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helping hands

Helping children with additional needs to discover their Eureka! moment

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Launching The Eureka! StoryHelping disabled children to discover their Eureka! moment

Eureka! The National Children’s Museum has launched the latest strand of its award-winning initiative aimed at helping disabled children and their families enjoy their experience of this award-winning attraction. Eureka! launched The Eureka! Story, a bespoke guide designed for, and with, children with communication or sensory difficulties, as part of its three year Helping Hands project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Children on the autism spectrum can feel overwhelmed by a visit to any unfamiliar place, and a visit to a colourful and busy museum like Eureka! can provoke a sensory overload. Designed in close consultation with children, parents, and professionals from Cliffe Hill School in Halifax, West Yorkshire, The Eureka! Story is a visual, step-by-step guide to the entire museum experience so that children can familiarise themselves with everything that they will experience before they arrive. The Eureka! Story is available free via the Eureka! website: www.eureka.org.uk/eurekastory

Trizia Wells, Eureka!’s Helping Hands Project Lead, explains “The Eureka! Story is a simple but effective tool that visualises the whole experience, meaning that parents and teachers can prepare children with loads of visual prompts. For us the most exciting thing about this project is that it puts the child’s experience firmly at the centre and has been road tested by children who will be using it.”

Rachel Halford, mother of 12 year old Jack who helped on the project said “The Eureka! story will have a positive impact because it is really difficult to take autistic children anywhere. Having something that tells you everything to expect and written in the way that the children can understand is unique.  As a parent I think it’s absolutely invaluable. As someone who tries to take a child to places to have fun, I do think that Eureka! is truly inclusive and you don’t really get that anywhere else.”

The Eureka! Story now forms part of a range of ways that Eureka! has introduced over the past two years to maximise the way it engages disabled children and their families. These include activity clubs, bookable visits supported by Eureka! staff, special welcome greetings for children with communication difficulties  and a range of resources to help children enjoy their visit.

This year Eureka! was awarded Bronze in the Access for All category of the highly coveted VisitEngland Awards.

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  • For more information about The Eureka! Story visit www.eureka.org.uk/eurekastory
  • The Helping Hands project, now in its third and final year, is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
  • Helping Hands is a range of free services that help disabled children and their whole family to come along and enjoy a day at Eureka! whilst reducing the stresses and strains that a family day out can entail. To find out more about Helping Hands email Trizia Wells, Helping Hands Project Lead, or call us on 01422 330069. In May 2013 Eureka!’s Helping Hands Project won Bronze in VisitEngland’s Access for All Tourism Awards.
  • Eureka! is designed especially for children aged 0-11, with over 400 hands-on exhibits inspiring them to learn about themselves and the world around them through imagination, play and discovery. For visitor information call 01422 330069, visit www.eureka.org.uk, become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
  • The standard Eureka! ticket is also an Annual Pass, letting all of the party paid for on the day of the first visit to come back to Eureka! free of charge as many times as they like over the next 12 months. Adults: £10.95, Children age 3+ : £10.95, Toddlers age 1-2: £3.75, Babies age 0-11 months: free. Read more about the Annual Pass.
  • Eureka! is open 10am–5pm at weekends, during half-terms and holidays. Term-time Eureka! is open 10am –4pm Tuesday – Friday, and 10am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. The museum is closed on term-time Mondays and between 24-26 December.
  • Eureka! is situated next door to Halifax railway station, just 10 minutes by car from junction 24 of the M62 and 17 miles from Leeds
  • Eureka! is an educational charity no. 292758

 

Even more Helping Hands at Eureka! Children’s museum.

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Eureka! Museum’s innovative Helping Hands Project has announced the next round of free Saturday and Holiday Clubs for disabled children and their families from across Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford and Calderdale. The regular clubs offer families the opportunity to take part in specially designed activities, supported by trained members of the Eureka! team, before exploring a different part of the popular children’s museum each week – all completely free of charge.

Eureka! The National Children’s Museum in Halifax, West Yorkshire, launched Helping Hands at the end of 2011 thanks to funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The three year project provides a range of services that enable the whole family enjoy a great day at Eureka! and reduce the stresses and strains that a family day out can often entail. The first club will take place on 29 September and is open to the families of visually impaired children. A Saturday club specifically for children with Down Syndrome is set to start in March 2013.

Trizia Wells, Eureka! Helping Hands Project Lead said “We’ve received fantastic feedback from the 85 families that have already taken part in our free clubs, so we’re really pleased to be able to open this fantastic free service up to even more families this year. The clubs are great opportunities to explore, play and learn new skills, but I know many of the families have also benefited greatly from meeting and talking with other families.”

•An Extra Pair of Hands– a bookable service providing families with a specially trained enabler who will support them throughout their visit

•Saturday and holiday clubs – a chance for families to play and learn together at sessions run by trained enablers

•Ambassadors – Eureka! wants families to help by telling us what they think of our galleries and activities, giving us their ideas and suggestions and telling other families about the Helping Hands project

 

Saturday & Holiday Clubs

At each of our Saturday Clubs we will have trained enablers on hand to support your visit, additional activities and parking, all completely FREE. Our Helping Hands clubs are a great opportunity to:

•Meet other families

•Enjoy Eureka!’s fun filled environment

•Discover new ways to play and have fun together

•Take part in specially created sessions will be run by the Eureka! team

The sessions will include a visit to a different museum gallery each week

Pre booking is essential for these sessions. Places are limited and we will be asking you how we can help make your family’s time at Eureka! as enjoyable and stress free as possible.

 

Coming up…

•Visually Impaired Club

29 September, 6 and 13 October 2012

•Wheelchair Users Club

10, 17 and 24 November 2012

•Autism Early Years Club

8, 15 and 22 December 2012

 

Dates for 2013!

•Down’s Syndrome Club

2, 9 and 23 March 2013

•Hearing Impaired Club

20 and 27 April, 4 May 2013

•Autism Primary Club

8, 15 and 29 June 2013

 

Holiday Clubs 2013

 

Easter: 26, 27 March

2, 3, 9, 10 April

 

Summer: 25 & 26 July

1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 August

 

To book your place on any of the Saturday or Holiday clubs, please email trizia.wells@eureka.org.uk or jenny.goodall@eureka.org.uk or ring us on 01422 330069.

 

Here’s some feedback from our Holiday Clubs:

•”The children were well supervised with plenty to do.”

•”Great that the children were playing with their peers, getting a bit messy and doing activities they can’t normally do at home”

•”Parachute games were great – more please!”

•”Family time spent together and it was free! had a great time!”

An Extra Pair of Hands:

Our bookable Extra Pair of Hands service provides families with a specially trained enabler to support them throughout their visit. The service will be available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturday afternoons and Sundays throughout the year.

 

The service is free with an annual pass, and each family is entitled to two supported visits (each visit lasting two hours) per year. The service must be booked at least two weeks in advance of your visit.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT EUREKA’S WEBSITE!