- About the trust
- Message from trustees
Message from trustees
The JMS Trust was set up in direct response to a huge donation from Liza Grenfell which was to be used to support family carers to set up supported living for their offspring that reflected their needs better than what was available. The Trustees were clear from the outset that the money was to be used, not stored… and that their task would be complete if the whole of the endowment was used provided that it supported Liza’s wishes.
No set model was proposed for the settings that were sponsored, because the key to it was that each setting should directly reflect the needs of those who would live there – so a wide variety of models resulted.
The response to the availability of JMS support, once it was known about, demonstrated the level of interest in the Learning Disability community, and the level of commitment from family carers to find ways of helping their offspring towards whatever level of independence they were capable of. The support was targeted at groups of family carers who had clear notions of what would work but did not have the resources to make them a reality without help.
...the key to it was that each setting should directly reflect the needs of those who would live there – so a wide variety of models resulted.
Funding has been used to create a total of 17 new settings, benefiting 70 young adults and 64 individual families, from all parts of the country. A decision to consider the purchase of a property for groups that had no means of getting one was initially to be limited to a couple of initiatives – but it has proved possible to provide twice that number, and with considerable success.
The models referred to throughout this document invariably refer to young adults with a learning disability – but all the models supported could be equally appropriate for people of more advanced years, provided that the buildings could accommodate reduced mobility if needed.
Liza’s legacy has created life-changing options for so many people. As Trustees we have been proud to enable this to happen. The key ingredient has, of course, been the determination and resilience of family carers in making things happen. This resource attempts to capture the learning and insights from their efforts so that others can be best equipped to follow that course if they so wish.