Social Care charity Expect Limited have had a busy twelve months

Based in Bootle, the charity has been in operation for almost 35 years and supports adults with a learning disability, those in need of mental health support, Dementia, Autism, Acquired Brain Injury and other complex needs. We offer residential care, supported living placements and Day centre services. Our mission is to continue to deliver person centred support to people with a disability, promoting and enabling their independence, choice and integration into the local community.

What We Do:

We provide adult residential services to include registered care homes in the Sefton area, providing high-quality services for people who may require nursing and personal care, including end of life support. We take pride in providing high quality, homely living environments with support provided by professional, committed and friendly staff. Our small residential services are offered to people who are considered not to have capacity to manage their own tenancy and are in need of 24 hour support and supervision. Expect is registered with CQC.

Expects’ Supported Living Services are aimed at supporting adults and young people throughout Sefton to live as independently as possible in their own tenancy whilst remaining safe and healthy. Our bespoke services offer support to empower people in achieving their daily goals.

Our Bowersdale Resource Day Centre (BRC) is a lifeline for many local people. Situated at the heart of the community in Seaforth & Litherland, the Centre offers a variety of structured activities and learning opportunities to our service users that can help them build their life skills, improve their physical and mental health and increase their confidence and independence. Our service users are both male and female, aged 18-80. The Centre provides a safe and supportive environment where individuals can socialise, make friends, and feel included. This social interaction and inclusion is particularly important for those who may otherwise be isolated or feel stigmatized due to their disability or mental health needs. Sefton is a high level deprivation area, with little by way of social clubs and activity sessions available, making the Bowersdale Resource Centre that much more important.

Service User Mickey, says of Expect and the BRC;

“I’ve been a part of Expect for a long time now, four straight years of coming to the BRC. I love coming to the Centre as it gives me something to do in the day instead of just sitting around on my own watching the TV. Attending the centre really helps my mental health, getting around and seeing people who I enjoy spending time with. They are my friends. Because of the centre, I am in a much happier place”.

Successes:

2023 has seen us embark on our first trip away with service users from our BRC for a number of years, everyone enjoyed the sights, sounds and attractions on a trip to Blackpool! Our group visited Madame Tussards and The Sea Life Centre, enjoyed an ice cream with a walk along the beach and all of the entertainment that the town had to offer. More trips, including a residential trip are planned for 2024.

The BRC has also won a prestigious Britain In Bloom-level 3 advancing award for our brand new gardening project, which funding helped us to achieve last year. Service users and staff have spent the last year establish our gardening project at the centre, Installing a mini greenhouse, buying equipment, re-turfing the lawn and planting seeds for the growing of our plants, flowers, fruit and veg. In total 24 adults have benefitted positively due to the gardening project.

We have installed a wormery composter to help reduce our carbon footprint, kneeler benches allow less able bodied service users to plant and join in with the group. A small pond has seen more wildlife attracted to the garden and our outside Gazebo’s allow service users to work on the garden, whatever the weather. The project has given everyone a real sense of ownership and has greatly improved service user’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Fruit and vegetables grown in our garden are then put to good use, being used in our cookery sessions at the centre or being taken home for service users and their families to eat.

Service User Suzanne says:

“We really enjoy the gardening project. The rainy weather never stops us from doing our gardening. It brings people and nature together”. Suzanne attends the gardening project along with her support staff.

Another success for Expect this year have seen us open a new Supported living service, St. Edmunds (in conjunction with partner charity Housing Initiatives) with referrals coming to us via Social Services. The site has had a full refurbishment carried out including; new kitchens, flooring and décor.

The service was officially opened to the first occupant in August 2023, with tailored support being provided by Expect. There are now 4 residents, all have settled in well and are thoroughly enjoying their first taste of independent living.

Our first ever Comedy Night was successful this May, with over 80 supporters joining top local Comedians in raising £1,115 for Expect services. More events will follow in 2024.

Christmas at Expect Limited:

This Christmas period will continue to be a busy one for our services. Our Bowersdale Resource Day Centre will be hosting our annual service user Christmas Party on Friday 15th December, which will include a buffet lunch, Christmas decorations and a set from our talented DJ Chris. Christmas fancy dress is encouraged. The Centre will also be housing other Christmas events throughout December.

Our residential and supported living services will be celebrating Christmas in the traditional ways, with service users and support staff enjoying a traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas day and enjoying games and festive merriment.

How You Can Become Involved:

Fundraising for Expect is important over this festive period. We have staff members Jerryann and Kevin competing in the Liverpool Santa Dash, raising funds to enable another trip out for service users of our Day Centre in the new year. Both will be dressed as Santa, completing the 5k course around the city on Sunday December 3rd.

We also have our virtual Christmas campaign which allows supporters to leave a virtual snowman in memory of a loved one on our page and remember them this Christmas with a picture, message and donation to Expect.

The link to our virtual Christmas campaign is here if you would like to get involved. https://visufund.com/expect-limited-christmas-campaign-2023-memory-snowmen

We are always on the look out to develop our partnerships with other charities and actively seek funding avenues to explore as well. If there are any funding pots available that Expect could look at accessing, please let us know.

There are a number of ways corporate supporters can become involved with Expect, from volunteering at our services, offering employee skills training or work placements for service users, to adopting a service to become a Charity Of The Year partner.
We actively encourage donations of crafts and other materials for sessions and workshops taking place at our Day Centre.

March of 2024 will mark Expect Limited’s 35th Anniversary. As part of our celebrations the charity will be going through a rebrand during the early months of 2024, changing up our logo, website and presence across social media. We hope that this will help us make Expect more widely known and make us more accessible to those people that need our services the most across the Liverpool City Region and beyond.

Our branding will change, but our vision will remain, to help create a world where disability has no limitations.

Happy Christmas!
For more information on Expect Limited please email kevin.byrne@expect-excellence.org or visit www.expect-excellence.org. Telephone 0151 284 0025.

Expect Limited registered charity number 701331.