Providing Real Opportunities for Young People in the Transition to

Adulthood

Regional SEN Transition to Employment Project Newsletter

November 2012In this issueIntroductionInformation about the Carers Strategy consultation, Anti Bullying Week 2012 and Learning Disability Wales’s Key to Your Home conference.

Hub Team NewsUpdates from Merthyr, Neath and Caerphilly. More team news from RCT and Carmarthenshire is available on our website.

Training & EventsA list of upcoming projecttraining and events.

Welcome to the November edition of the Real Opportunities Project Newsletter. This month Welsh Government launched a new consultation on the Carers Strategy for Wales, which is their national plan for supporting unpaid carers. It sets out what they are doing to help the NHS, local councils, charities and businesses to provide better services and support to carers of all ages. This draft sets out the actions Welsh Government intends to take over the next three years. If you are a carer, or a person who is cared for, they are keen to hear your views. You can access this consultation at wales.gov.uk/docs/dhss/consultation/121113documenten.pdf.November is also host to Anti Bullying Week 2012, which took place on the 19th-23rd November. You can continue the anti-bullying message using free resources which are available from www.antibullyingweek.org.uk. Barnardo’s Cymru, Changing Faces, Cardiff Against Bullying, Shan Jones Education Consultancy and the all Wales School Liaison Core Programme have also joined together to produce free resources for Anti Bullying Week 2012, available from www.schoolbeat.org. If you’re a parent of a young person with a disability who is being bullied or you have concerns that your son or daughter might be a victim of bullying, take a look at Contact a Family’s guide to ‘dealing with bullying for parents of disabled children’ which you can download from www.cafamily.org.uk. This month Learning Disability Wales held their annual conference in Newport. The conference, called ‘Key to Your Home’ covered a range of issues relating to housing, and over the course of the two days lots of great workshops and seminars were held on things like energy efficiency, cooking, money skills, staying safe in the home and personalised technology. You can access workshop materials and presentations and find out about the organisations who were at the conference on the Learning Disability Wales website www.

learningdisabilitywales.org.uk/key-to-your-home. Laura Griffiths

Project Information Officer

HUB TEAM NEWS

Hub teams across the Real Opportunities project are supporting young people to achieve their goals and have lots of great stories from young people to share. Read on to hear stories from Christian from Merthyr and Nathan from Neath and how a group of young people from Caerphilly took part in the Big Wewlsh Walk 2012. Visit our website to find out about Carmarthenshire’s Autumn Half Term activities and Rhondda Cynon Taff’s residential visit to Atlantic College in Llantwit Major.

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Congratulations to Real Opportunities participant Christian Cushing who was recently nominated for the Merthyr Tydfil Youth Member of the Year Award 2012. Christian was nominated by Tim Carter, Family Liaison officer for the Merthyr Real Opportunities hub team. The award is open to all young people aged 14 to 25 years in the county of Merthyr Tydfil and Christian beat some pretty tough competition to eventually be shortlisted into the final five. This was a huge achievement for Christian who has come a long way since enrolling on the Real Opportunities project. The presentation evening was held on the 12th November with the Mayor & Chief Executive of Merthyr Council awarding prizes.

Christian has achieved a lot over the last year, including gaining paid employment. Tim said “Christian has overcome a number of hurdles throughout his life and as a department we were really impressed when he approached us and asked for some help with regards to swimming. Christian

was hoping to attend a summer camp organised by the Youth Service in Merthyr and one of the activities that he wanted to engage with was surfing. Christian however couldn’t swim, so he undertook swimming lessons and eventually attended the camp, took part in surfing and really enjoyed the experience despite the poor weather conditions on the day! He really did well and I know as a whole team we were so impressed and proud of Christian for how he identified a problem and showed the initiative to take steps to overcome that barrier, and that was something for which I thought Christian should be nominated for youth member of the year.”

Christian said “I feel so proud to be nominated; my friends, family and teachers are all happy for me and proud of my achievements.”

Miss Jenkins, Christian’s teacher, said “Christian is a very very happy, very helpful, very enthusiastic young man and from what we’ve seen tonight at the awards he has transferred that from school and into the wider community.”

