Heart n Soul and Greenwich Council - working together
Heart n Soul is helping Greenwich Council to create a more equal culture for learning disabled people. Our aim is for learning disabled people to lead in choosing, designing and producing the Day Services that are offered in the borough.
Heart n Soul and Greenwich Council started working together in March 2021 with the Believe in Us project. Greenwich then invited us to run Allsorts, our taking part programme for adults, at the Sherard Road Day Opportunities Centre in Eltham. Known as ‘Allsorts on Tour’, we ran four seasons of Allsorts there. Watch a video about Allsorts on Tour here.
Allsorts has given staff and users of the day centre an experience of creative activities that are co-produced by those taking part and that believe in and grow peoples’ skills and talents. Allsorts has helped people to feel more connected, more confident, and have greater wellbeing. See an evaluation of the project here.
Inspired by this, in late 2024, the Sherard Road started their own version of Allsorts called ‘Community Voices’. We are continuing to support the team to work in new ways. We’re encouraging and supporting codesign and coproduction of the sessions, with regular check-ins and reflection days.
Greenwich Day Services also has several satellite groups around the borough that offer different activities such as gardening, keep fit etc. A team of Heart n Soul co-producers will visit and experience each activity and talk to the people attending about what they are looking for and how they would like the groups to develop. The team will then share their findings and make proposals to Greenwich on how these groups can develop.
We are also partnering with Greenwich on the Demonstrator project run by IMPACT, the UK Centre for Improving Adult Care Together.