Why should trusts support Leonard Cheshire Disability ?
The cost of the basic support packages delivered by Leonard Cheshire Disability each and every day to thousands of disabled people is met, in the main, by statutory sources such as social services and Primary Care Trusts. This is vital, of course, but such funding goes only so far in meeting disabled people's needs. Activities that bring real quality of life to service users are rarely funded in this way.
Activities such as Leonard Cheshire Disability's mentoring, advocacy and befriending schemes, or
Discover IT, the IT-based programme that helps disabled people benefit from technology in ways that they decide for themselves, do not generally qualify for statutory support. Instead they depend on voluntary income, and, whilst this may come from a variety of sources, donations from charitable trusts are almost certain to figure prominently.
In the same way, the expansion/redevelopment of services or the establishment of new services rely, heavily, on voluntary income; and again trust donations will be a vital element in the mix of voluntary support that these attract. Capital appeals are particularly dependant on the generosity of charitable trustees for their success. No new residential service is built without major trust funding. No large-scale expansion or redevelopment of a residential service takes place without it.
Over the years charitable trusts have contributed enormously to the network of Leonard Cheshire Disability homes that covers the UK. The most magnificent example of this can be seen at Staplehurst in Kent, where half the cost of the current home, The Sobell Cheshire Home, was met by
The Sobell Foundation. With the charity now undertaking its largest ever redevelopment programme, the fervent hope is that charitable trusts will continue to support Leonard Cheshire Disability's work in this way.
