Short Break Stories

Cambo Activity Days

A story by Cambo Heritage Trust

We provided activity sessions for adults with a disability, two half day sessions per week. Activities are centred around creative learning projects with the option for ‘volunteering’ style sessions in the gardens and woods for those who are able.

Carers can also take part in the sessions or have time to themselves.

What Cambo Activity Days did

We have worked with two freelance project leaders who had worked with us previously. We have recruited two volunteer support workers to work on the project, one who has progressed to be a paid support worker. We advertised locally through doctors surgeries and other community venues and through local voluntary sector organisations who support carers and adults with disabilities. These organisations acted as referrers.

We chose people on a ‘first come first served’ basis and tailored activities to the needs of individuals. Individuals have a broad range of physical and learning disabilities and one person has dementia. The project ran for 42 weeks of the year with 2 x 2.5 hour sessions offered per week. This provided 210 hours of service.

The main focus of the project was creative arts sessions. These took place in the ‘Sun Room’ at Cambo Farmhouse a large conservatory room laid out as an art workshop. Many art activities were offered and tailored to the needs of individuals. These include clay sculpture, felting, printmaking, mosaic, painting on canvas and jewellery making.

Woodland activities took place around the Estate and activities ranged from clearing paths, harvesting apples and plums and thinning trees. Carers had the opportunity to stay and take part in activities which some did. Mainly carers took the time to do tasks that they felt unable to do when caring. This ranged from shopping, doing the garden at home, household admin (going to bank etc) and taking some time for themselves.

An elderly male who cares for his wife at home who has Dementia reported that knowing he has the regular break allows him to plan tasks that are easier to do alone for example appointments, gardening tasks etc this meaning he is less anxious about how and when he will ‘get things done’.

His wife was a very keen artist before suffering from Dementia and the art programme gives her a familiar activity she enjoys and feels comfortable doing therefore he feels happy and confident to leave her in the group setting.

2 family Carers reported that the short break art activity is the only time in the week that their Cared for Adults participate in an activity outside the home and with a group. In this respect it is life changing as the group gives something for everyone to look forward to, talk about afterwards and display art created both at home and in displays at Cambo.
One family reported that the type of activity offered made a real difference. In addition to the appreciation of the break, the family felt that the Cared for Adult (young adult male with learning disability) who is part of the woodland group was making a real contribution to conservation on the estate which gave pride and purpose.

The family felt that in comparison with other respite/daycare programmes these activities treated the cared for adults as contributing members of society who can progress their own abilities and confidence as individuals.

What Cambo Heritage Trust has learned

Although we have worked for several years with adults with disabilities this is the first project that has focused on the Carer as well as the Cared For person. This has helped our practice in this area and enabled us to pilot types of programmes that we can further develop in the future. We are now more aware of Carers groups and organisations that support Carers in our area that we had no knowledge of previously.

This will lead to many strands of potential development including day trips for Carers groups, family learning activities and the continuation of the activity programme developed as part of the ‘Creative Breaks’ funding.

As our initial route for marketing the ‘Creative Breaks’ opportunities was through other advocacy groups a number of our initial activity participants were already being supported by other groups or charities. It took a long time to make good direct links with family Carers that fitted the criteria for the ‘Creative Break’s fund. However, for our broader programmes this has meant we have very good links with organisations that support people with disabilities and have been fortunate with funding from Postcode Trust for a new project that can support work with existing Carer organisations and statutory services.

We have tried a variety of marketing routes from social media, letterbox leaflet drops, posters in local community hubs, email outs to local workers and information in the local press. As family Carers are by nature busy it has taken repeat occasions of promotion to establish local knowledge about the opportunities. New carers have come from each type of promotion and from that word of mouth has then created further enquiries. We are now aware of the time and resources required to get out and promote opportunities to find those most in need of the service.
Top tips Cambo Heritage Trust's top tips for an organisation that wants to run a similar project
Tip 1:
Give yourself plenty of time and resource to promote the service if you have to establish links with carers from scratch
Tip 2:
Be prepared to tailor types of activity and staffing levels depending on the needs of the Cared For person
Tip 3:
Ensure staff can work flexibly and be able to respond to demand