LifeWise @ Follow Your Dreams

Supported by: BeSure Broking Services

Description

Did you know that fewer than 2 in 10 people with a learning disability are in employment (Source: Mencap)?

Did you also know that young disabled people are twice as likely as young non-disabled people to be not in education, employment or training (NEET)?

These are upsetting and thought provoking statistics. What can you do to help?

You can vote for the LifeWise project and help young disabled adults avoid social isolation and for them to gain key life skills and experience. Things many of us take for granted.

We have decided to champion Follow Your Dreams and the LifeWise project as we believe they are making a real difference to the lives of young disabled people, and their families, in the community.

Follow Your Dreams, using the LifeWise project will help to run workshops with the young adults to develop their skills through the themes such as performing arts, arts and craft, health and wellbeing, knowledge and life skills and heritage. This encourages them to recognise their skills and potential, empowering and motivating a change in attitude, providing hope, aspirations and opportunities.

LifeWise aim to deliver a weekly workshop to young people 18+ with learning disabilities initially in the RCT area. The Aviva Community fund and their help can make real difference to the continuation of this project by ensuring the workshops can go ahead week after week without the worry of a lack of funding being available.

These workshops can be anything from an informative talk on Bats to a Pottery class or a visit from a Police Officer.

Far too often, children and young people with learning disabilities are instilled with the belief that they are limited in what they can achieve. This leaves them demotivated, afraid to try new thing and trapped in their comfort zone. LifeWise is striving to change this attitude and I believe they can make real change.

The staff and volunteers at Follow Your Dreams work tirelessly to organise the workshops and continuously strive to find something new and exciting for the young adults to enjoy. These workshops rely massively on members of the local community giving up their time, along with funding being in place to actually run the event. Often the staff give up their own time to help with the workshops, provide materials and transport, locate venues, and their dedication cannot be denied.