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Celebrating World Book Day

Today is World Book Day, a day to celebrate reading for fun.

We love books at SNAPS. Reading can be such a fun and rewarding experience for all children, no matter their age or ability. It offers countless benefits for development and wellbeing – fostering speech and language development, enhancing creativity and imagination, promoting empathy, and helping to reduce stress and anxiety.

At SNAPS, we see storytelling as a powerful way to bring families together, creating connections that go beyond the page. We especially love to see books where children with additional needs are represented in a positive way. It can really help to nurture self-esteem and confidence when children are able to identify with the characters,

Here are just some of our favourite children’s books featuring characters with additional needs or storylines about diversity and inclusion. Many of these have been written by people with additional needs or parents and carers with first-hand experience.

Picture books

See What I Can Do by Jon Roberts
This book tells the stories of children with a variety of additional needs, inspired by the real-life experiences of the author’s daughter, who is autistic.

No Horn Unicorn by Shani Dhanda
There’s something different about Ugo the unicorn… a heartwarming story that celebrates difference.

When I See Blue by Lily Bailey
A touching and honest book about life with OCD, and the power of friendship. 

You’re so Amazing! by James and Lucy Catchpole
About a child with a limb difference who is tired of being told how amazing he is for doing normal things.

Dexter! The Amazing School Dog! by Lucy Plunkett and Sian Bowman
Introduces readers to neurodiversity through the lovable school dog, Dexter. 

This is Me! by George Webster
A heartfelt and positive picture book from one of our favourite CBeebies stars. 

Talking is not My Thing: Rose Robbins
A celebration of diversity and neurodiversity, this is a rare example of a story that recognises non-verbal communication.

My Brother Otto by Elisa Pallmer
An engaging picture book that shows everyday life with little crow siblings when one of them is on the autism spectrum. 

Loud! by Rose Robbins
An adorable picture book about a little girl who  finds that she can express herself through singing. 

Chapter books for older readers

Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend by Lizzie Huxley-Jones
An action-packed, epic adventure featuring an autistic heroine.

The Stickleback Catchers by Lisette Auton
A magical adventure of family and friendship with inclusive portrayal of disability and illness. We especially like the positive description of the main character’s mobility aids. 

The Amazing Edie Eckhart by Rosie Jones
Inspired by comedian Rosie Jones’ own experiences of navigating school with cerebral palsy.

Wilder than Midnight by Cerrie Burnell
A magical, fairy tale inspired story that celebrates individuality and difference.

Further reading

 

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SNAPS is expanding!

We are thrilled to share the exciting news that SNAPS is continuing to grow!

Due to increasing demand for our services, we will be launching sessions at a brand-new site:
Co-op Academy Brierley, located on Cross Green Lane, East Leeds.

This is in addition to our existing services and will allow us to support even more children and families across the region, as well as offer some new and exciting services to our current families.  

We are planning to launch this new site in September 2025, with additional sessions including sensory, rebound therapy, stay and play and more.

This expansion will not affect our current provision at Penny Field and Broomfield – they will continue to operate as usual.

What’s happening next?

  • To help us prepare for this expansion, we will be increasing physiotherapy sessions at Broomfield for the Summer term only.
  • Referrals for our services at Brierley will follow the same process as Penny Field and Broomfield. We plan to take referrals for the September term, for all of our sites, later in the summer.
  • More details on how to book sessions will be shared in the coming months.

Please keep an eye out for further updates, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

We are very excited to be able to extend our support to more families and widen the range of services we offer.  We look forward to this next chapter for SNAPS!

Smiley Charity Film Awards logo

Smiley Charity Film Awards Finalists!

We’re thrilled to say that our film has been shortlisted as finalist at the Smiley Charity Film Awards! 
 
We’re very proud of this film as it tells the story of SNAPS so well and really highlights the impact we have on the families we support. A huge thank you to our friends at Strata for producing it for us. 
 
It’s wonderful to get exposure like this for SNAPS and the work that we do with our amazing families. Thank you to everyone who voted for our film, we couldn’t have done it without your support . 

We’ll find out whether we’ve won on 20th March. 
 
You can find out more about the Smiley Film Awards at their website. 
Strata reveal their fundraising total for SNAPS

Strata raises over £125k for SNAPS

Over the last 18 months we have been lucky enough to have the support of the wonderful team at Strata. 

Not only have the Strata team raised a significant sum of money for SNAPS, but they have provided us with support and advice, attended our events and even created a film for us (which you can view here). 

This week we found out their final fundraising total for SNAPS: an incredible £125,743.84!

These funds are will help us to maintain our vital services supporting children with additional needs and their families. We cannot thank the Strata team enough for their  support. 

Matthew Bloomer, Head of Social Purpose at Strata, says: “It’s been amazing to help support such a worthwhile charity in SNAPS. Having met the families and seen first-hand what a difference the charity makes to people’s lives, we feel proud to be able to have helped.

“The people there are fantastic and the generosity and enthusiasm shown from everyone who has supported our events has been inspiring.”

Feeling inspired? If you’d like to give back to the community through your business, find out more about our corporate fundraising opportunities. 

Copy of SNAPS Christmas Raffle (1)

SNAPS Christmas Raffle

Join the SNAPS Christmas Raffle and be in with the chance of a cash boost just in time for the festive season!  

We have two cash prizes up for grabs: 

First prize: £150 
Runner-up prize: £50

It costs just £2 per entry, and the winners will be announced on 18th December.

