Little Lives UK are thrilled to have funded resurfacing works at Tree Tops Short Break Unit in Dartford. Before lockdown, our team visited their exceptional facility and were overwhelmed to hear about the work they do in helping disadvantaged and disabled children in their local area. However, they expressed that their outdoor area, where the children love to play, required some maintenance work in order to make it more suitable for the children.
Tree Tops Short Break Unit was established by Kent County Council in partnership with Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust. The facility provides children with disabilities, aged 5-18, with a welcoming and friendly environment that they can treat as home. Tree Tops’ facility includes 6 bedrooms, an activity room, a garden and outdoor play area, along with a lounge and dining room, all of which can be accessed and enjoyed by the children. They currently have roughly 50 children that come and enjoy using their facility, whilst there are also a further 5-10 children that are on the waiting list that should hopefully soon be able to join but have been prevented from doing so as a result of covid-19. This has caused a lot of uncertainty for Tree Tops, but their staff’s dedication has enabled them to keep providing their much-needed services for many children in the local area.
One fundamental reason behind Little Lives UK’s decision to fund the work being carried out at Tree Tops was down to their aims and goals being identical to our charity’s overall mission. They cater for children that struggle with learning difficulties, such as ADHD, and attempt to help them feel a part of a welcoming and safe area for them to have fun. They want to continue to provide a positive service to children and young people, to give them an overall better quality of life, which certainly is what we, as a charity, aim to help with. Furthermore, Tree Tops try to help out the children’s families as much as they can through the services they deliver. Little Lives UK were delighted to hear about the variety of activities offered to the children, which they make sure are as inclusive as possible. These include local walks, visiting parks and local play areas. They always consider what the children enjoy doing most and make sure to do this activity consistently, so they can have a better and more enjoyable experience. Upon hearing about all this, it felt only right that we aid the amazing work they do, to help them offer a perfect experience for their children.
Tree Tops highlighted how their outdoor play area was not quite meeting their requirements. They required funding in order to carry out the re-surfacing work that would improve the area and therefore providing a better experience for the children. The wet pour safety surfacing that the charity has funded will permit the children to play and move around in the area much more freely and will ease any concerns that staff and parents had. The work being done will moreover allow all the children to play in the area, including children in wheelchairs who were previously unable to play in specific areas, which will grant them the opportunity to enjoy more of their facility, and feel more a part of Tree Tops. The manager of Tree Tops, Mariama, mentioned how once the work is completed, they hope to arrange a number of enjoyable activities and events that they now feel comfortable in arranging given the improvements carried out. These will potentially include Christmas events, family fun days and a sports day, which they hope the children will thoroughly enjoy. She stated that there are so many more events they can now plan in the outdoor area, with the re-surfacing work Little Lives UK funded, improving this area.
We would like to thank Tree Tops for the remarkable work they do in the Dartford community, and we certainly hope the children will enjoy and love the new outdoor area.
If you would like to help fund campaigns such as these, then you can donate through the link below. Every donation is vital to our work in helping individuals and organisations that support disadvantaged and disabled children.
