The Chill'd way
At Chill'd CIC, we believe in providing a supportive and inclusive environment for our young people. Our approach focuses on embracing neurodiversity and offering personalised experiences to cater to individual needs and strengths. We are dedicated to empowering young people.
Our Vision
To create better future lives for our unique young people
Our Mission
Creating futures through real life connections and experiences within the familiarity of the local community by listening to the voices of young people and working together to create the pathways to a fulfilling and sustainable life
Chill'd was born from two parents of exceptionally bright neurodiverse children who struggled for years to access any education offered from mainstream school to different specialist provisions.
Both named Emma, we could see our children's huge potential whilst simultaneously seeing them seemingly fail time after time. Our children weren't failing, they were being failed because they were not understood or supported in the right way.
We have experienced a huge range of provisions, with varying degrees of success. Nothing seemed to fit perfectly and we became increasingly fed up with our children being let down. We became scared for their future as we saw them grow from small children into young adults and began to wonder if they'd ever find their place in the world and we could see that it would be the world that would be missing out on them, rather than the other way around.
We began talking to other parents and found so many similar stories, we had to do something to make this change.
What does Chill'd mean?
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Child - led
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Holistic
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Inclusive
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Life
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Learning
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Development
Having a lot of first hand experience of the SEN system with our own children and by helping other families, it became clear that the system that should help, isn't always able to.
Academically able children sometimes don't fit into either mainstream or specialist schools and often miss out on months or years of education.
Young people are being offered specialist schools over an hour away from home, which disconnects them from their community and creates additional barriers.
At Chill'd we believe even if a young person is unable to attend their local school, they are still an important part of their community so we deliver our sessions as close to home as possible.
The whole team are trauma-informed and all of our supporting adults use a planned, gentle, empathetic, therapeutic approach to engage with our young people to create confidence, emotional regulation, better communication and a positive holistic pathway to success. We use a continual cycle of assess, plan, do and review to ensure continual improvement with every session.
How do we engage with young people?
Firstly we listen to the experts, the parent / carers and the young person. We find out what approaches work so we know what we should and shouldn't do. We discover the young persons interests and design a nurture based programme for the young person.
Each young person will have a completely unique experience.
If what we do doesn't work, we don't give up, we make it work, we change and adapt. Chill'd is about the young person and not the adults, adults are there to help.
Each young person has a dedicated mentor who is there to support them throughout their time with Chill'd
What activities do Chill'd offer?
There is no fixed list here, we do the activities that your young person needs. If they can benefit, we can make it happen. Here are some examples
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Outdoor fun, such as den building
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Sports
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Cooking
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Music
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Swimming
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Drama
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Art
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Woodworking
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Gaming buddies
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Animal therapy
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Mentoring
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Crafting
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Life skills
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Entrepreneurship
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Apprenticeships
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We can find the perfect activity if it's not listed!
Does my young person need a diagnosis or EHCP?
No!!
As part of our holistic approach, we can help the family / carers navigate here but it is not a requirement for Chill'd to be able to help you.