Categories

Arts including music, drama, craft and art, Education, training and learning, Socialising, companionship and friendship, Support to manage money,

Access to Living is a small community based provider in Hertfordshire offering a range of innovative and empowering day opportunities support to adults and young people with a learning disability and/or autism.  We have particular expertise in working with people whose complex needs or challenges may exclude them from accessing existing day opportunities services.

We know that there are people who struggle to access services because of their complex behaviours as well as those who struggle with the transition process and we are passionate about the rights of people who face such challenges to living a full and inclusive life.

We offer enablement support through 1:1 support and/or small groups and we work to reable people to develop social, communication and independence skills to live successfully in the community.

We recognise that some people may require long term support whereas others may require support on a short term basis with a focus on achieving particular outcomes around people’s goals and aspirations.

Our outcome focussed person centred service is available to  people who may be living at home, in supported living accommodation or in residential care and offers a range of social, sensory, educational, cultural, vocational and recreational activities that reflects the needs and choices of the each individual person who uses our service.  We can also support transition from school to college or into adult service provision and support the needs of people who have difficulty in accessing services.

Each person that uses our service has a personally designed programme and our aim is to match the skills and abilities of support staff to each person’s identified needs.  We recognise that the relationship between the service user and the support worker/personal assistant is very important and we will endeavour to use the same worker with back up from another familiar member of staff who is known to the service user, rather than unfamiliar or agency staff.

We involve each person who uses our service in setting their own individual goals including the learning of new skills leading to increasing confidence, greater independence and involvement with the local community.

As part of our work we have two social skills groups which meet on a weekly basis at Trinity Church, St Albans:

• A music and drama group which helps develop skills and new interests whilst increasing choice, confidence and self-esteem.
• A social skills and community access group which supports people with learning disabilities and/or autism to use the wider community.  This group focuses on building relationships and communication skills through team games, travel training and exploring local community facilities.

We are also working with Life Opportunities Trust (LOT) in a co-productive way to enable service users to have a say in the service that supports them.  This involves coaching and supporting service users in attending meetings with LOT managers and trustees so they can contribute to the provision and development of the service.

If you are interested in finding out more, we would love to hear from you, so please do get in touch. 

Last Updated: 10th March, 2015