This month has been all about picking back up our part-accredited courses. Now that Covid-19 restrictions have eased providing these indoor group sessions with the vulnerable adults we work with on the Take Charge project is safer.
Down to Earth at Llandough Health Meadow
We have recently teamed up with Adult Learning Wales to deliver a part-accredited resilience course. This course supports participants with positive ways to cope with change and feel more confident. Soft skills are often overlooked but are as crucial as work-related skills. This course was beneficial in terms of enabling individuals to recognise their strengths and improve their confidence.
Participants have been taking part in a Taster Health and Wellbeing Agored course with Down to Earth at Llandough Health Meadow.
This course considers our participants’ views when planning volunteering activities at Health Meadow. We aim to show the importance of their actions for themselves and others.
Our participants volunteer here with the broader community to create a new outdoor healthcare and rehabilitation facility based on 14 acres of woodland and meadow next to the hospital.
Agored Volunteering
Our new Volunteering Agored course aims to help participants to find volunteering opportunities within their local community. These part-accredited qualifications are tailored to the individual and what they want to do. Our participants benefit from the extra support completing this qualification has to offer in terms of reaching their goals. We have provided this course for four participants, with many more hoping to participate soon.
Gathering Information to Enable Use of Public Transport with Agored
Our second new Agored course is Gathering Information to Enable Use of Public Transport. The course aims to empower people by helping them gain confidence when travelling. They now understand better how to plan a journey and where to find information about public transport.
Being able to travel further afield will enable our participants. In particular, participants in Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) will be able to find more volunteering, learning and job opportunities. This course has helped them to achieve this.
Participants took part in this course at the Welsh Council for Deaf People building in Pontypridd. They visited Pontypridd train station and a nearby bus stop whilst there, too. Our participants must experience this course locally for it to resonate with their knowledge of the area. We aim to tailor all of our courses to our participants’ needs. Providing courses in various locations throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf, Cardiff, and the Vale of Glamorgan helps us to do this.
For our Cardiff-based participants, we provided this course at Insole Court. We visited the nearby Fairwater train station, and some bus stops along the way. Our participants loved this interactive part of the course. Being able to go out together to gather information from these places physically was a constructive and enjoyable way for them to enhance the learning they had done in the classroom.
More volunteering opportunities
By providing a range of practical, part-accredited courses for our participants, we have supported them in achieving their self-identified goals. Helping participants learn about volunteering opportunities in their community and access them via public transport is vital. Encouraging participants to improve resilience, health, and well-being is essential for individuals moving closer to employment.
Working with our colleagues in the Skills and Wellbeing team has been the key to successfully delivering these part-accredited courses. We will also continue to liaise with other organisations, allowing us to provide more learning opportunities in the future.
