Roll out the red carpet! SPACE Hertfordshire has been selected as a finalist for the National Diversity Awards 2024. Our feet barely touched the ground in June as excitement built in preparation for our annual parent/carer conference and attended various fundraising events hosted by local community groups Stay tuned for more updates on the exciting happenings at SPACE in June.
Shortlisted: National Diversity Awards 2024
Huge news! The SPACE Hertfordshire Team has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Community Organisation Award in the ‘Age’ category at the National Diversity Awards 2024.
Judged by some of the top figures in the industry alongside a number of past award winners, the winners of this year’s awards will be announced during a ceremony at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral on Friday, October 4th 2024. The prestigious black tie event, celebrates the excellent achievements of grass-root communities that tackle the issues in today’s society, giving them recognition for their dedication and hard work.
A heartfelt thank you to our incredible community for voting for SPACE in May 2024. Your support has helped us gain recognition on this tremendous platform.
SPACE Hertfordshire 2024 conference – a hit with everyone!
The atmosphere was filled with excitement and enthusiasm on Wednesday during our annual SPACE Hertfordshire Conference. Themed ‘Being Me: Supporting Your Child to Understand Their Neurodiversity’, the event took place at the Cromwell Hotel in Stevenage. It was a resounding success, with a sold-out crowd of over 100 parents and carers from our community. Dive into our ‘SPACE Hertfordshire 2024 conference‘ blog to read all about it.
Kicking for a cause
Bushin Mixed Martial Arts club based in Welwyn Garden City proved to be a knockout hit – raising over £350 for families of neurodiverse children and young people. The incredible club and their members showed up in full force, demonstrating not just their martial arts skills but also their big hearts.
With every kick and punch, they raised awareness and support, resulting in a fantastic £380 to help SPACE Hertfordshire. A huge thank you to James and everyone who participated, and made the day such a success.
#VolunteersWeek2024
Cheers to our volunteers! Since the start, volunteers have played a crucial role at SPACE with many individuals regularly giving up their time to support the charity. As we celebrated #VolunteersWeek2024, we took the opportunity to say thank you!
To ensure the safe and efficient delivery of our events and activities, we are in need of more volunteers. The demand for our activities for neurodiverse children and young people in Hertfordshire has never been higher.
The more volunteers we have to support these activities the more we can run – it really is that simple! We would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in volunteering, if you’d like to find out more, please join us for a short introduction to volunteering at SPACE.
Workshops, Training and Courses
In June, SPACE conducted more than 15 free workshops and courses, with many reaching full capacity. These sessions are for parents and carers covering many aspects of supporting children and young people who are autistic, have ADHD or other neurodiverse conditions. A total of 1,020 parents, carers and/or professionals registered to participate in the workshops and courses held throughout June.
SPACE Hertfordshire attend DSPL8’s SEND information fayre
We had an amazing time at DSPL8’s SEND information fayre in Dacorum, Hertfordshire. The event drew a fantastic crowd of parents, carers, and professionals. Our team were kept busy chatting about our services and support for families and professionals, and it was wonderful to see so many partners and colleagues.
Thanks to DSPL8 for a great afternoon and to everyone who visited our stand to learn more about SPACE!
Hertfordshire Community Foundation attend First Steps course
What a great morning we had hosting Christy Conroy from Hertfordshire Community Foundation at our First Steps course.
First Steps is our flagship program for parents and carers with autistic children in the early years.
A big thank you to Hertfordshire Community Foundation for supporting our early years program this year. It’s always rewarding to show first-hand the impact their funding has on the families we support.
First Aid training’s better with Elite Project Services
Laughing, sharing stories, learning more about ourselves and each other – all whilst having fun… who would have thought we’re talking about First Aid Training?! But that’s been our experience under the expert teaching of Pam from Elite Project Services who have kindly donated both First Aid at Work and Paediatric
First aid courses to us as part of their commitment to supporting SPACE as their Charity of the Year this year.
Pictured above are some of the first cohort of SPACE graduates – we have more staff and volunteers being trained in the coming months.
A huge thank you to Pam for making the training accessible, informative and great fun and to all the team at Elite Project Services for your generosity and commitment to SPACE. Health and safety is so important to us at SPACE and we are all feeling very empowered by our newly acquired and/or retrained skills!
Abbot’s Hill Fest 2024
Come with us to Abbot’s Hill Fest! Abbot’s Hill is an all-girls school in Hemel Hempstead, they kindly selected SPACE Hertfordshire as their chosen charity for their 2024 festival (and annual ball!).
The festival was hosted within their beautiful grounds with bouncy castles, mega inflatable slides, ice cream trucks, various games and live music. Oh! And there was a magician to entertain all the children and young people.
From guess the name of our bear and how many sweets are in the jar – we had much fun at our own SPACE pop up stand on the day. Parents were also able to tap into the knowledge of SPACE and find out more about our services.
SPACE were thrilled to be apart of the day and felt honoured to be the chosen charity of the day.
Another busy month of events at SPACE
Stevenage Library was filled with laughter as children enjoyed the hilarious performance of “Hansel, Gretel (she’s taller) and You….Who?” by Booster Cushion Theatre! The show had everyone on the edge of their cushions, with wacky surprises like frogs, pigs, bumblebees, and life-sized sweets. The children gasped with delight throughout.
This relaxed performance, in partnership with SPACE and Hertfordshire Libraries, was perfect for neurodiverse families. The library closed to the public and allowed families to explore books after the show.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, Hertfordshire Libraries, and Phil from Booster Cushion Theatre for a brilliant time!
Splashing outdoors! The drizzle and cold didn’t deter our young explorers at our pond dipping event with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
Together, we delved into the watery wonders of Lemsford Springs Nature Reserve and had some fascinating discussions about our finds, including the affectionately named “alien” fish! Our children and young people also enjoyed bird watching from the hut, spotting some amazing bird species up close.
The fun continued throughout the month as our children and young people enjoyed Outdoor play at The Patch, Therapeutic Farming, Indoor Climbing, Aerial Gymnastics, Fishing, SPACE to Drive, Graffiti and much more! An added highlight was when 360 Play in Stevenage generously provided 100 free tickets to SPACE Hertfordshire. Families were able to claim a ticket for a complimentary 2-hour time slot.
Don’t forget to join the ‘SPACE Hertfordshire‘ eventbrite to stay up-to-date with upcoming workshops and courses, and events.