TJ Donates to Big Give Project

TJ donated money to a project being run by local charity, the Rose Road Association, whose aim is to make a positive difference to the lives of young people with disabilities. 

Rose Road, who celebrate their 70th anniversary this year, provide direct care services including respite breaks, community outreach, holiday activities and advice for over 300 children and young adults with severe physical disabilities, learning difficulties, and/or autism. Based in Southampton, they also work across Hampshire and the surrounding counties.

Last year, Rose Road decided to take part in the Big Give Project for the first time to raise money to support the mental health of the children and young people under their care post COVID lockdowns.

This is something that caused additional distress to families already dealing with physical or learning disabilities and/or autism, making their day-to-day lives much more challenging.

The Big Give is a national challenge, which sees charities from across the UK create projects to raise money for their respective causes. You start by getting companies or individuals to pledge their support to show they believe in  the project and these pledges are then used to gain a champion, who matches the monetary amount pledged. The last step is to go online and launch a campaign to gain public donations too.

Rose Road launched their project last summer by submitting their funding application and sought out local companies in August to act as pledgers, of which TJ was one. TJ pledged £300 to the project, which helped secure a champion funder in the autumn, which in turn helped raise a total of £6,000 from the local community when the campaign went live for a week from 30 November.

The money raised funded things such as day trips to get Rose Road’s children and young people back out in the community, taking them back to places they love, rebuilding skills they lost during the lockdown periods when they weren’t able to go out, and supporting their mental health in general.

TJ have been supporting Rose Road since TJ’s Managing Director, John Gosling became aware of their work in 2013. TJ, who already had associations with The Rainbow Centre in Fareham and the Beneficial Foundation in Portsmouth, were looking to support a Southampton-based charity as well. When they discovered the great work that Rose Road does, they were keen to be involved and help support that.

Over the past nine years, John has taken part in many sports-related fundraising events for Rose Road and TJ Waste has provided donations as well as skip hire services free of charge as and when it has been needed for events and projects.

Beth Rogers, Senior Fundraising Manager at Rose Road said: “We’re so appreciative of the support that John and TJ have provided over the past nine years. They make donations when donations are needed and they’ve helped us keep the Rose Road premises and gardens clean and tidy with many a skip over the years! We’re so pleased to be working in partnership with TJ and so many families have benefitted from their input.”

Rose Road has a rolling calendar of fundraising events organised by themselves and members of the local community, and are of course, always happy to accept any monetary donations, which will enable them to continue their fantastic work. In May alone, there is a raffle, the Romsey Relay Marathon, a 70km Test Way Challenge and an Accessible Walk taking place to raise precious funds.

One family who benefitted from the Big Give Project was Gemma and her mum Ann-Marie. Gemma was born at 24 weeks and the doctors thought she had little chance of survival, but she defied the odds and is now 17 years old. Gemma is registered deaf and blind, and has Autism and communication difficulties. 

When Gemma was 13, Ann-Marie sought help from Rose Road in the form of respite care. Then, after the COVID lockdowns eased last year, the family were in a really bad place. Gemma was upset by the change in routines and her teenage years were also really having an impact on her behaviour.

Ann-Marie said: “Rose Road stepped in and basically became our support network. When we were told that Gemma couldn’t return to school after the holidays, Rose Road offered support during the day times, while we worked on finding her a suitable long-term educational placement. They turned a day room into a mini ‘daytime educational space’ and allocated 6 workers who got to know Gemma. They really helped her to settle and grow.

“This whole process has been so much easier because of Rose Road and their amazing staff team, who are all so lovely and friendly and supportive. I am so grateful to them for playing such an important part in our lives.”

Find out more about the Rose Road Association and about the other CSR activities TJ gets involved in…