JIGSAW Thornbury is a charity based in South Gloucestershire that works with children and young people aged 0-25 with additional needs or disabilities, and their families. Everyone can join in, with or without a diagnosis. We provide friendship, support, compassion and fun, along with innovative services that empower the while family to connect, fit in and thrive. We also play a vital role in the community to enhance inclusion by raising awareness to help everyone understand the challenges that those with additional needs or disabilities face and to celebrate the unique strengths and qualities they bring.
Everything we do is driven by the passion of our staff and volunteers, supporting over 1100 families in the last 11 years.
We currently offer 18 different services. These include support groups, Youth Empowerment, SENsory Lending Library, Home Ed group, Holiday activities, Young volunteers, Youth Club, Forest Fun, parent wellbeing events, and training and awareness sessions. We offer something for the whole family, not only the child with additional needs but their siblings and parents as well. Some of our families report that JIGSAW events are the only time that their whole family do things together successfully outside of the home. Most importantly we are a safe space where families can be themselves and recharge their wellbeing.
JIGSAW is an acronym for Joining In, Growing Support, Awareness and Wellbeing. Thanks to the generosity of The Pixel Trust and their grant , we will be able to offer a year long wellbeing for the parent carers we work with including Family Forest Fun, Evening Creative Wellbeing, Woodland Wellbeing, Wellbeing breakfast/Afternoon teas and Wellbeing goes wild.
Being a parent or carer to a child with additional needs or disabilities takes a huge toll on wellbeing and is extremely isolating. The repetitive and constant barriers faced in accessing opportunities in their community or further afield because of the needs of their children results in a lack of energy to try new things, with some families rarely leaving the house. Our parent and carer wellbeing events offer a safe and supportive environment where parents and carers can feel understood and able to talk openly about the challenges they face with absolutely no judgement. This helps them to have a positive experience accessing something in their community, building their resilience and hopefully leading to their whole family feeling more confident trying new things in the community too. This supports not only the wellbeing and independence of the parent but the whole family unit.
"At JIGSAW we've found good friends, good advice, good signposting but more than that, a place to vent, rant, cry and laugh. JIGSAW is more than a place, it's a family, it's the people, it's our tribe." - Parent carer
"Such a lovely event to laugh, relax and offload, share experiences and feel really completely spoilt!" - attendee of JIGSAW parent breakfast