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HEADWAY LEICESTERSHIRE LEICESTER AND RUTLAND
Some of the staff, volunteers and members outside Headway House. Headway Leicester is a local organisation, which has provided support, services and information to local people with an acquired or traumatic brain injury for more than 20 years. Our day centre Headway House opened in September 1990 and next year we will be celebrating our birthday with lots of awareness and fundraising events. One in every 300 families is affected by brain injury. Some of the causes include road traffic accidents, infection, assault, tumour and brain haemorrhage, and any of these can occur to anyone at anytime, anywhere. The effects of a brain injury can cause difficulties with memory, concentration, changes in personality, motivation, confidence, sight, mobility and depression. Headway's work enables people to cope with these life changes supporting them to move forward and help them realise their full potential. We offer services and support through both our centre based activities and our outreach services. The activity centre offers woodwork, arts and crafts, computing, cookery, educational opportunities, and gardening, holidays and day trips. We have a fantastic group of staff and volunteers who provide a great source of support and encouragement, and the centre has a reputation for it's warm and friendly atmosphere –which means that although one of our main aims is to support people to move on, and back into the community, very often, they enjoy it so much they never want to leave! The Outreach team offers support at home or within community settings and can assist with maintaining tenancies, form filling, accessing the local community and its facilities, attending appointments, returning to work or looking for voluntary work. Outreach service users can also take part in the trips and outings. We can also provide vital information and support to families and carers who may be confused, upset and frightened by the changes in their loved one, and also daunted by what the future may hold. Headway is a registered charity, and apart from grants received from Local Authorities, we completely rely upon voluntary donations to continue providing our vital support services. Being a voluntary organisation also means we are able to offer opportunities for volunteers, and we have teams of dedicated people of all ages providing vital support to the staff team. The volunteers can offer one-to-one attention which can be an enormous boost to the service users' confidence, helping them to achieve their personal goals. Anyone can make a referral to Headway providing they have the consent of the individual with the brain injury. Self-referrals are also accepted. Once a referral has been received, a member of the Outreach team will make contact to arrange a visit. Members of the team can understand, and are able to respond to, a wide range of religious and cultural needs. For more information, or to arrange a visit contact: Telephone: 0116 2739763 E-mail: headway@headwayleicester.org.uk |
