Campaign highlights difficulties for people with learning disabilities
Adults with learning disabilities opened the doors of a house in Willow Road, Nuneaton, and invited friends, family and Warwickshire County Council employees to help them celebrate, and raise awareness for Learning Disability Awareness week – June 22nd to 26th.
The House is run by Warwickshire County Councils’ Nuneaton Community Support Services. It is part of a project to encourage and support people with learning disabilities to develop life and travel skills, and to access education, employment and community opportunities.
Marie Lewis who co ordinates the project said: “Learning Disability Awareness Week is a great opportunity for people with learning disabilities to raise awareness about things that are important to them and showcase what they can achieve.”
Shirley Taylor who uses the service said: “We invited people to come and see what we have been doing, and to see that with a bit of support we can do the same as everyone else.”
Trace Cox added: “‘We enjoyed having lots of visitors, and me and Shirley were in charge of serving drinks.”
Learning Disability Awareness week is a national awareness week run by Mencap. The theme this year was ‘Changing places, Changing lives.’ Society is often unaware of the difficulties facing people with multiple and profound disabilities because of limited changing facilities. Warwickshire County Council is supporting Mencap’s campaign to improve people’s quality of life and appeal for fully accessible toilets at large public places.
Warwickshire County Council is one of just a few local authorities to install two Changing Places toilets, one in Shire Hall Warwick and one in Abbey Street Nuneaton.
Julie Sutch, Manager of Nuneaton Community Support Services said:
‘We are pleased to be able to offer these facilities and are hopeful that in the near future they will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”