19th – 30th May
We have had a VERY busy last 2 weeks at People First Keighley and Craven!
With lots of podcast interviews, creative sessions, planning and hosting events, our members have been up to lots of work that we want to share with all of you!
✪ Monday saw us starting off the week with our members working with team leader Janet on a workshop all about Dementia Action Week!
Monday 19th to Sunday 25th May 2025 is celebrated by the Alzheimer’s Society as Dementia Action Week, where we raise awareness of the signs of dementia and how important it is to get an early diagnosis for dementia if you spot any of the signs.
We remembered the awareness we did in 2023 with Ben from the Alzheimer’s Society, looked at the easy read materials from their website and put up a poster in the office that talks about signs if you are worried and what to do. Most of us know someone who has or has had dementia and raising awareness is important.
✪ The Monday podcast team members Luke, Tom, Jane W and Graeme had the first interview of the fortnight with two very special guests: Dean Williams, the chairman of the Wheelchair Football Association, as well as Adam McEvoy, the head coach of the England Powerchair team!
We have a lot of football fans in our office so it was very exciting to talk to two of the staff who help facilitate people who used wheelchairs to be able to play and compete in football in an accessible way! We learned a lot more about the Wheelchair Football Association as well as how people can get involved!
✪ Later that week we were visited by 2 staff and 2 members from another local charity – Connect the Dots! Our podcast member Kenny also attends Connect the Dots, and so wanted to invite them onto the show to talk about the work they do at Connect the Dots to support people with learning disabilities.
Kenny led this interview and it was really interesting to learn about Connect the Dots!
Want to learn more about Connect the Dots and what they do? Click below to go to our podcast page to listen to the new episode!
✪ We celebrated our staff member Debra’s birthday in the office!
✪ We hosted a men’s health event for men with learning disabilities downstairs in Central Hall! Members Adrian and Stephen W worked hard to plan the event, creating a presentation about physical and mental health issues that affect men for them to present, inviting different people and organisations (including our local MP Robbie Moore), putting up posters around Central Hall… as well as working hard at the event itself!
We were joined by accessible football coach Sean Farnell who facilitated all our members to join in for some penalty shootouts and then a full match! We used balls of different sizes and accommodating rules to make sure everyone could play safely and have fun!
Adrian and Daniel also led us in a warmup Wake Up, Shake Up session at the beginning of the day, and we all got to look round some stalls from local groups with lots of important health information for men – about different kinds of cancers, information about self-checking for things like testicular cancer and free health checks being provided by staff from Ling House Surgery (part of the Wharfedale, Airedale and Craven Alliance) and Keighley Healthy Living.
✪ And on Fridays, some of our members having been travelling down to the Airedale Shopping Centre in Keighley with staff member Debra to do some work experience at the Down Syndrome Bradford charity shop! This has been an incredible opperuntity to support another local charity that does amazing work to support people with learning disabilities and to give some of our members different experiences of working in a shop!
✪ To finish, we have continued with the musical section of the Creative Project!
The members have been learning with Adam about playing the piano and singing, doing group warmups and experimenting in small groups before recording the afternoon to add to their final songs!
