Funder spotlight: Sir James Knott Trust

Thanks to our amazing partners and funders, we are able to reach people with learning disabilities, autistic people and people with mental ill health or other challenges across the north-east. Our funder spotlight is one of our ways of saying thank you to the organisations that help make our work possible.

Sir James Knott Trust

The people we support have faced extra challenges over the last two years due to the pandemic and our organisation, like so many other charities, has also faced challenges and we would like to thank Sir James Knott Trust for their grant which helped us to stay strong and focussed on giving people like Ian the extra support they needed to overcome their personal challenges.

Ian's story

When Ian first came to us he found being in group situations overwhelming. When Covid hit, Ian’s anxiety worsened. The targeted, person-centred support we gave to Ian helped him to integrate with online and face to face groups, to reduce his anxiety and to improve his confidence.

Through joining activities such as our cooking skills programme and our peer support sessions, Ian’s confidence has blossomed and he is a valued member of the Your Voice Counts community – playing a key role in keeping members up to date about our activities and providing practical support and encouragement to other people with learning disabilities in our community.

“I’ve got a lot of help to join groups and meet new people. The staff are so helpful. I love coming to the groups and helping out” Ian