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**** Chairman Honoured Peter Cousins Chairman of BFW has been awarded The M.B.E. in Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours list on 14/6/08 for his outstanding voluntary work and innovative service to others, especially for his selfless service to a voluntary body and to the community, which brings distinction and quality to UK life. Peter retired after becoming disabled over twelve years ago and has since devoted his time to help people with disabilities and others who are disadvantaged.
The Brighter Future Workshop - project was setup to help young unemployed people with disabilities to assist in repairing mobility equipment. It took over two years in planning and the new charity, a social enterprise, opened on 14th July 2005. The workshop takes some of the most disadvantaged disabled people and others who are greatly disadvantaged in many other ways - many have been excluded from social inclusion, and have very low self esteem.
The Brighter Future Workshop helps them to find their feet and make a new life for themselves working towards their own economic stability. Trainees learn new skills, working alongside fully trained technicians and contribute to sustainable development, gain valuable work experience, and at the same time gain AQA accreditation in basic mechanical and electrical engineering. Their own personal development is enhanced as they gain self worth and confidence, leading to improved ‘employability’; with the right support and encouragement, for many, this may be the first step on the ladder to paid employment. Peter as Chairman has led this successful social enterprise, working towards its sustainability and gaining service level agreements with local special needs schools, main stream schools and also social services day centre for people with learning difficulties, to offer work based hands on skills and life skills to those who are disadvantaged. The workshop offers a cost effective repair service to mobility equipment users locally enabling them to remain mobile and therefore less disadvantaged.
Response by Peter Cousins M.B.E - Chairman Brighter Future Workshop I am humbled and very honoured to have been awarded an M.B.E. for my voluntary work with people with disabilities in West Lancashire. It came as a total surprise; I never dreamt that I would ever receive such a tribute in recognition of my work and it will be an honour to attend Buckingham Palace for the formal ceremony in November.
I intend to use this award to help me further highlight the need of young disabled and disadvantaged to gain real life skills and opportunities to access vocational training at The Brighter Future Workshop.
**** Visit our eBay Site for some great bargains **** PARTNERSHIP ALLOWS Brighter Future Workshop TO ADAPT VEHICLES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS WELL AS GIVING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES THE CHANCE TO LEARN NEW SKILLS! - JULY 2008 Elap Engineering Ltd and Brighter Future Workshop Limited are two organisations located in the Northwest; they have a common goal which is to improve the lives of individuals who also have disabilities. Elap Engineering Ltd based in Accrington was founded over 30 years ago and today sees itself as the leading provider of vehicle adaptations in the UK with over 80 adaptation specialists throughout the country. The company started by inventing the Rotating Car Seat, today it still remains the world leader for the product and exports to over 20 countries world-wide. Brighter Future Workshop Limited (BFW) is a social enterprise based in Skelmersdale and was established in 2005 to give young people with disabilities real life skills and training opportunities. Until now the organisation has serviced and repaired mobility equipment such as scooters and wheelchairs, this has resulted in the Chairman being awarded with an M.B.E. for his voluntary work for people with disabilities in West Lancashire. Today the organisations have entered in to a joint venture allowing BFW to carry out the installation of vehicle adaptations with the support and quality assurance from Elap Engineering Ltd. Elap will provide BFW with regular work and assist them to develop training programmes for the young individuals; this may even inspire some of them to enter the industry themselves! Peter Cousins from BFW said “It’s all about the young people; this partnership will allow us to be nearer to be coming self sustainable as well as create a new interest for the trainees who come to our organisation. Although they will not be directly working on the vehicles, they will assist our expert engineers in the preparation and completion of the installations. Money cannot buy the smiles we see on the faces of the trainees who gain satisfaction from their efforts here at BFW because they are actually completing something worthwhile” Elap offer an extensive range of products suitable for most people who may need such adaptations, their latest product is the Elap Total Drive Joystick Steering system; this involves the removal of the steering wheel which is replaced by an “aeroplane like” joystick control system. David Newns from Elap Engineering Ltd said “Everyone at Elap is really excited about this project, it’s our opportunity to give back to the community as well as enabling our customers to have freedom & mobility, everyone will benefit from this partnership. We are looking forward to working closely with the team at BFW to deliver technical training and product knowledge sessions to ensure our customers get the right products for their needs.” If you are interested in vehicle adaptations you can visit the website of Elap at www.elap.co.uk or if you would like to find out more about Brighter Future Workshop Limited please visit www.bfworkshop.co.uk To request a brochure call free on 08000 433 159 or BFW at 01695 724361 **** BFW massive increase of training day place and AQAs BFW training day places have increased from 8 in 2005 to 47 in June 08 a massive growth of nearly 600% Our 8 staff have had intensive product training and 4 have undergone teacher training qualifications, enabling us to expand into main stream schools to satisfy the 14-19 initiative in mechanical and electrical engineering to AQA standard. To date our trainees have accomplished 225 AQA accreditations in basic electrical & mechanical enginee |
