St Albans Mencap is a local charity who providing services to children and adults with varying learning disabilities, including physical, emotional, social and/or behavioural.
It is such a great organisation and its dedicated staff have been working really hard to provide a great programme of online sessions during lockdown to support these families. Follow them on Facebook.
I chatted to Stacey Smith, Senior Manager of Children and Adult Services from St Albans Mencap, to find out more!
Stacey –
Unable to support our children, adults and families in the typical way recently, myself (Stacey) and Kelsey put our heads together and decided if we can’t meet in person we will instead bring the fun to each of their homes!
We are very lucky at St Albans Mencap to have lots of very talented staff members who were keen to jump on board and get involved in making it such a huge success. Without our talented staff dedicating their time to host and plan these interactive sessions, it wouldn’t be the success it is today! (Shout out to Sandi, Heather, Zarqa, Ellie, Marc, Lois, Pete and Sam)
We are now into our 4th week of live programmes, running at least one interactive live session per day and have a fun array of cooking, drama, music and craft sessions to keep our children and adults busy. We also have two visual/Makaton story sessions for a bit of down time, and this week have developed our first Venturers/Teenager hangout session to allow a catch up and chill zone for our Teenagers, with music and a quiz.
The feedback on the sessions has been overwhelming…..
‘These Zoom sessions are the highlight of her day’
‘You guys are doing a great job for families, thank you so much, it gives a bit of continuity with normal life…’
‘Honestly the SNAP sessions are a life saver at the moment. M loves them. Thank you all for doing such fantastic things! They are amazing! ’
To come and join in with the fun of the live sessions, download our home activity pack of ideas to keep you busy at home, or take part in our weekly challenge like our Facebook page to get constant updates.
Alternatively, you can email staceysmith@stalbansmencap.org.uk or kelseyferrari@stalbansmencap.org.uk to request more info and get secure event links.
Stacey Smith has been at St Albans Mencap since 2013 and is Senior Manager of Children and Adult Services