Bringing SEND parents together to create community

Guest blog by: Rachael is a freelance Communications Consultant and member of Bringing Us Together's 'Doing It Solo' project. She is also a solo parent and has felt the depth of loneliness when parenting a child who shows up differently in the world, and the difference that community can make.

This June, from 15th to 21st, we’re taking the time to share our experiences of loneliness and isolation for Loneliness Awareness Week, a global campaign hosted by leading loneliness charity, Marmalade Trust.

Giving loneliness a voice

The theme of this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week is Giving Loneliness a Voice. The campaign seeks to inspire people to talk more openly about loneliness and isolation, and to create safe spaces for people to connect and express how they feel.

The isolation of SEND parenting

Being the parent of a child or children with special needs and/or disabilities can feel particularly isolating. Research shows that 3 in 5 parents in this group experience extreme loneliness, often leading to mental health struggles like anxiety and depression. 

Many parents of disabled children tell us directly that they feel lonely, that they rarely get the opportunity to speak to another adult, they are exhausted, and often suffering with high levels of anxiety and overwhelm.

Bringing Us Together

Bringing Us Together launched in 2014, initially as an online forum for parents. However, we soon realised that a forum was not enough for what our community needed.

Our vision is for all parent carers and their families to feel safe, happy and valued. To this end, we work together with family members, professionals and other parent-led organisations offering consultancy, workshops and focus groups to drive up quality and standards by addressing the real issues and breaking down the barriers that impact the families we work with.

Reducing isolation

We bring these parents together to share their experiences, learn from one another, and to feel empowered through our unique group sessions and welcoming workshops.

One parent told us, "I feel I have found my tribe!". Another said "It is like rowing a boat on your own and not getting anywhere. At Bringing Us Together, I met a team of fellow rowers to help, advise, steer the boat and head me in the right direction."

Bringing together families who have disabled children and young people with a wide range of disabilities allows them to share their experiences and offer each other valuable peer support. This helps to create the ‘village’ that they may struggle to find in their own communities.

Doing It Solo

Being a solo parent to children with disabilities can be even more isolating. Single parents often don’t have, or have lost, extended family support when it comes to childcare, or even just having someone to talk to about the challenges they are facing on a day to day basis. 

Single parents are even more likely to face intense challenges, including higher rates of poverty, social isolation, and physical and mental health struggles. More than 60% of parent carers in this group have to reduce their working hours or quit altogether, causing significant financial strain.

In recognition of the specific challenges of this group, we started our Doing It Solo project in March 2025, to address these needs and create a community of parents who ‘get it’, in an effort to reduce isolation. 

We offer specific workshops to meet the needs of this community, with sessions on a range of subjects from what benefits they may be entitled to, to managing stress. These sessions are all free of charge, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund.

Join the Community

If you’re the parent of a disabled child or young person, we’d love to see you in our community! To learn more about our work and stay informed about upcoming workshops, you can email katie@bringingustogether.org.uk. 

You can also follow us on social media. We’re on  Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and we have a community Facebook group, moderated by the Bringing Us Together team. This private group is always available for our community members to stay in touch and share advice, experiences, updates, and offer each other support. 

Loneliness is something everyone experiences from time to time, and it’s not something we need to suffer alone. This summer, we hope that the National Loneliness Week campaign reminds people to speak up, reach out and share their experiences, and find community with like-minded people.