Category: Uncategorized

We still have some spaces left for the Acctivate music club this summer. The Acctivate group is for children aged 8 – 12, and is on between August 22nd and August 26th. It runs between 10am and 1pm each day.

The children  will have the opportunity to make, edit and maybe even compose their own music, using ACCT’s computer suite and music equipment. We have a music expert coming in to run the session, and an ACCT worker to support the children and young people to take part. The clubs are open to any children and young people with a diagnosis, whether they attend Acctivate or not. There are also some day places available for both clubs, so your child can just come along for one or two days, if this is what works best for them.

Places are strictly limited, so please book as soon as possible. To book, please email  enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk or call 0114 252 1911.

We’re going on our annual day trip to Cleethorpes on Saturday 21st August – fingers crossed for sunshine!

All are welcome, please contact the office to book your place.

Our next monthly Parents Meeting takes place Thursday 3rd November, 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm at St. Mary’s Community Centre. We have a speaker Val Harpin who is a paediatrician from Ryegate Children’s Centre who will be speaking about ASD & ADHD.

As many of you are aware Sainsbury’s at Archer Road nominated us as their charity of the year for 2010 – 2011 and to date together we have raised £5647.93.  We’d like to thank everyone at Sainsbury’s for their magnificant fundraising efforts and also to all of our members and other volunteer bag packers at various dates throughout the year.

On Sunday 21st August we are planning a trip to Cleethorpes and on Saturday 24th September a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  This will be instead of the Acctivate sessions that had been planned on these dates.  If you would like to attend the Cleethorpes trip could you please contact the office on 0114 252 1911 or email:enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk stating the names of who will be attending along with contact email and telephone number.

Members of ACCT were invited to a Q&A with Nick Clegg, organised by the Sheffield Star, on Monday 21 February.

Helen Basu Chaudhuri asked Mr Clegg to explain recent funding cuts to CAMHS in Sheffield despite a commitment from the government that there would be no cuts to frontline services, you can read the article that appeared on the front page of The Star here

The story has been picked up by national press, including the Daily Mail, and Director and co-founder of ACCT, Deborah Woodhouse, was invited to speak to Channel 4 in relation to a bigger story about NHS cuts – read more here

You may have noticed that ACCT recently changed the look of its website and marketing with some fun illustrations. We’ve also designed and printed some t-shirts, as modelled here by TV presenters Angellica Bell and Michael Underwood (who posed for us just after their secret wedding!).

If you’d like your own t-shirt please contact enquiries@acctsheffield.org.uk

A big thanks to all the volunteers who helped us with bag packing just before Christmas at Sainsburys Archer Road. Volunteers, including Dr Val Harpin (pictured here), did a great job over 3 days of festive fundraising.

ACCT were at Sainsbury’s Archer Road again on Saturday 30th October, helping to pack bags and sharing information about the work we do. The store was decked out with spooky decorations and members of staff came in fancy dress – see if you can spot the ACCT volunteers in this picture:

ACCT were at Sainsburys, Archer Road, for a Back to school fun day on Saturday 4th September. Kids were entertained by a clown, cheerleaders, face painting and even the fire brigade joined in the fun.

We also had some fantastic volunteers packing bags at the checkouts, Claire ran a very successful book stall and we handed out more than 100 balloons to young shoppers! All this helped to raise much needed funds so we can continue to run activities for our members.

A big thank you to everyone who helped out and/or donated to ACCT, we really appreciate your support.

ACCT families enjoyed a lovely day out at Cleethorpes in August this summer.  It was an all day event with families responsible for their own children but also able to relax thanks to our wonderful ACCT staff and volunteers playing a variety of games with the children.

For most of the time we stayed on the beach playing bury the child, ball games, digging, making sandcastles and paddling in the sea.  For lunch we had a delicious fish and chip lunch in a restaurant which was timely as it poured with rain during the hour we were there.  In the afternoon we continued to have fun on the beach before going home on the train tired but happy after a lovely day!

Thanks to the generous staff and customers at Sainsbury’s we were able to go on the trip at no cost to families and are planning to have several more trips in the future.

Sainsbury’s Supermarket at Archer Road have pledged their support to ACCT by supporting us as the local Charity of the Year for 2010/2011.  They will run a series of fun days and activities and undertake to raise £10,000 for us.

Deborah Woodhouse, Co-Founder and Director said ‘we are delighted to have the support of Sainsbury’s to raise funds for our charity.  This money will pay for fun trips and experiences for families, siblings and children and teenagers with Asperger’s Syndrome.  We had a wonderful day trip to Cleethorpes in August and have plans to visit Aerial Extreme, have a trip to The Institute of Sport and are organising a sibling trip to Kingswood Camp near Barnsley in October.’