Newhaven Learning Disability Week 2024 “DO YOU SEE ME”

By the team at Newhaven

Service users and staff at Newhaven celebrated learning disability week, the theme this year was “do you see me”. Staff and service users wanted to design some artwork to be hung within one of our courtyards. Each service user was provided with a wooden cut out person, the idea around this is that each service user designs the wooden person around their likes, interests, and achievements, we want our service users and others to see that they are just like everyone else, they are capable, and we celebrate what they bring to society.

Although people with a learning disability are thankfully no longer routinely separated from society, there does remain a divide. At Newhaven we aware that, unless people have a friend or family member who has a learning disability, they may never really interact with someone with a learning disability. We want people to see similarities rather than differences and found that these wooden cut outs were a great way of service users expressing themselves whilst also being a great conversation starter.

This year’s theme is “do you see me”, our service users are encouraged to stand proud, show their real selves rather than being defined/labelled by their learning disability.

To end the week, staff and service users celebrated by having a summer garden party, with games, BBQ, ice cream and refreshments and an unveiling of the artwork which can be found within our internal courtyard.

Thank you for reading…