A key goal of The Meeting Place Club is supporting parents, some of whom parent alone and some of whom have many and varied challenges in life.  Parents often put the needs of their children before their own and this occurs much more frequently with a child who is excluded, left out or just forgotten about.  We seek to advise, support, educate and build parental confidence so that life can be more fulfilling and less stressful.

Aside from a chat over a cup of tea we regularly hold classes in Zumba, yoga and crafts; with our Zumba leader being an early group member who developed the confidence to create her own business.  Educational inputs are provided by a range of experts in different fields and discussion often turns to the negative effects of diagnostic labels and culturally defined terms such as autistic and disabled. While as a society we don’t say ‘she is cancer’, we often say ‘she is disabled’ or ‘he is autistic’ and these terms can be quite limiting for the individual child and their family.  It is worth noting that countries in the Arab world of the United Arab Emirates, (not often seen as a paragon of human rights), avoid these negative stereotypes by referring to individuals with additional needs as ‘people of determination’.

Language matters and we know the families we work with are absolutely people of determination and we strive to meet and exceed their aspirations in all we do.

If you are a person of determination, who would like to learn more about what we do, keep up to date with our website or visit our social media pages where all the action is captured.