Reaching Families is a parent-led support group offering advice, information, training and support to the parents and carers of children with special needs in West Sussex. They received a grant from Sussex Community Foundation to develop information sheets for parents, giving very localised information for the area. Claire Booth (pictured above, right) has two children with autism. It costs an average of three times more to raise a child with special needs as other children and Claire has attended two Reaching Families’ training courses, one designed to help parents and carers navigate the incoming changes to the benefits system called Holding on to what you’ve got, which is proving very popular with parents. “National helplines are all well and good but what parents really want is very relevant, local support, preferably face-to-face,” says manager Brian O’Hagan. “We wouldn’t be where we are at all without Sussex Community Foundation. What small charities starting out need is a track record so they can go to bigger funders for bigger grants and the Foundation has made that possible for us,” says Brian.