On the road to Skegness
If you ask my team how this all started, they’d tell you I had a crazy idea one night when I could not sleep. I was thinking of what activities and adventures we could create at the Thurmaston Day Service, then I had a light bulb moment…. we should plan a summer trip to Skegness!
At this point in time, I had no idea how we were going to achieve this vision, but I was determined to make it work. I spoke with my team, and we came up with a plan, we started to come up with ideas of how we could raise money to make the vision become a reality.
We started to make things for a tabletop sale at the local Christmas Fair in Thurmaston, and from this we gained not only a new person starting to use our service, but also a presence in the local community. Then more fundraising: a few raffles, cake sales, quizzes and dressing up as a fried breakfast for Easter etc.
That part was the easy bit… we also had some major hurdles to overcome with the people we support. To make this happen, we had to help the move forward from having become agoraphobic due to their experiences during the Covid Pandemic. The only “outside” they encountered was to and from their taxi when they came to us. So, we started to go for walks each day: short walks at first, building up from taking bags of rubbish to the bins up to walking to the local shops. Step by step, we had to break down each part of this adventure into tiny parts to ensure that we could achieve our goal.
One of our main objectives was to make sure that the staff knew the people they supported, and their colleagues, inside out, upside down and back to front, and worked as a team - believing in each other and knowing that we can achieve anything if we set our hearts and minds on the goal.
A crucial element was building the trust of the people we support in our staff team, knowing that they would be safe and that we would ensure that something good was going to happen. They had started to have fun outside of the day centre and to learn again that the outside world can be a beautiful, safe place to be.
So, with all our hard work, and gradual steps that we took we as a team, six people we support managed to go to Skegness on a beautiful coach, with not one problem arising! Team Thurmaston had fish and chips, and sat on the beach with Ice cream, sticks of rock, fun and laughter. It took lots of faith, hard work, dedication and determination, but we did it!
The day was planned meticulously to make sure the people we support could feel secure, relaxed and enjoy their big day out.
Each objective completed during the day gave us even more determination that we would make this a perfect day for all. It was a major team bonding event, seeing all their hard work paying off, with each staff member playing a vital part. My team is the best ever. I am so proud of them all for believing we could do something so magical, and putting the work in to make it happen.
Our coach driver said he could not believe how well behaved everyone was on the bus. He said it was the most beautiful day and was so proud to have been part of it.
People on the beach said to us that it was so lovely to see a group of “poorly people out in the community in such a public place with no problems happening.” – A win for myth-busting and social inclusion!
This will be a treasured memory and a testament for what brilliant things can happen when you dare to do something different.