Message from our Charity Coordinator Rachel Helsby charity@readingroadrunners.org

Charity of the Year – Parenting Special Children

I am feel honoured and privileged that members have voted for me to be the charity organiser of the year to raise money for local charity Parenting Special Children (PSC) which supports over 2,500 Berkshire families last year.

Parenting Special Children was set up by Ruth Pearce, Founder and Chief Executive in 2006 and its mission is to provide specialist parenting support to parents and carers of children and young people with Special Needs, so that they can create positive change in their lives.

The charity offers specialist parenting support to families of children and young people with Special needs and/or disability in Berkshire. From Autism, ADHD, trauma and attachment, to sleep and diagnosis support they offer a wide range of services. They also run a number of family events each year so that these families can have the sort of every days-out that other families would do routinely.

PSC also helps these families feel less isolated by running a number of support groups. For example they have a group for family members who are caring for children who cannot be cared for by their birth parents and, more recently, they have set up a dads and male carers support group which is proving very popular.  It is always good to talk.

We will shortly be setting up the charity page on our Reading Roadrunners website, and also a direct fundraising page for members who wish to raise money for the charity directly.   Money raised through Reading Road Runners will go towards funding PSC’s sleep service.  Children with additional needs are at increased risk of sleep difficulties and, as a results, parents/carers and siblings also don’t get enough sleep a key element of well-being.

I hope you will get an opportunity to learn more about the charity and the variety of work it does through meeting the volunteers at club events throughout the year. In the meantime, you can find out more about the charity by visiting their website:

https://www.parentingspecialchildren.co.uk

RR Charity page is also here https://readingroadrunners.org/charity/

As your charity organiser, I am committed to giving as much time as I can to the role and, as a very local charity, PSC volunteers are also ready to help me. I am very open to constructive ideas from members about how I can do my role and welcome advice from those that gone before me.  Please do not hesitate to come and talk to me at track on a Wednesday evening.

By raising the visibility of this charity and the work it does, I also I hope I will also encourage us all to think a little more about people that act a bit differently to the norm. To stop and think. To show a bit more compassion. And be kind. Because God knows right now the world needs a bit more of that.

Rachel Helsby