Since the start of the New Year there’s been some big changes here at NEAS. Thornbeck College (Adult Services) which was based at Carley Hill in Sunderland has now moved to a new site at Houghall Campus in County Durham.

Working in partnership with Houghall enables us to demonstrate our commitment to the North East Regional visions for Further Education; it also enables providers to further develop the choice of high quality learning opportunities for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The Houghall site offers our learners better internal and external learning environments which enables the College to increase our choice of vocational pathways. Thornbeck will keep its own identity and the building will be named North East Autism Society –Thornbeck College at Houghall Campus.

Thornbeck will continue to have its own cohort of learners, Houghall will continue to have their own cohort of LLDD learners and a proportion of learners will have their learning needs and support met by Thornbeck/Houghall working in partnership. For more information on the new developments at Thornbeck College please call them on 0191 386 4802.

The new address is Thornbeck College (Houghall Campus), Farm Road, Houghall, Durham, DH1 3SF

Another exciting development within NEAS has been the relocation of our Head Office which was based at Angel House in Sunderland. We’ve now moved to 15/16 Lumley Court, Drum Industrial Estate, Chester Le Street, DH2 1AN. The move offers enhanced facilities for visitors, staff and better suits our developing business needs.

Please update your records with our new address above, the main reception number is  0191 410 9974.

A big thank you to everyone who supported our first Christmas Raffle, we raised over £1,660 for the Society.

The lucky winners are below:

If you would like to contact me about the raffle please call me on 0191 5154656.

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year x x

JAK Print and Design have teamed up with NEAS and four other local children’s charities for the second year running, creating magical moments with Letters from Santa .

Each letter is personalised to every child and you have a choice of 5 formats to choose from. Each envelope is carefully designed to look authentic so when it lands on your mat we bring a little piece of the North Pole to your home. You can even order some special reindeer food for the children to spread on your garden on Christmas Eve to help Rudolph find his way to your house.

Letters cost £3.99 each and you have the option for JAK to donate £1 of your order to the registered children’s charities on your behalf.

They also offer personalised Christmas Cards from Santa.

The postage date is 12th December, which is just in time for Christmas and they guarantee to give you your money back if your letter doesn’t arrive by Christmas Day.

To order your letter visit www.jakprint.co.uk and enjoy the magic!

A big thank you from all at NEAS to JAK for their continuing support.

NEAS are registered for this year’s Evening Chronicle ‘Wish – cash for your community campaign’. The campaign launches in tonight’s Evening Chronicle, there’s 4 tokens printed in the paper per day from October 6^th for four months.

The more tokens we collect the larger share of the £50,000 cashpot we receive, so every token counts!

Please tell all your family and friends to collect them on our behalf. The last date for the collection is 12^th January 2012 so we’d like all tokens returned to us by 16^th January – please return them to Angel House, Borough Road, Sunderland, SR1 1HW or call me on 0191 515 4656.

Please feel free to send in the tokens before the closing date.

For more information on the appeal please visit the Evening Chronicle