A GROUND-BREAKING Bolton project which has given a new meaning to life for scores of disabled people is facing a major crisis.
Funds have virtually dried up for DBBC (Diversity in Barrier Breaking Communications) which was set up in the summer of 1998 with a £25,000 grant from Bolton and Bury Chamber.
The organisation -- probably best known to the Bolton public because of the lively Bolton Market Radio it broadcasts from its Ashburner Street site -- has been a confidence builder for many severely mentally and physically disabled people. And it has given massive personal satisfaction to the many volunteers who help project manager Dorothy Martland to run it.
But huge efforts by DBBC to find funding to carry on the acclaimed project have hit a stone wall. And Dorothy admits that the future looks bleak unless someone helps.
"Having said that, there is no way we will let this fold," she vowed, as she showed Bolton MPs Brian Iddon and David Crausby how the project is run. "Somehow, some way, we will find a way to carry on."
In the past 12 months alone, 125 students ranging from teenagers to 60-year-olds have benefited from the project. Thirty three -- including people with very severe learning difficulties -- have received accreditation from the Open College NW.
Another 56 are currently working towards accreditation and 19 people who were thought not to have any job prospects have found work as a result of the confidence and skills they have developed in the balcony rooms of Ashburner Street Market.
One girl with learning difficulties who was once almost too scared to pick up a phone is now working in a busy call centre -- and really repaying the bosses who were given the confidence to employ her by Dorothy Martland.
Students are taught life skills that others might take for granted -- such as how to get out of a burning building and how to use the contents of a first aid box. But through the medium of sound and vision, their confidence and self esteem are boosted as they learn in the studios that there are things they CAN do as well as the next person.
"Some people with learning difficulties are brilliant when they get into the studio," said Dorothy. "And the thrill they get from being able to do something well is there for anyone to see."
They work computers, they mix sounds, create their own jingles, learn how to make themselves understood and learn basic office skills. But not all students have mental or physical disabilities.
Some are merely people who need a personal boost, such as long term unemployed. And even some schools have latched on to DBBC's expertise, sending pupils to learn broadcasting skills for in-school projects.
Dorothy, a former art teacher at Smithills School, is not alone in her search for funding. Her husband Alan has a garden maintenance business but he has been using the recent wet spell to work flat out -- unpaid -- on the funding appeal.
One idea in the melting pot is to ask companies to sponsor a student. "I get angry when people say firms are less generous than they were. I think the problem is that far more people are asking firms for donations," said Alan.
He is also organising a big Christmas draw and offering to put on a free roadshow -- like the succeesful ones they do for Bolton Leisure Services -- for any pub or club that will sell 200 tickets.
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