Activities

We are constantly looking to develop our offer and provide yet more opportunities for all our service users to lead safe, happy and purposeful lives, contributing economically and socially to society. Below are some of the activities currently available to our young people – everyone chooses their own individual timetable to enable them to work towards their personal goals.

Swimming

The service users attend local pools for an hour of enjoyable activities. The aim of this session is to encourage water safety and water confidence while having fun and keeping fit.

Outdoor Activities

The session is aimed at encouraging a healthy lifestyle through walking and outdoor activities.

We visit various parts of Oldham including Alexandra Park, Chadderton Hall Park, Daisy Nook, Dovestone Reservoir, Tandle Hill, Leesbrook, and Strinsdale. We learn about road safety and stranger danger as well as accessing the park, football and wildlife walks.

Valuing Our Differences and Celebrating Diversity

Art

The session’s aim is to explore an interactive/sensory environment through art and crafts activities based on the concept of ‘Valuing Our Differences and Celebrating Diversity’. The service users experience different festivals and holidays from around the world, access different customs and cultures that they may not be familiar with and celebrate the diversity and differences in us all.

Expanding Horizons

ICT

The aim of the session is to give our service users greater independence by promoting choice, rights and independence. The activity is built around communication and the use of different technology. We use computers, projectors, ipads, switches, intellikeys keyboards and numerous different software packages to develop our young people’s communication skills. Through these immersive interactive sessions we aim to expand the service users' choices and independence and enable them to develop their life skills.

Community Access

Again, this session aims to give our service users greater independence by promoting choice, rights and independence. The activity is built around accessing their wider community and we travel across Greater Manchester, accessing places of interest such as libraries, galleries, museums, shopping centres, community centres, cafes, restaurants and cinemas. Through accessing their local facilities our young people have the opportunity to interact with people within their community, behave appropriately and make choices.

Dance

This is a fun all-round session where service users choose the songs they like to dance to the most.

Gardening

This session covers a variety of aspects from weeding, planting and routine garden maintenance to basic DIY. We have created Christmas blocks, Mother’s Day planters and basic woodwork projects. There are a range of tools used in a safe but enjoyable manner that enable our service users to learn safety while creating things they can keep and take home.

Free choice

Choosing is a skill that some service users require support with and having a session that is dedicated to free time while incorporating choice, social interaction, turn taking, waiting and friendships is vitally important. This session aims to maintain and enhance these skills in a fun manner that keys into the service users' interests. We run a variety of activities during this time that our young people can access, giving them greater choice and control.

Expanding Horizons

Community Volunteering

This session aims to give our service users experience of providing help and assistance to other communities within our area, gaining social inclusion and a sense of achievement.