This Year We’re Celebrating!
Ravenswood Village is 50
The birthday party starts now and goes on throughout 2003 as we mark the event, spread the news of the Village’s success and longevity, and try to secure a future for this amazing place.
The good news
The community is alive, and flourishing – Ravenswood Village is a vibrant, positive place, and is looking ahead, not back.
The bad news
The fabric is in urgent need of attention, as funding constraints, changing requirements, growth, and natural wear and tear take their toll.
Ravenswood Village was formed in 1953 by four families with a shared vision: to improve on the level of care their children, each of whom had a learning disability, were receiving from established institutions. Today, the Village is home to 175 people with learning disabilities set in 120 acres of countryside in the heart of Berkshire.
| In 1996 Ravenswood merged with Norwood, Anglo-Jewry’s leading charity for children and families, and the Village became an integral part of Norwood’s range of services and one of its great success stories. |   |
50 years of success, growth and achievement are something to celebrate. But Ravenswood Village is in urgent need of refurbishment, upgrading and replacement of some facilities.
A Special Place
Ravenswood Village is a thriving, buzzing community with a huge range of buildings, facilities and educational and leisure activities, including:
- The Annie Lawson School, providing education for 24 pupils aged between 11 and 19 with profound and multiple learning disabilities. The guiding belief at the School is that all children are special and should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of the severity of their learning disability.
- 3 homes, housing 20 children
- 17 registered homes housing 155 adults, ranging from purpose built houses and bungalows to flats and bedsits. Some are fully managed by our professional care workers, others allow residents to live almost completely independently
- 275 staff caring for our residents
- Dance and art studios and pottery workshops
- A hydrotherapy pool
- Stables and an all-weather horse riding arena
- A working garden, store and coffee shop
- The Karten Centre for computer-based learning
- Courses in pottery, art, music, lifeskills and many other areas
- Leisure activities including a railway club, regular discos, theatre trips, walks and an extensive range of sporting events A Special Place
At Ravenswood Village...
- we believe that all our residents are entitled to the same range of choices, wherever they come from or whatever the level of their disability
- we believe that everyone should be recognised for their ownvalue and worth as a person
- we believe that the needs of each resident should determinethe service we provide
To keep these beliefs alive and real, we depend on expert, dedicated and loyal staff. We also rely on equipment, technology and bricks and mortar - which require constant maintenance, regular upgrading and, eventually, replacement. Many of Ravenswood Village’s facilities urgently need this now.
"Ravenswood Village is one of the finest examples of community in action - courageous, imaginative and inspiring. It's refreshing coming to a place like this .... it isn't work, it's total commitment."
Jeremy Beadle (Therapy Weekly feature by Nicola Swann) 18 October 2001
Ravenswood People
Talia
"Music therapy helps me think about my mum. It helps me think about things I find hard."
Talia is 35 years old and has lived at Ravenswood Village for fifteen years. She has profound learning difficulties and cannot speak. When Talia’s mother died her care worker could see the emotional strain was affecting Talia’s quality of life and she was determined to support Talia in expressing her grief.
Over the past two years the adult music therapy service at Ravenswood Village has enhanced the lives of nearly 80 residents. This specialist therapy offers people with learning difficulties who face emotional challenges, new ways of interacting, and can result in finding positive ways in expressing themselves and their needs. There are 50 residents currently on the waiting list for music therapy.
Daniel Daniel was abandoned by his parents at birth - his father was nowhere to be seen, his mother would have kept him, until she found out he had a learning disability. Today, he’d like to thank them.
Daniel wasn’t always so positive. But when you live in a hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without social interaction, personal choice and support, it’s hard to be positive. That only came once Daniel had moved to Ravenswood Village. Not only is there specialist care on site, 24 hours a day, but friends, neighbours and
the kind of independence so many people with learning disabilities miss out on.
Names have been changed and models used to protect confidentiality.
Our appeal to you
Ravenswood Village is in urgent need of refurbishment. Facilities need upgrading, modernising or replacing to maintain both statutory requirements and our own high standards. Just to keep pace with the changes we need to make at the Village over the next year, we have over 20 separate capital projects planned.
Not all of these are the kinds of glamorous, high-profile projects which easily lend themselves to fundraising campaigns – but are nonetheless essential.
As an example of the kind of costs we are facing:
£100,000
Ravenswood Village can only continue to provide specialist care if we maintain the Village’s infrastructure. It costs £100,000 to introduce wheelchair access, sliding doors, ramps and new pavements.
£26,000
Refurbishments to residents’ homes, widening and replacing external doors and windows with double glazing for increased insulation costs £26000.
£3,000
The central heating in the main hall, where many of the Village’s activities take place, needs repairing. It costs £3,000 to install a new system.
With no capital funding from Government sources, Ravenswood Village is reliant on the generosity and vision of our supporters to make the difference – you, and people like you. You can make a difference, by making a donation to the Ravenswood Village 50th Anniversary Appeal. You may not see your name in print, on a name plaque or on the door of a building, but you will know that you’ve contributed to the future of this remarkable facility. Please give now, while there’s time to make that difference.
"I've always known that whatever my daughter is capable of, Ravenswood (Village) will develop. Sending Sonia here was the best thing I could have done for her. I miss her every single day, but I know that she will fulfil her potential here. As I walk about, I can sense that Sonia lives in a caring atmosphere, and as her mother, I really couldn't ask for anything more."Judy Piatkus, July 2000
"Renowned for its position at the forefront of techniques for the development of children and adults with learning disabilities, Ravenswood (Village), sited on 120 acres, has been a model for other homes in Britain and abroad."
Daniel Crewe, The Times, 20 January 2003
