Active and Creative Lifestyles (within the Community Development Service), has a history of providing positive support to enabling access to leisure services, work experience and employment opportunities for vulnerable people. Establishing a pilot project with Social Services has built on this success and enable us to explore new opportunities through volunteer and work experience within leisure facilities enabling individuals to gain confidence to move on to other things.
Fit Steps was developed in June 2014. It is a programme for adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and sensory impairment, and allows individuals to find out about and attend activities at local Leisure Centres throughout Conwy.
Support is provided for up to 16 weeks and this can be extended if needed to enable individuals to eventually get to the leisure centre by themselves, use the facilities in the leisure centre and go to the activity fully independently.
Whilst the person is learning how to do this, they are fully supported by a member of staff from Disability Services who will teach them the skills needed to get there and take part in the activity.
People that have attended the programme so far have benefited in the following ways:
- Learnt new skills and become fully independent in travelling to activities
- Made new friends and become involved in other activities as a result of these new friendships
- Learnt time management skills
- Increased motivation and choosing to attend additional activities unprompted
- Improved mental wellbeing – sleeping, reduction in anxieties, choosing to eat healthier foods
- Losing weight
- Improvement in health conditions such as diabetes
- Improvement in social skills
- Increased contact with the general public, improving integration into the wider community
- Improved confidence in family members encouraging further independence in the individual
- Reduction in support hours required from traditional service models