Nathan Staff from Neath was referred to the Real Opportunities project back in July this year, and it soon became clear that all he had ever wanted was to play football for a team. He was referred to the youth inclusion worker, Lexi Highley who quickly went to work to find a local SEN team that would be a stepping stone to a mainstream team for Nathan. Lexi supported Nathan to attend his first ever training session with a Briton Ferry based SEN team along with his brother Michael and Step-Father. Nathan said that he hadn’t felt confident enough to join a team on his own before,

Top Achievement for Christian Cushing from Merthyr

Tim and Christian at the award ceremony

Football mad Nathan from Neath finally achieves his dream of playing for a football team.

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but with support from Lexi he soon got stuck in to his first session and attended on his own from then on. Lexi said “We were 20 minutes early to the first session, so Nathan and Michael, his brother started having a friendly kick about. The first team member came into the hall and Nathan immediately included him in their game, they were instant friends! It was very fluid and natural, you could tell he felt instantly included as a part of the team.”

Nathan’s mum Lorraine said that she is really pleased with the support Lexi has given the family and that both boys, Nathan and Michael have been football mad from a young age, even kicking around pairs of socks in the house to be doing something football related. Nathan is now the starting goal keeper for the team, and his brother and cousin have both joined too! In a recent match all three boys were head hunted to play for a mainstream team and they are all delighted. Lexi said “Nathan’s confidence has greatly increased since being given the opportunity to live his dream!”

In the future, Nathan would like to continue playing football for a team, and would also like to look into becoming a qualified referee.

On the evening of Friday 2nd November, a group of 5 participants from the Caerphilly hub set off to North Pembrokeshire to take part in the ‘Big Welsh Walk’, as part of the Youth Work Wales Week 2012.

All 22 Local Authorities of Wales were involved and came together to walk the perimeter of Wales in 1 day.

8 groups from the Caerphilly County Borough Council Youth Service travelled up and stayed together as part of an integrated exercise, in a bunkhouse at Celtic Camping.

Each group were allocated a certain section of the coastal path and on the Saturday morning, bright and early, the 5 young people from the Real Opportunities project set off on a 7 Kilometre walk starting at Cemaes Head and ending up in Cardigan.

The group worked really well together, despite the cold temperatures, sleet and lightning.

After ending the walk and returning

back to Celtic Camping, all young people and staff involved were welcomed with a warm drink, a piece of cake and were given a T-shirt as memorabilia.

A presentation evening has been arranged on the 6th December for the Caerphilly participants to receive a certificate signed by Keith Towler, Children’s Commissioner for Wales.

All in all, it was a very successful and sociable event!

Caerphilly young people take part in Big Welsh Walk 2012 for Youth Work Week.

Football mad Nathan Staff playing in goals!

The Caerphilly group during the Big Welsh Walk.

Five Day PCP, Day 5Date: 27th November 2012Time: 10:00am – 3:00pmVenue: Waterfront Church, SwanseaFor: Course attendees plus young people.

Inclusion NetworkDate: 5th December 2012Time: 10:00am – 1:00pmVenue: Forge Fach Community Resource CentreFor: Youth Inclusion, Peer Mentor and Psychology

Planning for the Future NetworkDate: 15th January 2013Time: 10:00am – 1:00pmVenue: Forge Fach Community Resource CentreFor: PCP/Family Liaison and Independent Living Skills.

Introduction to PCPDate: 24th January 2013Time: 10:00am - 4:00pmVenue: Lolfa Cynin, St ClearsFor: Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire

Introduction to PCPDate: 21st February 2013Time: 10:00am – 4:00pmVenue: Central South Consortium (Formerly ESIS)For: Caerphilly, RCT and Torfaen.

Employment NetworkDate: 22nd February 2013Time: 10:00am - 1:00pmVenue: Forge Fach Community Resource CentreFor: Transition Workers and Supported Employment agencies

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To get your story in the newsletter, or for more information about the project or any of the stories in this newsletter contact Laura on 01639 635650 or at laura.griffiths@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk

Training & EvEnTs

To book onto any of the following training events or seminars contact the information and training team at realopportunities@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk or on 01639 635650 for a booking form. For further information regarding the events listed please contact Hannah at Hannah.cox@learningdisabilitywales.org.uk.