York City Council: Connecting Disabled People with the Community Though Adult and Community
City of York Council: Community facilitators connecting disabled people with the community though adult and community education
Summary
There is a tendency for people supporting adults with learning disabilities to look at educational courses as ‘something to do’ and not think about progression routes and pathways towards more active involvement in local communities. This project involves partnership working between community facilitators and adult and community education to explore how people can continue to use and develop skills they have learnt on the adult education supported learning programmes and contribute to their local community.
As students are coming to the end of their various courses, community facilitators are invited to meet with students to talk about their role and to explore what they would like to do next. The community facilitators’ role is to support people to think more creatively about the community opportunities that could be available to them or offer support to initiate a new community group. This approach enables people to maintain, develop and use skills learnt from attending courses to move on and access the local community, including interest clubs / groups, voluntary and employment opportunities. In turn this helps the community to value disabled people’s contribution and skills. Disabled people see improvements in their quality of life, with more control and choice and more engagement with the wider community.
Background
The idea of Community Facilitation in York began life in 2007/8 within the context of the re-provision of large day centres in the city. The movement beyond 'traditional services' towards individually tailored and individually experienced support carries challenges beyond how 'services' are organised and raises questions about how society is organised, how we are valued as individuals, and how those values can be supported and developed in wider communities. The shift towards individual budgets requires individuals to negotiate their own support and engage in their community, a community from which many have been historically and systematically excluded.
The Community Facilitators have three areas of work: advice and information, preventative work with individuals and community development projects. At the beginning they 'walked and talked' to community organisations and groups all over the city. People they met helped to shape and clarify the role. They offer individualised support to individuals, for example: helping people to find voluntary work opportunities or identifying social and leisure opportunities. Community development has become a significant part of the role. They have a Small Sparks fund which has been welcomed by community groups and have funded people setting up a range of small projects from chair aerobics sessions to art projects for a homeless centre.
Who is involved and what their role is
This work involves:
- community facilitators
- adult and community education managers and tutors - exploring pathways
- local interest clubs / groups such as a theatre company, photographic society
- community centres – offering voluntary work
- support staff – raising awareness of community opportunities.
The drivers for change
They recognised the need for people with disabilities to move on from training environments into the real world. People get bored doing yet another course and want to explore other opportunities. Supported learning courses are often used as an alternative to day centre activities; they are not always what people want to do but offer somewhere to go and something to do during the day.
Our approach
The community facilitators’ work involves identifying and raising awareness of the range of community options that are available to people including accredited courses and to identify pathways / progression routes so that the skills learnt on courses can be used to contribute to communities. There is a wide range of community opportunities but individuals need to be able to access this information in order to be able to make real choices. They can provide information and guidance and signpost individuals with learning disabilities and their PA’s (if they have one)to opportunities. If there are any barriers to accessing these groups, they can identify any issues and offer support to groups so they can be more accessible and inclusive.
The effect on social capital/community capacity
Social capital/community inclusion underpins all the work we do. Though these are early days for this approach, we have seen individuals progress into part-time employment, voluntary work and ‘mainstream’ adult community education classes. We have linked with social clubs / community groups and organisations to widen participation and engage with others. We are also identifying gaps in opportunities where new groups could be established and supporting individuals to set up their own interest groups and invite others along.
Impact on individuals
Disabled people are having more choice / control and an increased understanding of the range of opportunities. Quality of life has improved for the people involved; their confidence has increased and being able to contribute their skills and talents to the community makes them feel valued. The approach is raising the aspirations of disabled people and also the expectations of others.
Adult education managers are very supportive towards progression and pathways into community opportunities. They are looking at a joint volunteer programme.
Impact on commissioning
They recognise the need to open channels of communication with commissioning in order to develop further opportunities for people who want to set up their own groups.
Barriers to success
There are:
- cultural barriers – new ways of thinking creatively about what next for individuals / supporters / carers
- time barriers - for the Community Facilitator to link with supported learning courses and then work with individuals or groups who want to continue their interests and run a group themselves
- workforce issues – the sustainability of establishing new interest groups
- issues when using volunteers – the need to recruit, train, monitor and support them.
Evaluation
There has been no formal evaluation as yet but feedback is collected from service users. They intend to evaluate progression routes.
Costs and benefits
Costs are minimal. The benefits are that disabled people have more choice and control over what they do.
Our advice to an area thinking of trying a similar approach
Think about workforce capacity – support for individuals accessing opportunities and support to set up interest groups and their sustainability.
The benefits in one sentence
This approach opens up access to a range of community opportunities and enables individuals to move on and not get stuck on the ‘roundabout’ of courses.
Contact details
Susan Reape, Community Facilitator, City of York Council, Adult Social Services
Telephone: 01904 554 179
Email: