Information on Loughborough

Day service helps people with learning disabilities

Posted on 04/11/2008

A day service for people with learning disabilities is being officially opened in Loughborough.

Frederick Street Community Opportunities runs from Monday to Friday and helps up to 30 people in a wide age range and with differing levels of support.

It is based at The United Reformed Church, in Frederick Street, and has had extensive alterations including a new kitchen, office, and heating system.

The day service will be officially opened on Tuesday, November 4, by David Sprason, Leicestershire County Council Cabinet lead member for Adult Social Care and Mick Connell, Director of Adult Social Care and Health.

David Sprason said: “After the review of day services for people with learning disabilities in Loughborough, it became obvious that there was a need for a more community based service.

"Frederick Street Community Opportunities project will be a real asset providing the ideal base for people to access their local community, increasing their confidence levels and the choices available to them.”

The project aims to encourage and support the inclusion of adults with learning disabilities in Loughborough by promoting their independence, involvement and choice through employment, training, education opportunities and personalised action plans.

For more information, contact Frederick Street Community Opportunities on 0116 305 5793. To find out more about how the County Council supports people with learning disabilities, go to: www.leics.gov.uk/learning_disability

Photo Opportunity:

Tuesday, November 4, 10am to 12 noon, Frederick Street Community Opportunities, 39 Frederick Street, Loughborough.

Notes for Editors:

  • Work has been done to prepare people who use the service to integrate in the community during the build up to the move to the new base. This included discussing each individual’s hopes and aspirations as well as their fears, all of which was recorded in a ‘moving on pack’.

  • Some of the project’s achievements to date include a person with learning disabilities who has acquired two voluntary placements, one glass collecting at a local public house, the other assisting at a day centre for the elderly. Another person who was very reluctant to venture out from the centre now goes out into Loughborough regularly to the library or newsagent to buy a magazine, to the local market on Thursdays or local café for a drink.

  • The project has also built up an excellent relationship with a local pub, The Crown and Cushion, which lets them use their facilities to run a darts league on Tuesdays and use their karaoke equipment on Wednesdays.