Prayer Diary: May - August 2024

In everything give thanks

May/Aug 2024

We are recruiting…

…for various service-based roles in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Please visit the Livability Jobs Board, where you will find all current vacancies and further details: www.jobtrain.co.uk/livability

Alternatively use the QR code.

If you would like any further information, please contact recruitment@livability.org.uk

Livability defines itself as a ‘learning organisation’, which means we will invest in supporting you with your career and personal development. In addition to a friendly working environment, we offer the following benefits:

Competitive salaries

Training in line with job role

Training for professional qualifications

Pension scheme

Flexible working

Generous annual leave entitlements

The Employee Assistance Programme

Welcome to our prayer diary

Dear friends

Sally Chivers CEO

I sometimes stop and think about just how much there is to give thanks for across the Livability community. I am grateful for each person we support and for what each person brings through his or her gifts and personalities. We have remarkable staff members who go the extra mile to provide the very best care and support for those who use our services. We have three special education centres full of vibrant children and young people; they are taught by dedicated teachers and therapists. Our rehabilitation centre Livability Icanho continues to bring hope and confidence to people who have experienced a brain injury. And our new short-break children’s service is going from strength to strength. Of course, there are always challenges, but gratitude serves us well in all we do. I thank you for joining with us to pray.

Dear God,

We’re so grateful for the ways you have blessed Livability’s work over the decades, providing finance, people and guiding our decisions. We ask for your favour on each Livability service in the coming months and pray you would prosper our work. Amen

May

Let’s pray

Thank you that you have given us the resources to support hundreds of people with disabilities, across our services. We ask for your help as we seek to provide the very best care and support for each person’s needs. Amen

Week 1

We lift the families of each person we support to you and pray that the knowledge that their loved one is safe and cared for would bring them peace and happiness. We thank you for all our staff, who welcome families and friends into our services. Amen

Week 2

We pray for our staff team at Livability Icanho, our rehabilitation centre, as its long-serving clinical lead Julie retires. We ask you to fill her successor with skill and motivation. Amen

Week 3

Thank you Lord for the recent good-rated CQC inspections we have had in our adult services, and for the dedicated staff striving to provide the best care they can. Amen

Why our work is needed

Solicitors who specialise in head injury cases have spoken out about the lack of provision, after the acute phase, for people who are living with this kind of injury. Nearly 60% of such lawyers believe there are insufficient residential rehabilitation units in the UK*. Livability offers both residential and specialist day service rehabilitation for adults who want to rebuild their lives after the trauma they have experienced.

*https://bit.ly/3PxnJHu

Week 4

Lord, we ask you to bless the people who have recently started using Livability’s independent living service in the northeast. We pray they would feel safe, happy and comfortable and make friends quickly. Amen

Real life story

Graduate Becki left university with her life ahead of her. Out of the blue, a massive brain bleed left normally healthy Becki hospitalised for nearly a year, needing 24/7 care. She moved to Livability Treetops, our residential nursing home, where she has made lifeenhancing progress. Says Becki, now 28: ‘Speech and language is the biggest improvement. At the moment, my walking is not great but I’m making small steps and I have regular physio at Treetops, as well as speech and language [therapy] which helps me to read and spell. Staff help me to practise the exercises I’m given and do their very best to help me with my progress.’

Read Becki’s story at https://bit.ly/4ahgqfa

Support

Livability provides rehabilitation from brain injury at our specialist centre Livability Icanho and at our four residential nursing homes. Hundreds of lives have been changed and families supported, at each place. You can help us to carry on providing and expanding this work.

Please support our rehabilitation work and donate online at livability.org.uk

June

Let’s pray

We pray for our three education centres: Livability Nash College, Livability Millie College and Livability Victoria School, and ask that each learning centre and each student will prosper and their plans succeed. Amen

Week 1

We pray for all the special summer events happening at our school and colleges this year, including sports days and fêtes. We ask that huge joy may be found by our students and staff, and that these events build our students’ confidence and wellbeing. Amen

Week 2

As final-year students prepare to leave Livability Nash College, we lift each person to you, Lord, for your guidance and blessing as they move forward into adult life. May they flourish and find their place in the community. Amen

Week 3

We pray for hope and strength for everyone in our services, and all our students and thank you for all the support given. We especially pray for those who are more in need of support. Amen

From Catherine, who lives at a Livability service.

Week 4

We pray for staff at all our education settings, as they deal with admission applications for the coming academic year. Please give them energy and wisdom as they liaise with potential students and their families. Amen

Why our work is needed

In the past decade, the number of students in England reporting they have a mental health condition has soared by almost 200%*. Our students frequently have multiple disabilities, and their mental health is something we strongly prioritise. Our school and colleges offer a range of ways to build good mental health, including therapies, trusted key workers, and caring practices built into the school day.

*https://bit.ly/3TNgm1b

Real

life story

Support

Students and their families frequently tell us that our education centres have enabled the young person with disabilities to develop far beyond their expectations. We want to provide a specialised, personalised education for as many young people as possible.

