How fate intervened and how Cascade came home
It’s exactly a year that The Cascade Foundation left Doncaster. It’s strange how things turn out, we were meant to leave and return home, as if fate had intervened. I didn’t want to leave the Hub, new ideas were developing with the Children’s Trust and the council who were beginning to understand our ideas, our Hub and our ethos.
The feeling was strong, it was time to move on and cut our overheads, passing our furniture and items on to great homes. We had spent a lot of time observing the River Don just beside our Hub, where we had planted blue bells and daffodils on the bank. Four months after leaving the Hub it was flooded, taking weeks before we could return to see the damage the water had caused. We were so relieved to have moved everything out to safety in time.
Our two bids had just been turned down. These took place in three areas, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, and were with two of our ex-offender social enterprise companies. We could not find any monies to continue our courses, so the difficult decision was made to return home.
We had our first meeting in Essex January 2020. We had been inundated with support from bid writers, volunteers, teachers and a new trustee. Although we were moving forward, our learners from Doncaster were staying in touch by text messages, Facebook and phone. We continued to support them and were asked for many references. Many of our learners continued their learning at the local college, which was such a great achievement as it took such a lot of courage for so many of them to return to education.
In February 2020, I was to stay with our trustee (Sue Blackburn), who is also the secretary of The Cascade Foundation, until we had found our next project and funding. Something was happening. Sue became ill, she was feeling lethargic, unable to carry out her daily routines or attend the gym for over a month. After two visits to the doctor, a course of antibiotics and a really bad cough, we had hit the Covid-19 and did not know it!
On 23 March just before lockdown, I moved back with my mother and Candy the dog. My last project was as the aftercare supporter for the ‘Write Offs’ programme. During lockdown I continued supporting people through FaceTime and phone, much to the disbelief of my mother who could not believe the calls, chats and laughter coming from every call. Another failed bid attempt had set us the impossible task of knowing that over 3,000 charities had applied for the same monies. I spent time writing a report of 66,000 words telling of our work in Doncaster. I was contacted by a journalist who offered his help and input to the report, helping me to focus and filter out five important sections to make it easier for readers to understand the full extent of our work.
The report, ‘Dyslexia Behind Bars II: The Co-Production Teaching, Mentoring & Coaching within Doncaster Prison and Through the Gate into the Community – over 6 years (2013 – 2019)’ is in its final stage before we launch it to the world!
In Julie’s blog we spoke of how Julie had been unable to get a job and had been unemployed for several years. She is now employed and people can see the dedication that she gives to her employer. Julie has now been working for the last year and she received a letter from her employer which said: ‘Thank you for being a star in this most challenging of years.’ The support and kindness that she gives to Cascade learners and management is amazing and her donations help us all to continue our work with The Cascade Foundation.