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Viva_Palmeiras
13-01-2018, 01:06 PM
Apologies for the long read but this is serious. You may have read in the EEN or seen the piece on STV Edinburgh News last night.

Some of you may recall a post before Christmas asking people to consider a donation - thanks for those who made a contribution it’s greatfully appreciated.
Unfortunately theres been a double-whammy of losing a big lottery funding plus a core funder pulling out.

I appreciate things are tough for all charities. All I can say is these kids and their families are squeezed and stressed and this charity provides a unique service that others simply do not provide. Kids and their Families will be left to deal with daily challenges without the tailored support these kids need (as a spectrum challenges and appropriate strategies will vary). It can be pretty isolating and lonely TailorEd staff are skilled can relate and help. If this service is removed it will simply stack up problems in the long term and push the challenge elsewhere. Please consider if you can help (details below). Thanks for reading.

What has happened

After 8 years of support, our core funder has decided not to continue funding us. As a small and independent charity we simply can’t absorb this loss. As we are an intervention based service working with children with complex needs, we need some funding secured in to the future to responsibly take on new families.Our previous Lottery grant finished at the end of October and we are currently running on our reserves. These reserves will run out at the end of March 2018. We will have to close our doors if we are unsuccessful in securing the funding we need.

Why Tailor Ed’s Services are so important

To date Tailor Ed has supported 317 families raising a child with autism in Edinburgh. We do practical, direct work with children teaching them vital daily living skills such as learning how to communicate, increasing independence, keeping themselves safe and learning to learn.

There is no other service in Edinburgh that works within the family home, simultaneously skilling up both the child and their family. There is no other service that works on the areas we target as a preventative measure, rather than waiting until families are in crisis. There is no other service holistically supporting families with target based work and social supports to ensure that families are included in their local community.

Demand for our service is such that in July 2015 we closed to new referrals in order to work through our extensive waitlist. With a large multi-year core grant, we had hoped to reopen referrals to our services to work with more families in Edinburgh and to do so needed to increase our staff team and raise £280k per year for the next three years to ensure that we deliver and maintain a viable service.

If we abandon plans to recruit, with 7 staff can reach 300 families across the next 3 years at a cost of £215,000 per year

What you can do

For March 2018 onwards we have:
£60,000 secured
£30,000 we can self-generate
£25,000 we hope we can save with ‘in-kind’ contributions such as office space, up to date technology and help with travel.
But
£100,000 is still required.

1. We are working hard to secure this but every penny helps. Please sign up to a regular donation here: http://tailoredfoundation.co.uk/donate/team-tailor-ed/
Or Crowdfunding at:
https://www.facebook.com/iain.mackenzie.5667/posts/10159854204975346

2. Please pass on any contacts you may have to Fran at contact@tailoredfoundation.co.uk

3. Please email your local MSP and share the news and your personal stories of working with Tailor Ed. Please tweet your MSP/local Councillors to make them aware of the situation.

You can email us for our 'Take Action for Tailor Ed' pack. Within it there is a template letter and it contains details of who to contact and how.

contact@tailoredfoundation.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/tailor.ed.1/posts/1869829016361775