Initially through Bolton Group and now as Bolton Hope Foundation, we support, since its beginning in 2011, the TogetherToGo (TOG) Foundation. TOG is an Italian centre of excellence for the rehabilitation of children suffering from serious neurological disorders.

Over the years we have contributed to children’s assistance, financing specialist training for clinical personnel, and more recently we have supported rehabilitation projects with a focus on education.

The project “Developing thought in TOG children: abilities and understanding” provides assistance for children who need help to do better at school and to improve their cognitive potential.

The initiative has helped 10 children who benefited from the support of cognitive therapists twice a week for 44 weeks. The project’s activities were designed to stimulate areas of the brain associated with learning and to enrich the world of these children with cognitive and cultural experiences.

During the Covid-19 emergency, we helped TOG rapidly adapt their rehabilitation practices to cope with the necessary restrictions and ensuring the continuity of remote therapy.
It was particularly important to extend rehabilitation activities normally associated with the scholastic learning context by adapting them to the needs of the children and of their parents who, during the long weeks of school lockdown, found themselves forced to teach and educate their own children.

Our contribution made it possible to develop highly personalised therapies for each child, with the aid of a speech therapist, a neuro-cognitive rehabilitation therapist and a psychologist. The support for the families included an extensive set of activities, instructing children and parents in how to use the most suitable educational platforms, establishing networks for direct contact with teachers to ensure use of the best teaching materials and providing support and rapid training for parents on how to present educational and rehabilitative material to their children.

In 2021 we decided to support TOG in the construction of the new site (known as “La città della fragilità”) that will open at the end of 2022. This will allow the foundation to accommodate around 200 children affected by complex neurological pathologies, from all over the north of Italy, in a spacious, harmonious and totally accessible environment.

In addition to the many activities offered by the existing centre of excellence, the rehabilitation programme will be further extended thanks to the construction of:

• a therapeutic pool
• a fabLab for digital aid fabrication
• an area dedicated to training and scientific research
• a rehabilitation area with eye tracking technology
• clinics for the treatment of specific disorders