2023 is the year of more for us at JCM, especially when it comes to our charity initiatives.
In January we started the year as we mean to go on by completing our biggest charity initiative yet.
The JCM 2023 School Project
We worked with a local Primary School to completely facilitate and makeover 3 of their sensory and wellbeing rooms.
These rooms are used as safe spaces where their young people can take refuge when they feel overwhelmed or over stimulated.
When we reached out to the school to see how we could help, their sensory rooms were the very first thing they jumped at. With harsh budget cuts and thinly spread resources, rooms and areas like these unfortunately get pushed to the bottom of the list.
So, we jumped at the chance to help!
Over the course of 3 days, while the school was closed for new year, Sara, Elle and Ange from the JCM Team worked to transform the schools 3 rooms. Emptying the rooms completely, giving them a lick of paint if needed and filling them back up with new resources and furnishings, making them the comfiest, cosiest, safest places possible.
Take a look at what we managed to achieve!
Sunshine Room
This room, believe it or not, used to be a cloakroom!
This room is also used the most heavily as a breakout classroom for Nursery and Reception aged children, so needed to still be really functional and not overly distracting.
The room was dark and dingy before and wasn’t a place the kids wanted to go and learn. In the summer, the sun beats into this room through a whole wall of windows with no curtains, again, making it a difficult place to work.
We painted the walls white to brighten everything up and filled the benches with comfy cushions as well as adding blinds to all the windows and adding a full corner of storage for all the classroom supplies.
Sensory Room
This was our favourite transformation and definitely worth heading to our Instagram to see the videos of this room in all it’s glory!
This is the schools main sensory room, and used to be an art cupboard! So it’s tiny.
Before, the room had really harsh lighting and was a bit bare bones.
One of the challenges we faced was the lack of power points.
But we didn’t let that stop is filling the room with sensory lights, including a galaxy projector and interactive hexagon lights.
We added a tonne of comfy seating, weighted blanket, and sensory activities to make this space the perfect getaway room.
Lighthouse Room
(This might be my personal favourite!)
This room is the biggest of the 3 and serves as a breakout room.
Before, the room was bare and harsh.
We went in and created 2 zones in the room. The Reading Corner and the Creative Corner.
In the Reading Corner, we added the worlds biggest beanbag, a weighted blanket and lots of comfy cushions.
In the Creative Corner, we added a full wall of chalkboard with shelves full of things to make and so.
To the whole room, we added sensory lights, including a galaxy projector, bubble lamp and fairy lights around the entire space.
Why did we do all of this?
Being a family business where nearly half the team have small kids, we know how vitally important it is to help young children and invest in their wellbeing.
It was for this reason that we wanted to use our business for good and reach out to a local school and lending a helping hand.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week and you can find out everything there is to know via the link below.
Throughout 2023, we’ll be looking to use our business for good in other areas of our local community and we encourage every who can to do the same!
If you would like to know more about our School Project, leave us a message and we’d love to chat!