Help us to provide the very best education for students with disabilities. Please donate by phone; call 020 7452 2121

Enterprise and sustainability are key to Livability Millie College and work is now underway to develop the centre’s garden sites. Thanks to our kind donors, students will soon be able to learn a wider range of horticultural skills, which can open doors to employment. A plant nursery will propagate products to sell at a local craft centre, whilst produce from an accessible kitchen garden will be used at the college and in our planned onsite café. A food forest, on the 350-acre site, will teach foraging and conservation skills.

July

Let’s pray

Lord, we’re so grateful that we’ve been able to launch a north-east service to support children with disabilities. Thank you for the vision of the team who planned this. May this service go from strength to strength. Amen

Week 1

We pray for Livability’s new children's short-break service in north-east England. Please help the new staff team to bond well and bless each child we support. May each one flourish in our care. Amen

Week 2

Lord, we ask you to encourage and comfort the parents and carers of children we support, as families join us and adjust to a new rhythm of life. May our support bring each family peace and wholeness. Amen

Week 3

We ask for guidance and wisdom for those who manage the new short-break service and to support more children and families. Amen

Why our work is needed

We launched our children’s service in the north-east because demand is huge; 16% of children and young people in Newcastle/ Gateshead have special education needs and/or a disability, equating to around 11,000 children. Nearly 40% of children in the region are living in poverty. Livability already had a large Gatesheadbased workforce and good existing working relationships with local commissioning bodies.

Week 4

We ask for the resources to expand our children’s service so we can help more children to thrive, including the opportunity for activities to bring more fun into their lives. We pray for your blessing on longer term plans, including a day centre and a residential children’s home. Amen

Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/livfamilies

Real life story

This children’s service is already experiencing a high demand for places. Initially offering short-term breaks, Livability is already planning further services, including a residential home. The service offers support to the child and their family or carer, providing whatever will help the child, and therefore the family, to thrive. ‘We’re so lucky being able to set up this service,’ says service development manager Rachel Davidson. ‘We can quickly see the difference the support makes – the pressure it takes off parents, the new activities we can support children to try, the second pair of hands to make a family activity more enjoyable.’

Support

Our new children’s service is thriving but needs investment in areas we want to develop to benefit the children, such as resources for activities and transport for short-break clients. For example, many children from disadvantaged families cannot visit the beach, just 12 miles from Gateshead, because the cost is prohibitive for their family.

Give a child with disabilities some joy at the seaside this summer – call Michelle on 020 7452 2099 to find out more.

August

Let’s pray

Dear God, we want to thank you for the many reasons we have for rejoicing over the charity’s work and the people we support. We’re encouraged whenever we hear of someone we support flourishing, new services opening or examples of life becoming fairer for people with disabilities. Amen

Week 1

We thank you for sustaining and guiding Livability’s work for 180 years, as we celebrate this special anniversary. We give thanks for our founders, Victorian men of faith Lord Shaftesbury and John Groom, along with countless others who have given time, finances and prayer to support our work. Amen

Week 2

Thank you, Lord, for the support of our patron HRH The Princess Royal, and the joy that her visit brought recently to people who live at Livability New Court Place. We pray that her influence might increasingly benefit the charity’s work. Amen

Week 3

We pray for the day trip and holiday arrangements made in many of our services, for the people we support. We ask for safety, good health and fun for everyone taking a break. Amen

Week 4

Lord, we thank you for the joy of reading that a new library at Livability Victoria School has fostered in our students. We’re so grateful for our generous supporters who made this possible.

Amen

Why our work matters

Demand is huge for quality, affordable social care. There are 16m disabled people in the UK. 11% of children are disabled; 23% of working-age adults are disabled, and 45% of pension-age adults are disabled*. Livability provides outstanding care for hundreds of children, young people and adults with a wide range of disabilities.

*Family Resources Survey (2021 to 2022)

Real life story

All our work and all the people we supported are underpinned by the generosity of our friends, donors and supporters in the Livability community. You enable us to care for people who live in our vibrant and caring services.

Please consider leaving us a gift in your Will: contact livability.org.uk/giftinwills

Chiming with our 180-year anniversary, this home’s residents were joined by family members, staff and supporters to greet The Princess Royal, Patron of Livability, on a recent visit. The princess toured the building, meeting those who live at Livability New Court Place and learning about the committed support they receive from the staff team.

Her Royal Highness also saw a demonstration of the enhanced smart technology that provides increased independence for those that live here This includes controlling their room environment without assistance, using television and media, opening curtains and adjusting light levels. People who live at Livability New Court Place showed off their prowess on their digital ‘magic table’ in the activities room, which enables people of any ability to enjoy interactive games, puzzles and more, individually or with others.

About Livability

Livability is the disability charity that’s committed to enabling children, young people and adults to live a life that adds up for them.

What makes life livable is never down to just one thing –it’s the sum of many things. From friendship to fun; from companionship to community; from a great chat to a challenge overcome – it all adds up to Livability.

Through a wide range of disability care, special education, and rehabilitation services, we promote inclusion and wellbeing for all. Together, we work to see people take part, contribute and be valued. We put the elements in place that all add up to connected lives.