Outreach 3Way

Part of Dimensions, Outreach 3Way is a Sussex charity that provides support for people with learning disabilities and autism in East and West Sussex.

With a strong presence in the community and with local businesses, the people Outreach 3Way supports enjoy opportunities to connect with people in their local area and to learn new skills. There is a strong emphasis on sport, arts and self-expression, as well as residential and support options.

Outreach 3Way is a wholly controlled subsidiary and has a co-terminus Board arrangement.

Outreach 3 Way is a Sussex based charity, part of Dimensions.

Support with Outreach 3 Way

S.M.I.L.E

The S.M.I.L.E. (Sensory, Meaningful, Inclusion, Learning, Engagement) service is a safe environment for people with profound learning disabilities to develop news skills and get the right support. The level of staffing reflects the support needs for each person and staff work with individuals to encourage sensory stimulation.

There’s a timetable filled with activities including sensory cooking, hand and foot massage, music and movement sessions and time in our sensory room. People supported at S.M.I.L.E can integrate with the day centre and take part in a variety of community activities.

Places at S.M.I.L.E are open to block contracts or private payment on a contract.

Contact Outreach 3Way on 0300 303 9032 or Hello@outreach3way.org

Day centre

Our day centre in Ifield runs a number of community-based activities to encourage creativity and self-expression. We support people across Sussex to join activities. Places in the Community Hubs or Day Centre are open to block contracts or private payment on a contract.

The Community Hub and Day Service currently offer amounts other activities the following across Crawley and Horsham:

Advocacy Group & Focus Group

People with learning disabilities may not be able to live completely independently on a day-to-day basis. To have the same opportunities and rights as everyone else in society therefore, they may require some independent support to ensure that they are able to live their lives to the fullest extent. This can be achieved by receiving the right health care; access to facilities and the community; a social life; employment and educational opportunities; housing; the ability to make their own choices and to make their needs and opinions known.

The needs and requirements of each individual with a learning disability can be vastly different, depending on what they are able to do and the severity of their disability. Of course, as individuals we all have different preferences, and so for some people with a learning disability to communicate these opinions, preferences, requirements and needs, they may benefit for attending an advocacy group.

The word advocacy means in its basic form, active support of a cause or an idea. Ensuring the people, we support have a voice is hugely important, as they are often at risk of being ignored or overlooked because they may not be able to communicate verbally or in a “conventional” way. This session will inform, signpost to appropriate professionals, and assist the people we support to live as independently as possible, make their own choices and achieving their own goals and focus on their personal ambitions. The aim will be helping to give the people we support more control over their own lives in every aspect.

We will hold regular group meetings and invite people along to discuss and feedback views and ideas, this will be documented and offer an open line of communication to ensure views, opinions and experiences are heard and discussed.

Social Club

The people we support have displayed a need for seeing and talking to their friends, like everyone else in society. People ask after others and need to see friends and connections; we understand this concern and need can be very strong for individuals who have levels of autism.

Social connection we know is very important and sometimes just the art of listening and talking to others will help people express and feel supported. Without this approach in people life some people isolate themselves and lose some of the great skills and connections they have already made.

Independent Travel Training

For people with learning disabilities, using public transport presents particular challenges, but that does not mean we cannot help people travel independently.

Increasing someone’s confidence and helping people use public transport so they can do what everybody else does will make sure they take an active part in their community.

People we support will learn to go out in the community and their self-esteem and confidence will increase over time, the aim would be to remove the idea of them not being able to access their community.

When possible, the Support Workers will always take the people attending this session one stop further than they need so that, if they miss their stop when travelling on their own, they know how to return.

Please sessions like this are very popular.

Travel training initially includes teaching people to walk specific routes to where they want to go i.e., to shops, Colleges, travelling by bus, train, walking or cycling. Some modes of transport may be more applicable than others, depending on the individual or where they live. Ultimately, the aim is to transfer skills learned from a specific journey to all situations in the community.

increased opportunities for people to enjoy their own leisure time
increased chances of working
Increasing chances of a person being able to participate in the local community, live independently and possibly have access to employment
Increased independence may mean less reliance on Adult Services in the future
Social interaction
Health and well being
General exercise
Independence
Community engagement
Learning new skills or building on the one’s in-place
Ensuring the local community see and understand the needs of others when making adaptions wherever possible.
Confidence without risking safety
Accessing the community and usage of its facilities
Raise self confidence
Provide greater freedom
Develop social skills
Open opportunities for learning and work
Reduce reliance on friends and family

We will also assist the person to apply for:

disabled person’s railcard
disabled person’s bus pass

If they wish to make that application and If they have not received one or both of these already.

Independent Travel Training will off knowledge and confidence to people to use public transport on their own. It is all about independence, getting the skills and confidence to travel and use public transport.

Arts & Crafts

We are lucky to have some very creative and artistic people on the team and supported people who attend these sorts of session, in the past the people being supported have made some fantastic works of art. Some of which have been entered and won competitions.

Such as The Mary Wheeler Art Competition This is our annual art competition for people with a learning disability, which was started in 2003 to commemorate the life and work of the one-time President and Chairwoman Mary Wheeler MBE who founded Mid-Sussex Mencap in the late 1950s.

Bowling

Some of the best ways to support someone in health and their mental wellbeing is when they are enjoying themselves, people do not recognise the activity and a negative task. But more of an enjoyable pastime, with hidden benefits.

We have always had great interest from the people we support surrounding 10 Pin Bowling, and this is a sport that can be adapted to suit almost everyone.

Bowling helps people with:

Muscle toning and strengthening
Weight loss
Improves people’s social life
Stress relief
Aids a healthy heart
Hand-eye coordination

Drama

The support team witness the benefits of drama for the people they support who participate in the activity, it is reconsider that drama offers some great life skills:

Drama builds confidence
Even the shyest of people take just a few weeks to gently build up their self-esteem and before long they are confident to take a full and active part in sessions.
Drama helps concentration
In every session, the people we support are encouraged to listen to each other’s ideas and thoughts and to take turns. These activities allow people to recognise the value of concentration; a skill that is vital in the world outside their home.
Drama helps develop language and communication skills
Learning new songs, playing new games and participating in pretend play, they are encouraged to express themselves both verbally and through facial expression and body language; the key to making us all better communicators.
Drama encourages people to cooperate
Drama games to improvisation or singing together requires cooperation. People quickly realise that to get the best out of sessions, cooperation is a much-needed skill!
Drama helps the people we support to understand the world around them
The team explore a range of different themes and introduce the guys to a variety of real and imaginary situations each week, sparking their interest in the world in which they live and making them more inquisitive.
Drama develops emotional intelligence
By encouraging people to ‘act out’ a range of emotions in the safe and supportive environment people are better able to understand their feelings and develop empathy for others.
Drama develops creativity and creative
People can view things in new ways and from different perspectives. They can think on their feet and generate new ideas. Our person-led approach to improvisation and pretend play encourages the development of creativity as the people attending the activity lead the direction of the drama session themselves, come up with solutions to problems in role, and respond imaginatively to a range of pretend situations.
Drama nurtures friendships
By its very nature drama can create strong bonds between people as they laugh, learn, and grow together week after week after week!

This session offers a learning experience and a high level of person control in a fun and informative way.

Media Skills

We are very fortunate to have some very good support workers who understand the safe usage of computers, they have put together a program on how to express that information over to the people we support and what they will learn from this.

One member of the team has designed and session offering information and direction covering the following for the people we support; it will be delivered to reflect the persons understanding and own needs.