SEN PARENTS LEEDS
Nominee Profile
Location: Leeds
Hello, I am Jessica Grimes, and I founded SEN Parents Leeds, which is a community group aimed at supporting Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs.
I begun this group in August 2023, because I felt alone navigating the life of parenting a child with Special Educational Needs.
My aim was quite low key, and that was just to create a community of parents/carers in the same position. I struggled personally with being able to take my Autistic Son to mainstream play groups, regular play sessions, because of the fear of judgment, how well they were suited to my sons needs and the fear of judgements from other parents surrounding his behaviour. I have been subject to discrimination, comments and stares, just for my child being himself in the only way he knew how.
With support from Hannah Wakefield, a friend made on this journey and through the group, we now have a full events schedule which includes both weekly, monthly and adhoc events, suited to a variation of age ranges from young children to those up to 16. We want to create a safe, inclusive space for children to truly just be themselves, to make friends and parents alike.
I could have never expected the way this group has gone, from a Sunday morning idea to almost 1000 followers, a group chat featuring over 50 parents. It has been a lifeline for me and other parents to be able to support each other, deal with the grueling paperwork, admin and processes that come with having a child with Special Educational Needs.
We have fundraised, run multiple stalls, done everything in our power to be able to ensure we have resources, for our events to be low cost of even free. Whilst both myself and Hannah working full time with Special Needs Children, it is hard, it is time consuming, but it is so rewarding.
I begun this group in August 2023, because I felt alone navigating the life of parenting a child with Special Educational Needs.
My aim was quite low key, and that was just to create a community of parents/carers in the same position. I struggled personally with being able to take my Autistic Son to mainstream play groups, regular play sessions, because of the fear of judgment, how well they were suited to my sons needs and the fear of judgements from other parents surrounding his behaviour. I have been subject to discrimination, comments and stares, just for my child being himself in the only way he knew how.
With support from Hannah Wakefield, a friend made on this journey and through the group, we now have a full events schedule which includes both weekly, monthly and adhoc events, suited to a variation of age ranges from young children to those up to 16. We want to create a safe, inclusive space for children to truly just be themselves, to make friends and parents alike.
I could have never expected the way this group has gone, from a Sunday morning idea to almost 1000 followers, a group chat featuring over 50 parents. It has been a lifeline for me and other parents to be able to support each other, deal with the grueling paperwork, admin and processes that come with having a child with Special Educational Needs.
We have fundraised, run multiple stalls, done everything in our power to be able to ensure we have resources, for our events to be low cost of even free. Whilst both myself and Hannah working full time with Special Needs Children, it is hard, it is time consuming, but it is so rewarding.