I start bloggers , by telling you that on Monday of this week , I was invited to go and volunteer with Corali Dance Company at a project they run at Greenside School , in Stevenage, in which two staff members are teaching children who attend the school and have complex disabilities to dance creatively. Seeing as we use creative activities in our summer job forum , I was most interested to see what they do , towards gaining their Arts Award , which is an accredited qualification used by employers , and recognised by them as such.
I started off the day by meeting the staff and pupils , and the staff team from Corali , who had met me at Stevenage train station that morning. They were Bridget, the cooridnator of the project,DJ, a dance worker , who has a learning disability himself , and Andrea , the manager of Corali Dance Company in London.
I then looked at pictures from the session the children had last week where they were doing dance steps guided by a strip of paper in which they had drawn their footsteps on, and we watched a video of it all together after the children had done the footstep dancing.
We went into the hall after that to warm up , and we gathered to watch films , and look at the pictures that the children had made last week when asked by the staff about their favourite things , childrens programmes, music etc. We had a break , then some films were played and the children had their pictures taken , and videoed them doing dances to the films.
Bridget got the group to then use some balloons in different ways , to create movement and dancing , one of which was when we all held the balloons to our chests in pairs , and we danced around the main hall slowly as not to make the balloon fall to the ground. Some of the children and staff managed to keep the balloon there for a long while and even did it with three people!
We also had a conga line too , which was fun , but from what I learnt about all of this is that the children have very complex needs and just to get them to do this for a long time is difficult when they have a short attention span , and they either disappear or they ask you questions. I was simply there to help the children really , and can remember I helped one girl who kept asking me questions , but it was interesting , sometimes challenging , and I learnt a lot from the ataff who were there and even the children. A very rewarding experience , and you get these at work too , which is where Hertfordshire PASS comes in , as every day here is different, rewarding and challenging just like my Corali project but a valuable experience!
And you learn a lot from working at Hertfordshire PASS , the scale of what you are doing.
We are merging the Work Club that we hope will be good as I talked about in my last post to you , and the Summer Job Forum that helps young disabled people to understand the realities of work by using creative media. We plan to keep the format of the Summer Job Forum where we invite visitors to the Summer Job Forum,
I think what Corali and the children have taught me though , is that whatever your disability , it doesnt hold you back , and one small thing that the children are doing , contributes to employers rrecognising their Arts Award qualification , and we in our apprenticeships that we run here at Hertfordshire PASS can be a rewarding experience , to share ideas , and another thing to add to your CV and a unique way for you to find work.
My hope is that through all the contacts I make and know that they can help me in some small way, in what I do.
If you can help me , I will put my email address for work here which is katie@hertspass.com , or if you want to make a comment about this post please do so , underneath.
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