Kith and Kids

Self advocacy support group

Meets up once every fortnight on a Thursday evening consisting of one night out and the other night in. The nights are usually organised or partly facilitated by one of our members with the support of their volunteer.
The group is made up of around 10 men and 2 women with mild learning disabilities or Autism.

How does the self-advocacy group work?

The group supports our members in any area that they may feel they need support in. For example many members find it difficult to use the phone and/or to speak to new people, making a social life for them near enough impossible without support. This group offers the structure in which our members are able to organise their own nights (bowling, ice-skating, meals, theatre trips) from finding the a place to go, booking tickets and letting the other volunteers and members know where to meet.

The evenings in are spent discussing issues that are arise for people in the group. Topics that have been explored in the past include girlfriends, a look at my disability, getting jobs, health and fitness and friendship.

Organising or looking ahead can also be difficult so we use this time time to plan trips or events, and always to help each individual plan how they intend to spend their time during our social development projects.

What else does the group do?

The group also meets during our 2:1 social development projects, and remains as a unit. This allows a continuum of the subjects explored during the evenings, allowing for a more in depth look into many of the subject matters discussed during the evenings with the support of a trained therapist.

On the projects ideally two volunteers are linked to each member. These volunteers are a mixture of regular volunteers from the Thursday nights and new volunteers.

Volunteering within this group is highly rewarding see some of their comments..

Education and Life Skills Education Project

ELSEP Is the latest scheme to come out from Kith and Kids which supports our members in employment, education and life skills. This scheme requires Mentors and a higher level of commitment would be required, simply because of the nature of the work.

If you would like to find out more about ELSEP click here

Our members pages

Take a look here for some of the things our members have been getting up too.

Up and coming Evenings:

Thursday 24th January
Thursday 7th February
Thursday 21st Febuary
Thursday 6th March

How do I get involved?
Contact Kola Calfos on 0208 801 7432 or email kola@kithandkids.org.uk

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