The team behind Jak’s Den in Livingston are getting ready to celebrate the second anniversary of the opening of its bigger and better centre.
Team Jak will mark the special occasion with a socially-distanced party for families and the charity also intends to launch its exciting newly-refurbished Suite.
The charity is also launching an appeal to buy new toys for the children and young people who benefit from Jak’s Den.
Allison Barr, chief executive, paid tribute to the brave youngsters who have had to deal with the pandemic, along with treatment for cancer and other serious and life-limiting conditions.
The centre had to close last March due to lockdown and only opened for counselling for a few weeks in November before restrictions were tightened again.
It opened four weeks ago for garden visits and counselling and support groups and Allison said she hopes to have more indoor activities over summer if levels allow.
She said everyone is looking forward to getting back to some kind of normality and a number of sessions are being piloted for patients – dubbed warriors – and their families.
The Team Jak Foundation was set up by Allison’s son Jak Trueman before he died of a rare lymphoma in 2015.
Jak’s Den was opened soon after, offering indoor spaces for music and sensory play therapies, activity, media and teen zones, parent area and soft play.
Jak’s Den mark 2 opened in June 2019 with an outdoor activity space featuring counselling pods, a pirate ship and a reflective angel garden.
Allison said: “Over the last few weeks we have been piloting a number of different types of sessions to ensure the safety of our families whilst ensuring we are fully compliant with covid guidelines for support centres.
“It is so lovely to finally have a small taste of some normality again. We have had a number of pre-booked family sessions in Jak’s Den garden which have been fantastic fun.
“We were also delighted to have been able to finally put out our Crazy Golf holes thanks to our fabulous grant from St James Place over a year ago.
“We also received a grant from Foundation Scotland and created our own bespoke bag of worries programme which has helped a number of our warriors and angels find ways of dealing with some of their worries.
“We have a bespoke programme for warriors and siblings being printed as we speak and then I’ll be working on one for bereaved children and teens.
“We had a session recently where we had four children in person and two online at same time and it worked a treat. We were really happy with it and believe our blended approach is the way to go.
“Our angel family group has also grown since lockdown where families are coming together online and in person to support each other and we work with the siblings and cousins at the same time to make memory items with them and remembering their angel.”
Allison said like most charities, Team Jak has suffered from a drop in funding during lockdown.
She continued: “It’s been tough as 66 per cent of our income came from community fundraising like events, collection tins and awareness days and these have all ceased overnight and we are now trying hard to look at new sources of revenue.
“It’s been great to be able to take a lot of our activities online though as it means children from all over Scotland or even those not well enough to travel to the den are able to.”
Allison said the charity has now issued an appeal to replace remote control cars and toys for youngsters to play with while they’re at the den.
She explained: “Sadly all of our remote control cars and some of our outdoor toys have broken having being in our shed since lockdown so we have created an Amazon Birthday List with items you can purchase and send directly to Jak’s Den.
“For those of you who would rather donate financially please visit our Virgin Money Create a Smile Page and we will use the money to provide snacks and refreshments for our families at our birthday party.”
You can order toys directly at https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/SNR0MIX5FJGQ/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex?pldnSite=1 to be sent to Jak’s Den at Ochil House, Livingston, EH54 6QF.
Or to donate visit https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action?charityCampaignUrl=teamjakcreateasmile.
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