The Socialites
A story by Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians
Artlink’s Socialites provided activities for young people with complex needs in Midlothian through creative placements around unique skills like animation and music. This allowed the carers to have a break from their caring role.
Through strategic alliances with key supports, we generated sustained involvement for the young person and their peers.
What The Socialites did
The project delivered 17 creative placements for young people with multiple and complex needs to provide respite for 42 carers identified by social work and carers supports organisations as experiencing extreme levels of stress.
The activities sought to provide short breaks, but also to remove barriers to regular respite by developing capacity of local resources to include young people to lead more independent, meaningful social lives outside of home. The project centred on partnership work with potential longer term supports, building a template for use by others. This project worked because we worked strategically with existing knowledge and support and removing the barriers which prevent their son or daughter’s access to opportunity, and in doing so facilitated their own respite, which is far better than providing respite alone.
For example, we provided a book of ideas for sensory activity in a church hall on Sunday afternoons for someone who can’t access a day centre in partnership with a care provider to allow dad a break from caring.
For someone whose extreme social anxiety stopped him going to school, we ran animation workshops in school which increased his attendance ten fold. We then fundraised with local libraries to create his own youth club on a Friday night with specialist autism support. This allowed mum time to spend with her other children and take a break.
For someone whose mother hadn’t been out in two years, we created a sensory space at home so his care team could confidently engage him whilst she went to sing at a local folk music session.
This project aimed to involve 15 young people but reached 27. This project aimed to provide respite for 23 carers but benefited 42. This work continues to this day, through joint working and relationships built around the young person and their family.
What Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians has learned
We cannot underestimate the power of the knowledge within families to know what's right for their child.
We enjoyed being able to generate in some cases ten times more hours of respite for a family by working in partnership with teams, this also allowed greater confidence in teams to open up community involvement for those they support. We have been naturally led to new resources we could not have foreseen at the start of the project, for example library funding for a youth club.
Project Outcome
15 children with complex needs will have experienced new people, places and activity that’s been created uniquely around their key skills and interests. 15 people will have connections to activity beyond our involvement. 15 people will have enjoyed doing something they are good at.
Results
27 children with complex needs experienced new people, places and activity created uniquely around their key skills and interests. 27 people will have connections to activity beyond our involvement by enhancing the capacity of community organisations such as the library service, church hall, indoor football hall, gymnastics centre and college of art to include young people with complex needs. 27 people enjoyed doing something they are good at and have avenues to progress that skill in the future.
Case study
An educational psychologist introduced us to an S1 student with acute social anxiety who was only leaving his home for 3 hours a week to attend school. Mum has two younger siblings and could not take a break due to the complexity of her eldest son’s support needs. His interests in animation and model building allowed us a starting point to develop activity based on story creation through Lego and stop frame animation. We worked in school to allow mum more time to herself, and her son a bridge back to learning. His school participation has increased ten fold. We worked with Barnardos Intensive Behaviour Support Team and Midlothian libraries to fundraise from the Scottish Library Innovation Fund and successfully fundraised for a year long youth club for three of his peers supported in his learning support base. Better Breaks funding has initiated ten times more respite for his mum as he now attends a weekly Friday night club in a local library.
Project Outcome
23 carers will agree that the skills of their child have been nurtured through practical, developmental respite. 23 carers will feel confident that their child has opportunities to progress their interests than before. 23 carers will tell us that’s it's improved their situation and/or wellbeing.
Results
42 carers agreed that the skills of their child have been nurtured through practical, developmental respite. 42 carers felt confident that their child has opportunities to progress their interests than before. 42 told us that’s it's improved their situation and/or wellbeing.
Case study
Social work introduced us to someone who has a fascination with pulling electrical cables that prevented his safety in his local day centre. His mother, a single parent hadn’t had an evening out for over two years, and couldn’t pursue her passion for folk music as he became too anxious without her. Her knowledge of her son’s sensory interests formed the basis of a project to support new staff to be able to support him without her. Initially, we provided weekly sessions for her son with staff, and brought musicians to play with her at home. The artist converted his room into a sensory space with projectors, speakers and objects of interest. We found two community venues he could access for sensory activity, and mum was able to finally get out to a regular folk night, in the knowledge her son was happy to remain at home without her. This approach has generated longer lasting opportunity for her to rebuild a social life, by strengthening existing supports to allow her regular time away. She describes this as her ‘life saver’, that it protected her from crisis and nervous exhaustion.
Project Outcome
23 carers will have time to do something just for them during the hours of this resource. It’s important we are flexible – so if a few hours fortnightly doesn’t give enough time, we can adapt to ensure their life outside of caring can be developed (for example, having a whole day a month to go out).
Results
42 carers had time to choose what they do with the short break created by this project. This created the opportunity for carers to go to work, spend time with their other children, attend live music, sing with a folk band or do the food shopping without the complexity of taking their child who hates the lights in the supermarket. For others this generated a wealth of ideas and invested in care teams to increase the capacity and resilience of care teams to provide ongoing quality support for their son or daughter.
