We are now into our second year of the Buckinghamshire service and have seen some changes over this time, including the introduction of the wonderful building that is the Life Skills Centre built in partnership with Aylesbury College.
As well as using this facility we spend most of our time working with young people helping them work towards
their long term goals.
Back over the summer we received some money from the Great Interactions fund for resources to further develop our facilitation skills and Great Interactions. These resources have been put to good use whilst out and about travel training and supporting people with their understanding of road safety.
Staff supported Paul when crossing the road at a set of traffic lights. Staff asked him to identify the traffic light colour choosing from the balls provided if the light was on red, amber or green. Through using these tools Paul was able to identify that red meant stop, amber was wait and green means GO!
This was a fun and creative way of encouraging Paul to engage with us and to learn about the importance of road safety.
Staff are excited that this worked so well and are trying new ways to make learning fun using our new Great Interaction resources.
Graham mentioned in role play that he likes to be Michael Jackson so we had an idea....he tried some glow gloves (Michael Jackson style) when attending a local dance class. The gloves worked well in the group setting lowering Graham’s anxiety and promoting social inclusion as other people copied his movements and everybody seemed to have a great time and enjoy each others company. By the way, you missed some awesome moon walking!
We feel we are really progressing with our interactions and we are certainly more creative: may the Great Interactions we are achieving long continue!
Matthew Dungate & Emma Collings
Programme Co-ordinators, No Limits Buckinghamshire
- The names used in this blog have been changed for confidentiality