Past Outreach Workshops
This Is Me Launch
Oct 2007
Over ten weeks in the autumn nine users of Cardiff West Services and their support workers put all their energy into looking at who they are, what they do and what they want to do.
Over the ten weeks the group took part in games and exercises designed to help to increase their confidence and learn about the whole process of gaining employment, from thinking about what sort of job they would like to do, to how to apply for work, right up to that first day in work. For one session Quest Employment Agency came to take part and explain how they help adults with learning disabilities to find employment, including some members of the group who they had already helped into employment! The sessions were also visited by Kathy and Kate from Barclay’s Bank who talked to the group about working in a bank and showed the group an improvisation based on the first day at work at a bank.
The feedback from participants at the end of the sessions was overwhelmingly positive, with some of the group commenting that they felt they had made new friends, become more confident, more patient, more able to listen and simply that it made them happy. A couple of the group commented that the sessions have made them think about looking into gaining further employment.
Although the sessions are over now the project still continues because the group were also being filmed the whole time. As part of the filming we visited some of the group at their places of employment to film and interview them while at work. We are now editing the footage into a documentary DVD about employment for adults with learning disabilities. The launch of this DVD will be on Wednesday the 30th of January at The Senedd in Cardiff Bay. The screening is open to all so please pop down if you would like to see what we got up to. The screening will start from 6:00pm after which there will be refreshments served. Hope to see you there!