Case study
Weekly one to one Illustration workshop for someone who attends school for only two hours a week who had lost all peer friendships because of social anxiety. Mum, who has her own business couldn’t work regular hours as she couldn’t rely on her school involvement allowing her the option of 9-5 employment. Workshops took place in a local art studio during the day, so her mum could continue to develop her business. Social work introduced us to another isolated young person who loved drawing who was the same age, and the two seemed to enjoy each other’s company. This work continues from investment from Children and Family’s social work department and individual self directed support contribution.
Project Outcome
23 carers will feel better supported as a carer as a result of the groundwork and bespoke opportunities for their child to open up longer term opportunity. 23 carers will feel their child has increased opportunity to progress their skills and interests.
Results
42 carers felt better supported as a carer as a result of the groundwork and bespoke opportunities for their child to open up longer term opportunity because of strategic partnership work with existing community supports and specialist care providers. We worked with 4 care providers, libraries, 4 high schools, a church, a gymnastic centre, Edinburgh University, a sports provider, two residential support providers, an NHS care team, an outreach education team and a music rehearsal studio. 42 carers felt their child has increased opportunity to progress their skills and interests.
Case study
We were introduced to someone whose interest in sound was more important than most, as he is blind, and has autism. Other than school, his interests were so unique that the family could not find community opportunity that fitted what he was looking for, so the family had no respite on weekends. We delivered fortnightly Saturday workshops with a digital composer at Edinburgh College of Art who shares sound recording technology and hi spec speakers to allow him to create his own soundscapes. They have developed a bespoke recording devise using the latest ‘Bela’ technology by designing something he can use to record and edit sound without the need for support. This has allowed his parents to spend time with his younger siblings, and says he's a happy person when he comes back in from his sound workshop.
Project Outcome
15 children with complex needs will have accessed mainstream and leisure activity created uniquely around their key skills and interests. 15 people will have informed their own community of interest and those organisations have been supported to practically include them.
Results
27 children with complex needs accessed mainstream and leisure activity created uniquely around their key skills and interests. 27 children informed their own community of interest and those organisations have been supported to practically include them. This builds longevity of access. 27 young people and their carers have shaped what is available to others, by contributing their skills and knowledge to shape local provision. This project has created a new landscape of opportunity in the form of books, small creative groups, a mentoring support, a library based youth club and bespoke sensory activity for longer term benefits for others, and increased respite for carers.
Case study
An educational psychologist introduced us to an S1 student with acute social anxiety who was only leaving his home for 3 hours a week to attend school. Mum has two younger siblings and couldn't work or take a break due to the complexity of her eldest son’s support needs. His interests in animation and model building allowed us a starting point to develop activity based on story creation through Lego and stop frame animation. We worked in school to allow mum more time to herself, and her son a bridge back to learning. His school participation has increased ten fold. We worked with Barnardos Intensive Behaviour Support Team and Midlothian libraries to fundraise from the Scottish Library Innovation Fund and successfully fundraised for a year long youth club for three of his peers supported in his learning support base. Better Breaks has initiated ten times more respite for his mum as he now attends a weekly Friday night club in a local library.
Project Outcome
We will have 15 personal stories, with rich visual and written documentation to support a greater understanding of the needs of families and the benefits of having a short break.
Results
We have developed a website resource describing in detail some of the personal stories, with rich visual and written documentation to support a greater understanding of the needs of families and the benefits of having a short break.
Case study
Social work introduced us to a young man who hypersensitivity to noise, and anxiety for unpredictable environments made accessing day services impossible. Dad, a single parent wanted a more bespoke type of activity which didn’t exist, and was highly stressed as a result of a lack of meaningful activity for his son. Dad’s knowledge of his son’s unique interests presented an opportunity to create something bespoke, so we placed an artist initially with dad, then his care team, to devise new activity based on the ‘facts’ of what engages his son. This developed into ‘The little book of magic’ – a recipe book of activity the team can use wherever they are with him. For every hour of respite, a further ten were generated through his outreach team being able to take him new places. The Scottish Autism Innovation Fund continued this work, which continues today. Dad spoke at the Scottish Autism Strategy Conference and the concept of the book is now used by four other care teams for people with complex needs. Artlink are now planning on a consortium of six complex care teams to devise an alternative map of resources across Midlothian of spaces where young people with complex needs can be themselves, and support staff can have ideas of what activity to provide in those resources.
Additional project outcome
Artlink are now planning on a consortium of six complex care teams to devise an alternative map of resources across Midlothian.
Case study
People need spaces to be themselves, and ideas for care teams to devise activity in those spaces. we have recently partnered through the Health and Social Integration activity with six other care organisations to create an alternative map of resources in Midlothian for care teams supporting young people with the most complex needs.
Additional project outcome
Artlink programmed activity for 2018's summer activity programme for respite for 150 families with children with additional needs.
Case study
Artlink have just finished a large programme of activity to provide respite for 100 families of children with additional needs for summer activity in 2018 with three after school clubs.
Funded Organisation
Artlink Edinburgh and LothiansVisit Artlink Edinburgh and Lothians's website