The Brightwell 100 initiative was launched in February 2022 and thanks to the generosity of supporters, we have already been able to put funds towards the new oxygen generation project, the new terrace & garden area, physio team uniforms, IT equipment, plus other enhancements for service users.
Money raised from all the numerous fundraising activities, funding from grants and donations from trusts planned and sourced by the Fundraising Team at The Brightwell, will be used to focus on ensuring that The Brightwell’s overheads and running costs are covered. The overall fundraising ensures that therapies are affordable and no one living with a neurological condition is ever turned away, which in most cases means individuals’ physio and oxygen sessions are subsidised by the charity.
Therefore, every pound raised through the Brightwell 100’s corporate fundraising is allocated to specific projects and enhancements from the Wishlist, adding real and immediate value.
The Brightwell 100’s current focus is on our “Project Green” fundraising. We are very fortunate to have been given 114 x 250kw solar panels a few years ago and we will be looking in the future for battery storage. However, in the meantime the urgent situation is to convert all our lighting to LED, as we anticipate that our energy costs could rise by as much as six times today’s costs when our current deal ends! By converting to LED this will give us an anticipated cost saving of over 80% on our lighting bill. Based on the projected, increased costs, the payback period will potentially be less than 2 years.
The total cost for this project is £21,000. We have already received £5,000 which is going to be used to change all the outdoor lighting to motion sensor LED in January. We are now looking for businesses to support us with this fundraising for the internal lighting.
We are also looking to introduce talking therapies for members and their carers. There is very little, if any, support through the NHS, or other routes, for those living with neurological conditions, in particular MS. We are looking to offer counselling and peer-to-peer sessions, including art and music therapy, for our service users.
We would also like to offer support to those who are carers too. The vast majority of carers, looking after our members are partners or relatives and this can put a great strain on families. Therefore, we are looking for to run support groups for carers as well.
The majority of the costs for running these groups is to buy in professional services, that our current staff and volunteers cannot offer.
As can been seen in the list below, all the projects that we will need to raise money for add meaningful and added value ranging from Oxygen, Physiotherapy, talking and recreation therapies and general items to support Centre users and maintain the actual building.
If you would like to discuss any of these items in more detail or to discuss any other queries regarding becoming a Brightwell 100 member, please contact me.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Caroline Blake-Symes | Brightwell 100 Coordinator
Mobile:07970 038135
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-brightwell
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