All funds raised will help to support our mission at SNAPS to be there for children with additional needs and their families.

To enter, please visit our Enthuse raffle page via the button below. Good luck! 

 
Enter the SNAPS Christmas raffle
SNAPS logo

Notice of SNAPS AGM: Saturday, 30th November 2024

We will be holding our Annual General Meeting 2024 on Saturday, 30th November at 10.00am. It will take place at Penny Field School, Tongue Lane, Meanwood, Leeds, LS6 4QD.

Everyone is welcome to join us and we would especially love as many parents as possible to  come along.  It’s a chance to hear about SNAPS’ service delivery from the past year, our finances and the management of the charity. It is also an opportunity to raise any suggestions or concerns you may have. We are driven by our families’ needs, so your feedback is incredibly important to us.

For further information about the AGM or to request to attend, please email Lucy Owen:  lucy@snapsyorkshire.org.

We hope to see you there! 

  1. Notice of the Annual General Meeting, November 2024 
  2. Minutes of SNAPS AGM, January 2024
  3. Nominations: November 2024
  4. Summary of Accounts: April 2023 to March 2024
  5. SNAPS Annual Accounts: April 2023 – March 2024
SNAPS trustees

Celebrating Trustees Week

This week is Trustees Week, a time to step back and recognise the amazing contribution made by charity trustees.

There are almost one million trustees across the UK, and we are very lucky to have nine brilliant trustees of our own. They are: Chris Eatwell (Chair), Ross McWilliams (Vice Chair), Paul Rowson (Vice Chair), Lora Bedford (trustee), Victoria Moss (trustee), Sunjay Chauhan (trustee), Debbie Hingerton (trustee), Tom Wake (trustee) and Shelley Sheridan (trustee).

This wonderful group of volunteers give up their time to help SNAPS to thrive. They work collectively as a board, ensuring that our charity is run as effectively as possible and that we are complying with our legal requirements. Within our board, we aim to have a mix of skills to cover the various complexities that the trustees discuss in their meetings.  Each trustee is a great support to the staff team and an invaluable part of the SNAPS family.

Some of our trustees are also SNAPS parents,  ensuring that our families voices remain at the heart of everything we do. This includes Lora Bedford, whose family has been coming to SNAPS since 2017.  

Lora Bedford and family

“Becoming a trustee is a role which I feel is really important, as I can help to bring the voice of all parents back to the board, drive change where needed and continue delivering the incredible services that are already provided. I am immensely proud to be a part of this wonderful charity.”
 – Lora Bedford 

This year’s Trustees Week happens to coincide with Chris Eatwell’s ten year anniversary as Chair of SNAPS. Chris came on board in 2014, when our charity was really struggling and in danger of closing down. He set the foundations for SNAPS to grow dramatically and deliver a wider range of services to many more families.

Chris says: “When I first joined the Board, our greatest asset was the enthusiasm of the families and children, who were so keen for SNAPS to survive. This has been a ten-year programme of strong managed growth, investment in development, creativity and bold decisions, led by the certainty that our model was right and would enable SNAPS to continue supporting children with additional needs and their families.

“We have built something of value. Our contribution is important to our city of Leeds – our actions in supporting children and their families, in delivering quality therapeutic outcomes, our presence on the decision making bodies across the city, our strong voice helping to deliver messages about the struggle of lived experience on behalf of the voiceless. This has all helped to make our city and our communities better places to live.

“I have loved helping to build this multi-award winning movement of ours. It truly is a thing of pride and passion, of belief in a better future, of the drive to change what is wrong or doesn’t work as well as it might, and to make a better world.”

We are also sorry to say that our wonderful Vice Chair Ross McWilliams will be stepping down as Trustee. Ross joined the Board in 2016 and his support has been invaluable. From fantastic advice and support at Board meetings, to being the friendly Boccia face for families at Saturday sessions, and dressing up as a superhero to brave our Superhero Knockout Challenge obstacle course! We are all hugely grateful for all his wonderful support over the years.  He has been an incredibly committed member of the Board and we are very sad to see him leave.

Ross says: “I first came across SNAPS working as a medical negligence solicitor at Irwin Mitchell, who have supported SNAPS for many years. When there was an opportunity to apply to become a trustee and I decided to give it a go. Being a SNAPS trustee has been such a rewarding and enjoyable experience. I have met some amazing people along the way and been part of something really special, helping to grow a relatively small charity into the organisation it is today.

“Whilst my term as a SNAPS trustee is sadly coming to an end, I want to continue to be involved with this amazing charity and I am certain that I will become a trustee again in the future.”

We are so thankful to each of our Trustees, we couldn’t do what we do without them!

Find out more about Trustees week here: https://trusteesweek.org/

Leeds water taxi

Stranded for SNAPS: a challenge with a difference!

A group of SNAPS supporters are taking on a fundraising challenge with a difference this month!

SNAPS Super Stars Awards

SNAPS Super Stars Awards: October 2025

The SNAPS Super Stars Awards is annual party to celebrate all the amazing things our children, families and supporters can do.

We encourage parents and carers to nominate their children and tell us about a special achievement that we can celebrate on the day. All children receive a certificate and a treat on the day. 

Watch this space for more details of our next Super Stars Awards, coming up in October 2025! 

You can read about 2024’s awards here. 

Winning photos for The Howards photography co mpetition

The Howards: winners announcement

Announcing the winners of our photography competition!

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