Dyslexia can be a significant barrier to personal progress leading to loss of confidence and low self-esteem. Adult Dyslexia Centre (ADC) works with individuals to build confidence, skills and a positive attitude, and a way forward into employment, education, training and volunteering. For many of their clients the support has been life changing.

We helped ADC to expand their business services and employ a manager, enabling them to support more people and to access new funding streams.

The Adult Dyslexia Centre is a charity that has been supporting dyslexic adults across the Thames Valley since 2003 from its base in Maidenhead. In 2015 the charity recognised the need for professional fundraising, but like many smaller organisations couldn’t afford the salary or overheads for a new member of staff.

Through our contract with the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, OCE is able to provide free fundraising advice and support to local charities, and we were delighted to be approached by ADC to help them.

We worked closely with the ADC team to understand their business. We suggested that they prioritised their management capacity issues rather than investing in a fundraiser; and to use our free expertise to raise funds and upskill their existing team. In 2016 we helped them secure £16,000 to expand business services; funding a manager who led ADC to develop and deliver improved service through rigorous financial planning, stakeholder analysis, additional marketing and a better-packaged commercial offer. This in turn has made the organisation more sustainable.

“As any small charity, we face financial challenges but thanks to OCE we feel more confident in our future”. Sue Penton-Voak ADC founder.

In recent years we have helped ADC to secure a range of smaller funds totalling £20,000 to deliver subsidised services to adults with dyslexia. Projects improved participants’ communication and confidence issues and addressed barriers to employment.

We have been working with ADC for four years. Our ongoing relationship has helped secure the future for ADC and for more than 300 adults with dyslexia per year; that’s 1,200 people who now have the skills and confidence to find better opportunities at work and in education.