A much-loved care service in Northumberland with a "great track record" working with young adults with additional needs has expanded with a brand new building in the heart of Ashington.
Brightside Adult Services is a "one-of-a-kind" day service focussed on offering support, teaching and care to young adults with additional needs. It also offers respite care and support living services to take the strain off families.
The new building in the Northumberland town will allow it to expand capacity and take more young people - with demand across the county for such provision growing fast. At an open event celebrating the new building, Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery was among those celebrating how a "remarkable" service has grown in less than a decade.
Co-director Cheryl Wade also told ChronicleLive she was delighted with progress at the new centre. She said: "I'm delighted with everything today, I feel like I might even be able to sleep. This expansion is about having more space to accommodate more young people in a high quality place. It's about providing areas where we can run the fulfilling educational activities for those coming here.
"We want to make sure we help give the young people the functional life skills that they need and to have the same opportunities and chances to build strong friendships. It's about building up and out to improve what we can do to change the lives of these young adults."
Local MP Ian Lavery, who has supported Brightside for several years, added: "It's great to be here to see the expansion of Brightside. It's an organisation that has a great track record in working with those who have additional needs and to have seen where they have come from to where they are now is amazing and a credit to their fantastic staff, many of whom I know personally and who dedicate their lives to looking after these young people.
"There's a huge demand for this kind of service and a huge need, so to see them grow and build is tremendous - it is all about quality here. There is massive need for provision like this and at the end of the day we have to make sure that the provision we do have meets demand. And the most important thing is that it has to be quality provision."
Tara Shipley, 22, uses the service. She said she loved the new building and gardens and added: "It's really great, it's a place which is exciting and it's helps us to make things each day. I especially like cooking and here we choose what we'll make together.
"Different people will have different ideas and we will put it to a vote. Then we get whichever items we need from the shops."
Dad Mick said: "Brightside teaches them and helps them to have that bit more independence. It's great for them to have this new space and it's lovely to see."
READ NEXT:
