Crawley Foundation: Kicking the new year off with Foundation Development Days

On Monday we were lucky enough to be joined by Niki and Maria from the Autism Education Trust, based at St Piers, Lingfield to deliver a Making Sense of Autism workshop.

During the talk, we were joined by Maria Cook, Chairperson of Autism Support Crawley and her wonderful son Ryan. Autism Support Crawley is a voluntary carer-led charity supporting fellow unpaid carers, caring for someone with an Autistic mind, with or without a diagnosis across all of Sussex, Brighton and Hove, Surrey, Kent, and Hampshire borders.

The charity host face to face coffee mornings and evening meetings, along with online evening meetings, for carers seeking peer support. They run training courses to support carers in their caring roles and host family events in the school holidays.

One amazing feature to the charity is also the closed Facebook platform just for carers to receive support, information and signposting, as well as mailing lists for both carers and professionals.

Following the autism training, Nuffield Health, Crawley came along on Monday afternoon to deliver CPR and defib training to staff.

With a defibrillator now fitted just seconds away from the Foundations 3G Ball Court, it felt right for staff to be able to confidently administer the device should there ever be an emergency.

Tuesday started with a Show and Tell session for Foundation Staff - as much as the group see each other everyday, coach on sessions together and work together in an office, this was a chance for the team to get to know each other on a personal level, by speaking about something that means a lot to them.

Ben Davie delivered a staff wellness session in the afternoon, focusing on breathing, and mental wellness.

Many of our staff found this extremely helpful and will take the exercises into their everyday life, or even on sessions where participants may benefit from the techniques, such as our mental health session, Move the Goalposts.

As we go into a new term of delivery, we’d like to say a huge thank you to our guests who joined us last week and to our amazing staff who make Crawley Town Community Foundation what it is. Would you like to join the workforce?

We have another exciting opportunity to work within the charity as we currently have a BTEC Tutor vacancy.

The role will see the individual deliver the educational element of our Football & Education programme, alongside the Education Manager, ensuring planning, teaching and assessment are to the expected high standards.

As a key figure in delivering the programme, this role involves creating engaging, work-related lessons by leveraging resources from the Foundation and Crawley Town Football Club.

A strong focus on student welfare and safeguarding is essential, following the organisation's established policies.

Additionally, you will support students in exploring post-education pathways and provide constructive feedback to parents/carers during review meetings.

Applicants should be a qualified teacher or possess a relevant teaching qualification.

If this sounds like your next venture, please go to ctcommunityfoundation.com/ourvacancies to apply.