In 2025 Friends for Leisure celebrates its 30th anniversary. From our humble beginnings in 1995 to supporting hundreds of disabled children and young people today, Friends for Leisure is proud to celebrate 30 years of making a positive impact. We couldn’t have done it without the help of our volunteers, our fundraisers and organisations like The Pixel Fund who have chosen to support the good work that we do.
Friends for Leisure’s aims to establish, promote and develop mainstream leisure and friendship opportunities for children and young people aged 5-21 with a range of chronic/life-long disabilities including physical, sensory, learning, mental health or a combination, in Cheshire East.
Disabled young people often have a difficult time making friends and learning the social skills they need to get on in life. Feeling like part of a community is vital for a happy life. Yet isolation, exclusion and loneliness continue to be pressing issues that negatively impact on children’s wellbeing and happiness, more so for those with disabilities. Having fun and making friends make life worth living and impact hugely on mental health and wellbeing, as well as encouraging higher aspirations and improving their overall quality of life.
For disabled young people our combination of a one-to-one buddy system and activities provide unique opportunities to build friendships and take part in age-appropriate activities alongside peers. These activities and opportunities to connect, lead to:
long term relationships
a support network that lasts into adulthood
an opportunity to develop social skills
increased confidence
Ultimately, all of this helps disabled children and their families to feel less excluded and more integrated into the community. By addressing their loneliness, we help to improve young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
With the support of The Pixel Fund, we have been able to organise an exciting itinerary of youth group activities for our five youth groups and a selection of special events open to all the young people we support. Over the Spring term this includes:
Bowling events
Drama group
Multi-sports
Skills for life
Indoor bouldering and climbing
A visit to Reaseheath Mini Zoo
Monster shakes and sundaes
Meals out for all the youth groups
Design, decorate and tie dye t-shirts
Glass decorating
Movie nights
A bingo event
ird box building with the RSPB
Valentines day themed event including making chocolate truffles
After Easter we’ll be planning another action packed catalogue of events; open to all our registered young people living in Cheshire East.
All the children and young people we work with, greatly appreciate the events and activities that we arrange, and enjoy building relationships with other young people and the volunteers that work with us. None of this would be possible without our supporters. From everyone here at Friends for Leisure, we want to thank The Pixel Fund for their support, and we invite you to follow us on social media to see some of the exciting things that our young people get up to.