Hidden Disabilities Project

Hidden Disabilities Project hits a new milestone as activity story videos launched

We are delighted that the first 11 activity social story videos have been completed and uploaded to a designated playlist on our YouTube channel. The activity story videos are one of the core parts of our Hidden Disabilities project, which has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic closure.

The project has been kindly funded by a number of generous funders including The Baily Thomas Charitable Trust and the Cumbria Community Foundation.

Through this project we want to enable adventure for people with a hidden disability. During the pandemic, anxieties and wellbeing levels have been negatively impacted – as outlined in our 2021 Impact Report, and so this project has been even more important to complete.

“We are committed to continuously developing our communication resources to help ease anxieties of our visitors. With the completion of our paper activity stories, we have already seen the huge impact this has had for some of our visitors. One of our visitors was too frightened to go inside the climbing wall during their visit. After going through the Climbing social story with their carer to give them a step by step run through of what they would need to do, the visitor was able to not only go into the climbing wall, but climbed all the way to the top of the wall. This is just one example of many and we know that developing these resources will make a huge impact.

Our virtual taster page has been a great start with some in house resources being created, and through the hidden disabilities project, we have been able to take this to the next level. We are all excited to see the amazing impact that the new activity videos will have.”

Martha Wood – Marketing & Fundraising Officer

So far we have been able to complete the following aspects of the project :

This week we have been able to publish the first 11 activity videos, with 9 more in the final editing phase to be released shortly.

Our 360 Virtual Tour will be filmed at the end of August and will be available on our website shortly afterwards. But for now we have a guided tour available for visitors to familiarise themselves with our site, grounds and activities.

 

Want to find out more about this project?

You can read more details about the Hidden Disabilities Project below.

Easing Anxieties

Many of our service users and carers struggle with anxiety, not knowing what is going to happen or what to expect from a trip to Bendrigg, especially if it is something they have never done before. This is particularly true for people with complex learning disabilities who may need extra communication aids to help them understand fully what they will be doing.

To help give people as much advanced knowledge as possible we’d like to create some short videos for the activity pages on our website showing what to expect from Climbing, Canoeing and Caving including what equipment they might need to wear and showing activities in action.

We’d also like to create a 360 degree virtual tour of our grounds & accommodation to help further ease peoples anxieties about staying away from home what could be for the first time.

Financial Support

Disabled people on average pay an extra £550 per month on costs relating to their disability. As a part of this project we want to host an inclusive Climbing Festival and an Open Course for Adults with a Learning Disability. These courses give people with learning disabilities the opportunity to develop their skills and take on adventure activities whilst also making new friendships in a residential environment. The aim of these courses are to help the attendees build their confidence encourage them to be as independent as possible. In order for individuals to afford to come on these courses, we must fundraise to subsidise the cost to make it affordable for our visitors.

Project aims

1. To have a virtual tour of our site and grounds

2. To have created a series of activity videos

3. To host a Learning Disability Climbing Festival

4. To host an Open Course for Adults with Learning Disabilities

Project Objectives

1. For our service users to feel less anxious before a visit by being able to see & explore where they are coming virtually & understand how our adventure activities are run.

2. To help people with Learning Disabilities to feel more confident, independent & build on soft skills such as problem solving & communication through adventurous activities.

3. To give people with Learning Disabilities the opportunity to have a wonderful experience away from home to socialise with others & make new friends.

Would you like to contribute towards future events as part of our Hidden Disabilities Project?

Get in touch with our fundraising team today!