Our Story
The Family Support Project arose after a chance encounter between Des Cooke, owner of D.ESCAL8 and Christianne Pollock, mother of a teenager with severe autism and learning disabilities. Christianne’s own experiences of being left to try and support her son’s distressed behaviours and the huge difference D.ESCAL8 training made to her family motivated discussion about providing these opportunities for other families. Much of the training that exists is not really appropriate for families and training can be difficult to access. This is frustrating, particularly considering it can make a huge difference to distress levels and make it possible for young people and adults to remain living in the family home or remain in regular contact with their families. Both Des and Christianne are committed to working with other families to improve the lives of people living with and affected by distressed behaviours.
Both Des and Christianne believe that values are the most important foundation of any organisation working with vulnerable people. We believe in respect, supporting individuals in distress and recognising each person as an individual.
The Family Support Project is a social enterprise. We believe that training should be affordable and any profits are used to help fund further courses and support. We are currently working with other organisations to develop our social values.
