Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Sutton Mencap is a leading provider of services for people with a learning disability in the London Borough of Sutton. We work with around 70 children and young people and 200 adults, providing a wide range of activities aimed at bringing people together, helping them develop life skills, make friends and have fun.
A typical week looks something like this:
Services for children and young people.
Here are Jacob and Lewis from our youth group to say more about what we do:
https://youtu.be/ooD71NkjKZI
We run after school clubs and Saturday groups throughout the school year. During school holidays we get even busier, with services all day Monday to Friday. We organise trips out as well as fun activities at our base.
Community Day Activities service
We pack lots into our daily activity service for adults. Here are Nicola and Michael to tell us about what the sort of things they do.
https://youtu.be/a2_gw5OL7gw
We also run evening groups for adults, plus healthy living and cooking classes and art activities.
Community Link
People who come to Sutton Mencap are all different. Some need quite a lot of help and support to take part, or to keep safe. Others need little or none, but just need a bit of help with social skills – meeting people and making friends.
For them, our Community Link project is ideal. We put people in touch with each other based on their shared interests, then help them to set up or join activities together. Over time, they develop friendships and links with the local community, without needing our ongoing support.
Here is Caroline, our Community Link support manager to talk about all the activities they get involved in.
https://youtu.be/vXa6OPtpo-4
Our Community Link service is funded by City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s Charity.
Circles of Support
Many people with a learning disability find it difficult to get their voice heard and to take control over their lives. Families and carers provide invaluable support, advocating on behalf of the person they care for and making sure their wishes are known. But as they get older, they worry about who will provide this help when they are no longer able to.
In 2016 we started a new project, helping people with a learning disability set up Circles of Support – groups of family members, friends, volunteers and paid workers who come together to find out what the persons aims are and plan with them how the group can meet them.
Our Circles of Support project is truly local, being funded by the James Trust, a Sutton-based charitable trust.
Our links to the local community
Sutton Mencap is a local charity. We were set up 60 years ago by a group of parents who wanted to support each other in looking after adult family members with a learning disability.
Our roots in the community are still hugely important to us: Here is Dave Hobday, our director to talk about why the local community matters to us.
https://youtu.be/2CRmv467J6Q
Sutton Mencap is delighted to be involved in Local Charities Week. To find out more about us, visit our website: www.suttonmencap.org.uk
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