About Springboard
Springboard is a caring and committed charity, located in Horsham, West Sussex, and has been supporting families with SEND for over 32 years. We work with children, young people, and families by offering support, inclusive play, and leisure opportunities.
Our Mission
We aim to promote inclusion and diversity, improve physical and emotional wellbeing, increase life skills and independence, reduce isolation by helping to build relationships and friendships, and provide accessible recreational and leisure opportunities.
Makaton Training at Springboard
Throughout the years, Springboard has carried out basic Makaton training, but only a few members of staff were able to access this. It was always on our wish-list to train all staff in Makaton, but we didn’t know where to start! A touch of fate occurred when we were working out the best way to support one of the amazing young people that accesses our services because he uses Makaton. We found out that his mum was a qualified Makaton instructor, and we knew we had to find a way to fund for every staff member to train up to Level 2 Makaton.
Emily is a FANTASTIC trainer; she made learning fun, accessible, easy, and enjoyable, and our charity has improved drastically since. We are now registered as ‘Makaton Aware’, staff are trained up to level 2, we have Makaton signs around our inclusive stay and play centre, staff wear Makaton signs on their work lanyards, and we are constantly thinking of more ways we can include Makaton into our charity.
Future Goals
The next steps are to secure funding for staff to train up to Level 4 and do the Makaton Safeguarding course. We also want to find funding for parent/carers to access the training and continue to spread the word of how fantastic Makaton is.
Click here to learn more about Makaton Aware