Published on 12, July, 2020
This is a letter I have just started to circulate it outlines my plans to build an all-inclusive play facility so that ASD affected families do not feel excluded by closed minded neurotypical society. This is my wife's idea and I have been working on it for two years trying to protect it from getting stolen, but this facility will bring so much happiness to so many families it is time to release the idea into the world and start asking for help from the community I will be opening a crowd funding page once I have figured out how to.
I have just had a bid rejected by the (Removed by Mod) because they feel they already provide funding and cover these areas. If you agree with this letter and would like a facility near you comment on this thread or get in touch so that I can prove there is a need and hopefully start building them everywhere.
--THE LETTER--
Hi guys,
My wife and I with some friends and with your help are going to be building (Removed by Mod) an all-inclusive soft play family centre in (Removed by Mod) (hopefully around the Victoria area). We are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) and we are looking for endorsement from charity groups that will benefit from our centre. We are targeting charities that help; families with disabled members (mum, dad, gran, kids etc), that help elderly individuals and groups, single parents, low-income families, wheelchair users of varying degrees, sight impaired, families who suffer with cerebral palsy, inner city youth groups, home education groups, as well as many others.
We will be providing.
1 THE SOFT PLAYFRAME
A massive wheelchair accessible play frame which will include a lift or two, ball pools, slides, air canons, lots of levers that activate things, interactive lighting and sensory friendly sound and overall lighting. A main feature will be an RFID network integrated within the frame for children to discover the entire frame and run competitions, we can also use this technology to help school kids complete their physical education syllabus as set out by the government.
2 SENSORY ROOMS
We will provide several large sensory rooms managed by our friendly helpers -all rooms will be prebooked and hired out at a very low rate for two-hour sessions at a time, these rooms are going to cover two/three senses each so that repeat visits can be varied depending on the adventure customers would like to create. We will be providing access to expensive equipment that not all families can afford. Not all families are the same and many (like mine) have mixed abilities so having the sensory room so close to the play frame would allow all the kids to have fun at the same time and meet up for refuelling and a play together in the main frame.
3 OUTDOOR PLAY PARK
An all-inclusive outdoor traditional play park which will be inside so it can be used all year around no matter how British the weather is our equipment will always be ready to be used. With our air conditioning we will be able to control the temperature and make sure that no one will have to stop playing because it is cold outside. We will be integrating wheelchair friendly equipment with standard equipment to make sure everyone is mixing together and making new friends. All this wheelchair friendly equipment means that you will even be able to take your grandparents and let them have a go too. No longer will wheelchair users be left watching everyone having fun at the park!
4 SPLASH PAD
This will be indoors nice and warm possibly the first in Cornwall and will have a variety of exciting water play equipment to interact with this will be very good for families dealing with children who have sensory issues but more importantly it will be more fun than watching fireworks - an extravaganza of light and water.
Amongst all this fun behind the scenes there will be lots of green technology and many teams of people working in different areas creating lots of jobs in an area of high unemployment: -
Producing high quality nutritious meals with home baked breads, cakes and pastys with our creative chefs anything will be possible.
This unit will be a state-of-the-art vertical hydroponic farm set up, the perfect answer to minimise our carbon footprint and keep fruit and vegetables as fresh as possible all year round making sure that customers get as many vitamins and minerals as possible in their ice cream. We will be able to produce tomatoes, chillies, peas, strawberries, blueberries, mint and all different types of salad as an example.
To keep our overheads down we will be using a large solar panel array for the production of loads of green energy hidden away on a normally wasted area of the building, working to such low profit margins we will need to draw revenue from other sources other than our customers this will ensure our business survivability and enable us to keep our entry fees as low as possible so that no matter your situation your kids will be able to come and play.
This is an area is for the geeks and engineers amongst us, we are going to be harvesting rainwater, filtering it and using it around our facility as much as possible. Due to the high water demands of the splash pad we will be recirculating as much water as we can to keep the costs down, this will ensure we can keep the entry fee low. We will be cleaning and treating water for different applications around the facility, we will need water to; grow fruit and vegetables in the kitchen’s garden, flush toilets and wash hands, water the plants around the building indoors and out, power the splash pad, to move heat generated from excited children running in circles from the roof to the floor to keep the parents comfortable.
We will be having changing spaces facilities to make every aspect of a day out accessible to every member of society. boom
This a snippet of things to come we have a lot more in the pipeline, I am hoping to raise (Removed by Mod) through various sources so that I can apply for a commercial mortgage of about (Removed by Mod) and then get to building. As this has never been done before I have to convince a hopeful investor and prove that this is a much needed business via a headed letter or email from your charity saying that you think this is a good idea and needed in the community.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.
Kindest regards
Anthony (Removed by Mod)
Hi - it seems like quite a noble venture but I can't see a profit in it. Am I right in you're basically describing an ASD/disabled orientated 'Butlins'? I'm just not sure there will be enough disabled people willing to travel to Cornwall and pay enough for you to survive. £36M will be a huge payback period and all of your spending is up-front and long gone before anyone sets foot in the place.
I'd also be worried in the short term for potential Covid 21 or Covid 23 - that will wipe you out financially.
If the Lottery fund has already rejected you, you might want to have a really good think about this.
Thanks for your reply, I do like people to bring my attention to areas I may have not thought of.
Its not completely like Butlins, (although thinking about it I might make the staff wear blue coat), this is a play park for everyone but without accommodation. This is all inclusive which means the straights are allowed in too this will allow the children to learn about each other at a younger age.
Please don't worry about the profits, That is all in hand I have used a business model where all the costs are start up capital. so payments can be easily covered. there will be 6 business' working together within the building making sure that we stay a float helping as many children/adults as possible experience play.
Hygiene - dealing with vulnerable children meant that our designs had to be wipe clean and cleaning rotas would mean every section got cleaned every hour. Corona Virus 19 government response actions have been written into the cleaning programs, the ball pools self clean, and the play frame is divided into easy clean section.
The lottery community fund wouldn't fund us because they believe they are funding enough small projects of this type, I have never seen or heard of somewhere similar. the lottery get about £26.6mm a day (divided between the counties)to put forward to charitable causes. They rejected us because we would damage business that already exist. They fund the Eden Project and I believe they do not wish to fund another large project as the Eden Project is not much of an attraction (not many locals go there twice to look at the plants) EP has had to get big bands there instead and hold concerts (nothing to do with plants and education just drinking and good times) with the public purse comes politics, EP cost about £240m to build and at the time was a brilliant idea as a tool to teach kids about plants and regenerated mining waste lands.