We all know that “great interactions” doesn’t mean the big events like this so why am I writing a blog about it? What I noticed on the day was the way in which the event was staffed that made all the difference. Everyone from MacIntyre took care to give a warm welcome to all the families. Yes there were lots and lots of free fun activities to get involved in (go karts, storytelling, having your portrait taken, bungee trampolining, face painting... etc) and those things were obviously really popular with the children. The little touches I noticed though were the team’s responses in the busy-ness of the day – things like flexibility to make an activity work for someone, giving people plenty of time, making people feel at ease and the warmth of interactions. Those are the things that I think made that extra difference and can easily be overlooked.
Many people were genuinely touched by the attention to detail of the day and the level of care that was put into making such a memorable event for families in Rochdale. One parent told us that they had such a good time together as a family and it was unusual as the children usually go to separate activities. I think it was fair to say that no one made a big deal of disability on the day – it was designed intentionally to not leave anyone out, and it was the interactions on the day that made everyone feel included. One young man asked us if it was going to be happening the next Sunday too (!) and although an event like that takes a lot of energy and time, there is no reason why we can’t take that attention to detail and commitment to inclusion into every thing we do.
You can see some photos of the day on this link to the Family Footings website:
http://www.familyfootings.org/events_gallery.aspx?id=113
Susan Camps
Family Footings Project Manager