Branching Out is a charity that supports people with learning disabilities and has been changing the way they provide day opportunities by taking their service online. Making the most of social media they have been keeping in touch with everyone they support via Branching Out @ Home. The Branching Out @ Home group has provided a safe and secure online group with regular activities provided for all those who attend Branching Out to access. The activities have been a huge hit and are proving to be a great way to keep in contact with everyone. The members of the team who work at Branching Out have been busy uploading video content as well as developing games, learning resources, and bringing together exercise videos and much more.

We launched the group to offer virtual drop-ins and check-ups for those who attend Branching Out, we know how important Branching Out is to those who attend and we have been working to do everything we can to bring Branching Out to their homes. We have had virtual Birthday celebrations, pub quizs, bingo, and lots more." Rachel Wiggans, Proactive Support Team Manager at Branching Out

Why are we fundraising? Our IT equipment is really old and it not up to the job. We are being limited on how much and the quality of our support due to our IT. We need to purchase new laptops with the ability to edit videos and video recording equipment. We also want to increase the support we can provided to people who are not able to access out @Home online group by posting them activity packages with lots of activities to do to help them while they are self isolation. We are all ready sending activity parcels out but we are hiving to keep them small so we can keep the postage cost as low as possible but with some extra money we could be doing the more frequently and with even more activities in them.

Branching Out is a charity for adults with learning disabilities that provided over 25,000 hours a year of support to adults with learning disabilities. For more information about how to help support Branching Out please follow their Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheBranchingOut or visit our just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/branching-out to make a donation. Charity number 1047403