they are proud to continue to be user-led throughout. Amaze's Trustees are either parent/sibling carers or young people with SEND, at least 50% of staff and volunteers are parent carers and they have well established internship and volunteering programmes for young people with SEND.

What do they do?

They provide a range of services aimed at improving the emotional, physical, social and financial wellbeing of parent carers and young people with SEND aged 14-25:

• Information and advice via their advice line and website
• Workshops and courses on education, health and social care issues
• Peer support groups for young people
• Education, employment and training support for young people
• Befriending support groups for parent carers
• Help with claiming disability benefits
• NDP Family Training and Navigation Service for families of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (eg. autism and ADHD).

Children and young people with SEND are more likely to live in poverty, have mental health problems, live in single parent households and not be in education, employment or training as they move into adulthood.

Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis has exacerbated many existing issues for disabled young people and parent carers including increased anxiety, reduced education, education and training options, more families falling into poverty as their household income is squeezed and reduction or stopping of vital services and long waiting times for assessment and treatment, particularly for mental health services.