Cash boost for community facilities

A project in Bath to create a community sensory room for people with learning disabilities opens its doors to the community following a £9k cash boost from the Big Lottery Fund.

Dimensions devised the plans and set about raising the funds to pay for it. The team in Bath managed to raise almost £3,000 and now thanks to a major lottery grant is now complete and open to people with sensory disabilities across the community.

The new facilities at Trinity Close with multi-sensory equipment have been created specifically to benefit people who have difficulty with sight, hearing or touch. The equipment stimulates the senses with lights, sounds and aromas to provide therapy and can calm or energise the person, depending on what their needs are.

Paul Flett, team manager at Dimensions, said: "We are delighted to have received this grant from Big Lottery Fund to develop the facility. We wanted to create a sensory/relaxation room for the benefit of the people we support. Some have quite profound and complex needs and the equipment and technology will help them enormously.

"The room is equipped with special lighting, scent diffusers and tactile equipment and has many therapeutic and calming benefits for people with different needs. As the idea for the sensory room developed we soon realised it could be facility that could benefit others within our community."

Dimensions, which supports more than 2,500 people with autism and learning disabilities across England and Wales, shapes its support services to meet the needs of each individual. The creation of the sensory facilities, known as SensAbility, will be open to people with sensory impairments living within the local community.