Grapevine is a pioneering drop-in midst for adults with learning difficulties in Coventry It was established by dint of the Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative progression in a continuously ascending gradation Agency in 1994 and is trip co-operatively by staff and members.

Grapevine is a pioneering drop-in midst for adults with learning difficulties in Coventry It was established by dint of the Coventry and Warwickshire Co-operative progression in a continuously ascending gradation Agency in 1994 and is trip co-operatively by staff and members. Anyone who attends the middle can become a member and help decide for what reason money is spent, what protoplasts of activities are organised and in what manner the centre is run.

Key points

Grapevine aim to:

* empower tribe to plan and lead their avow activities and projects

* enable clan to have friends in their neighbourhoods and communities

* increase people's choice and direct over their lives

* be virtuous at person-centred working.

This article describes a certain number of of the ways that Grapevine tries to do this. It also says what we have learned.

Community connections

The goal of this work is to help nation develop a network of friends and activities in their neighbourhoods, using their gifts and interests. There are four main stages to what we do.

1 Getting to know the local community

We find public what community activity is happening in a local area: mapping its organisations and focal points. We ask the public to share their knowledge of an area to find revealed about the less visible aspects of community life, the informal gatherings and shared interest disposes This information gathering also identifies race who are key contacts - family who know everything and everyone and who care about community. They are an invaluable resource for making links and gaining credibility with local people

2 Getting to know the individual

This stage go proceeds in parallel with the first stage. We use simple planning tools to find abroad about a person's character, skills, gifts and interests. Knowing about people's passions and gifts is important. Having something to propound or a shared passion can be a way in to strange relationships. We spend lots of time with the human frame in their area too, finding gone out what life is like for them. The more we can gain to know about someone, the better equipped we are to help them make convenient connections in their community.

3 Connecting family to their local community

With the information gathered about community life and the individual, the nearest stage is to make a connection. The idea is not to find more activity for someone unless to find a way for them to make a contribution. happy relationships are those that are mutually beneficial. The community worker's part here is to introduce the connection and then do as little as possible however as much as is penuryed We have to make never-failing that the person is supported in ways they ne still with us staying in the background as to a great degree as possible. The relationship is between the living body and their community, not between Grapevine and the community.

4 Support the connection to grow

We want commonalty to experience the positive feelings of inclusion - confidence, being liked, belonging. It is not enough to introduce sum of two units people, because this stage can frequently be the most difficult: learning the unspoken sways of a group, remembering what you said you would do, being upon time, offering to buy a spherical Each situation will require different support. As a body gains confidence in a community assign places to say, then support will wax from other people in the cluster and the worker's input can be reduced

What we are learning

* This work can be inactive to show results. It is a great deal of easier to show more activity happening in someone's life than it is to indicate new relationships growing. Sometimes, connections fail or are short-lived. still it is important that we restrain trying.

* This creates vexed questions with funding. Funders want specific and measurable deductions within atimescale, which is highly difficult to promise, and it can also at hand problems for staff morale. It is important to remember that population and their communities have experienced decades of exclusion from united another. Untying the knots is limit to take time.

* plane more basic problems can loom large in people's lives. For example many of the folks we know live in small clump homes with people they haven't chosen to be with. Arguments cause friction and distress. persons may have to move disclosed - and so into a different neighbourhood. As we've got to know populace and spend time with them we've set up health problems and emotional distress. We have sometimes had to advocate for these basic destitutions for peace and security, choice and have the direction of We have had to do this before unruffled starting to look at community connecting.

* It is self-same important to get supported living staff forward board. For example, if we are helping someone to join a slimming clump and one of the empires of belonging is that everyone brings unimpaired fruit to share, then we ne staff to understand to what end that matters and to support the somebody to buy it and remember to take it.

* Mapping consequences are fun. Communities, even uniteds that look unpromising, always look to have a lot going on

* Risk can be managed. An important reason for having someone to assist in the connecting proces is to obstruct the person from being settle up to fail and to make steady that they do not originate to harm. Risk is part of life for everyone It is not a question of asking is there a risk, however is this something worth taking a risk for? Is the result a greater reward than the likelihood or severity of the risk? by means of increasing their connections in a neighbourhood family are more likely to be increasing their protection rather than opening themselves up to recently made known risks.