The difference we make

Each year, Signpost supports hundreds of local families to overcome the challenges of living with childhood disability.

By putting together a tailor-made package of information and emotional support for each family, we help them to recognise the strengths and skills the family already has, understand their options, and develop confidence in their ability to manage future challenges.    

Feedback from our families, using our evaluation surveys, consistently shows that after contact with Signpost they:

• Feel able to make choices
• Feel able to take action
• Feel better able to cope/more in control
• Feel more connected to others/less isolated 
• Have improved family relationships 
• Are aware of/able to access a service/club/group that they didn’t have before
• Get help with claiming benefits or funding for equipment 
• Have improved quality of life 

We asked families what would have happened if they were unable to contact Signpost.

They said: 

• Before I contacted Signpost I was at the end of my road, mentally, emotionally, you name it. My family was falling apart in front of me. Since I am new to ADHD (son newly diagnosed) I wasn't aware of help groups, people who could help me fight for my son. So for me [Signpost] is a true lifeline. 
• I would have felt alone, not sure what to do next 
• I would not have realised there was more information and services available  
• I cannot answer that as my family was at rock bottom, so I dread to think 
• I would have been left on my own to 'cope' with son's difficulties 
• I'd be completely lost and wouldn't know where to begin 
• I would have looked online but not as personal 
• Would not have had the info we needed, so would not have been able to make decisions 

For more about the difference we make, see 'Why Signpost?', our case studies and facts and figures pages. 

In a famous article called 'Welcome to Holland', written by an American parent, she compared the shock of having a child with a disability to going on a much-anticipated holiday, and landing unexpectedly in Holland, instead of the dream trip to Italy that she had prepared for. With no idea of the language, where to go, or what to do, it can take a while to appreciate that Holland isn't a bad place, just different. 

We say that Signpost staff are the tour guides to Holland - we know the language, we can help, and we can show you all the lovely things that living in Holland can bring. And we can help you come to terms with the fact that this was not what you had anticipated, because that is a significant loss which takes time to process.