This year’s Learning Disability Week is from 14th to 20th June 2021 and the theme is Art and Creativity. For many people with a learning disability and their families, getting creative has been a way to stay connected and positive through the challenges of last year.
The Motivation Hub in Walsall Wood, Walsall offer a specialised service to adults aged 18+ with additional learning needs. They are one of several groups that were awarded funding earlier this year as part of the COVID-19 Community Champions programme.
Learn more below about how they are getting creative to share positive messages on COVID-19 and the vaccination within the community.
What does it mean for The Motivation Hub to be part of the COVID-19 Community Champions programme?
“The Motivation Hub is over the moon to have been selected to be one of Walsall for All’s COVID-19 Community Champions groups. This opportunity is enabling adults with a learning disability to be part of such a very important project and represent disabilities of all types throughout the Walsall borough."
What activities have you done to date as part of the COVID-19 Community Champions?
Service users at The Motivation Hub holding up posters with written positive messages.
“For our project, we have started filming short videos of service users talking about the COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, there will be contributions from families and professionals.
“We hope to share the videos as far as wide as possible, including other disability groups and health services such as GP surgeries.
“Furthermore, we have also had arts and crafts sessions, which have included making posters, so that our non-verbal service users can be just as involved in the video as those who communicate verbally. Makaton is also being used in the video.
"Recently, we have been out in the community distributing COVID-19 flyers, including in Aldridge Village. This will continue over the next few weeks across various parts of the borough."
For the service users who have become community champions as part of the project, how has this opportunity benefited them?
“Being selected to be Community Champions has given service users a real lift, as many of them were feeling quite low after the lockdowns. Interacting with members of the public has massively helped to improve individuals’ confidence, communication skills and social skills. It also helps service users to feel a part of the community that they all live in.
“They also feel valued and important doing their part towards the video, whether that is telling their own short experiences of receiving the COVID-19 vaccination or holding up a poster."
The Motivation Hub service users in Aldridge Village.
What future activities do you have planned?
“We hope that once further restrictions are eased, we can hold a coffee morning, inviting members of the public to come along and see how we have supported the vaccination programme and service users sharing photographs of their experience as a community champion to date. We also hope to get involved in planned community initiatives to promote the COVID-19 vaccination.”
To find out more about The Motivation Hub and see their latest activities, go to www.facebook.com/motivationhub.co.uk
Details about the Walsall COVID-19 Community Champions programme can be found by visiting our website: www.walsallforall.co.uk/community-champions
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