A LOCAL support group for children with Autism has organised a Special Needs Trust Planning Seminar for all parents of children with special needs.
This information seminar, which has been set up by Ennis Voices for Autism will be delivered by Financial Wellbeing in the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis on Wednesday, November 9 from 8 to 8.45pm.
Allan Cuthbert founded Financial Wellbeing in 2008, a company dedicated to Special Needs Trust Planning. It gives him great joy to help ease the financial worries of parents who are raising a child with additional needs.
This is his way of helping parents who are constantly faced with difficult choices and challenges dealing with their child’s future needs.
Dolores Crowley is involved in Financial Wellbeing because she feels she can understand parents, having been a carer for her mother for more than 30 years and now for her son, David, who has additional needs.
“I want to be there to give parents the knowledge that I have attained as a carer,” she said.
EVA secretary, Gearoid Mannion said this workshop covers special needs trusts, wills, guardians, trustees, bank accounts, letter of wishes, hospital passports, hidden entitlements and how best to fund a child’s trust.
“Parents can learn how to secure their child’s long term financial future and remove the worry of planning for their future care when they are no longer around to support them,” he added.
In January 2012, a group of parents came together and formed EVA to support parents of children with Autism and related conditions. Initially, the main aim to have regular meetings to provide each other with support and advice etc.
But over the years the group’s main purpose evolved to provide sensory-friendly activities for children with Autism across Clare.
These have encompassed a wide range of activities from one-to-one swimming lessons and therapeutic horse-riding to summer camps in association with Clare Sports Partnership as well as sensory-friendly cinema screenings in Ennis and Limerick. Most of these activities are provided free of charge. Occasionally, the group charge a nominal fee.
The group also provides funding to a number of local national schools to assist them in the offering of “July Provision”.
It has offered advice in relation to the re-development of playgrounds, to make them more sensory friendly, and advised Shannon Airport in the provision of the Sensory Room in their departures area.
EVA doesn’t charge any membership fees and doesn’t ask parents to fundraise, relying instead on donations and the occasional grant to provide these activities.
People who wish to attend the seminar need to book online here. A €10 donation to EVA is payable on the night.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.