The Melton Project
The Melton Project is a four bedded short breaks home for children and young people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours between the ages of six and nineteen years. We currently provide a service to twenty two local families across Leicestershire and Rutland.
The Property
The Melton Project is situated close to Melton Mowbray town centre in a good position for accessing local amenities. The Project is housed in a converted dormer bungalow set in a large garden. We have four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lounge/dining room, kitchen, conservatory and a sensory room. Our Service Users have access to the ground floor facilities with the office space being located on the first floor with access for staff and visitors only.
Activities
Whilst the young people are at the Project, we offer them a wide range of activities and encourage their participation in these. Within the Project, we offer creative activities including, painting, baking and crafts. Our sensory room provides a quiet area for relaxation and sensory stimulation whilst our garden is a secure and well equipped area for more energetic activity. Our staff team endeavour to provide activities away from the Project too. We have a mini-bus which allows us to access the local community and venture further afield with ease. Favourite activities include trips to the cinema, ten pin bowling, meals out at restaurants, day trips to the seaside, barge/boat trips, the zoo and regular visits to local parks for walks and picnics.
Service Provision
We can accommodate up to four young people at any one time with a fifth emergency bed being available, if rarely used! We operate a Key Worker system with each young person being allocated a Team Leader to fill this role. The Key Worker will liaise with families and professionals in order to prepare and maintain accurate and appropriate care plans and risk assessments for each individual young person. By providing families and carers with a regular break from providing care, we are able to support the young people to continue living at home for longer. Most, though by no means all, of our young people have Autistic Spectrum Disorders with associated challenging behaviours and many have difficulties with communication. We aim to provide a relaxed, low demand environment where the young people can be encouraged to develop their life skills whilst enjoying and participating in a variety of activities provided.
Fundraising
The Melton Project staff team get involved with local fundraising and we also seek support from other local groups. We now have an Open Day in December which has become an annual event. This helps to raise our profile within the community and has been well support since its conception. We also take the opportunity to raise funds by holding a raffle with a Christmas Hamper being the main prize. Our other main fundraising event is usually held in the months prior to the summer holidays where we attend a local show or fete and run a Tombola stall. This year we attended the Long Clawson Fun Day in its first year and would definitely do this again. We have received support from local groups including Mars Group Retirees, The Grapevine, Ragdale Hall’s Make It Happen fund, Trumpton Fire Service and the U3A (University of the Third Age). We are very grateful for their support. However, the main fundraising event of the year has to be the sponsored bicycle ride to Croatia undertaken by Sean Johnson and Donna Tanner. Unfortunately things didn’t go quite to plan and they were forced to return early when Sean’s bike snapped in two, but a great attempt never-the-less and we wait to hear how well they did with sponsorship.
