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professionals and others to ensure access
to food, medicine, therapy, social support,
legal advice and emergency repairs.
We continually keep up to date and
share policy changes to ensure individuals
understand their rights.
Our specialist parent advocacy service
continues to work with parents with
learning disabilities to attend remote
emergency court hearings, understand
their rights, navigate the legal system,
communicate with schools and ensure
reasonable adjustments are in place.
Covid-19 has made our work even harder.
We will continue to explore emergency
funding and make use of government
initiatives to remain resilient and respond
effectively to increased demand. Shows go on: DanceSyndrome is running interactive Zoom groups and free dance
sessions on YouTube four days a week
Inventive ideas
Sue Pemberton, chief executive of Integrate, person has become fitter and healthier due to the coronavirus outbreak. Regular
community-based support provider, through cooking healthier meals and eating participants missed seeing friends and
Lancashire and Greater Manchester less junk food. One man, determined to dancing together.
There has been a big change in how we stay fit, bought a rolling road for his bike. Knowing how important face-to-face
operate – we have gone from being a All these people would normally be out interaction is to wellbeing, the company’s
friendly, open office welcoming people in and about, and staying in has been quite dancers put together a programme of
to having many people working at home productive and positive for them. online dance sessions to do at home.
and senior teams being quite dispersed. We have adapted well to home working They have been offering live, interactive
We have been lucky in that no one we and Zoom meetings. Zoom sessions, with a small charge to
support has had the virus so far, but have I don’t think we have been hit as hard as help the charity to cover costs. There are
had lots of offers from staff to stay with those in London, although finding PPE is not also free sessions on YouTube, with new
people for the duration should that be without problems, and there are constant sessions released four days a week. All of
necessary. Staff teams changed working changes to legislation and guidance. these are jointly led by people with
patterns and have been amazing. We decided to look at the positives, and learning disabilities, are fully inclusive and
A lot of the people we support are it’s been good to see the staff so upbeat. can be adapted to meet individual needs.
struggling with isolation. Staff are being
inventive regarding support. People we Dancing together at a distance The show goes on – on the BBC
work with have been taking up gardening Sarah Calderbank, project coordinator, at Sarah Archdeacon, artistic director at
and cooking for the first time. One has DanceSyndrome, inclusive dance charity, Corali, a company where dance is created
decorated their hallway; another has built Lancashire by people with learning disabilities, London
decking in their garden. People have made Everyone at DanceSyndrome was We thought carefully about the best ways
model cars and one a Lego Volkswagen disappointed when they were forced to to stay connected to our performers, some
camper van, which took 12 hours. One cancel regular community dance sessions of whom had not been online before.
Our first idea was for dancers to make
YouTube films so we could all keep
dancing at home. Corali dancers DJ, Paul
and Bethan created sessions. We know
everyone misses seeing each other so
have been testing out Zoom classes too.
In addition, we are running “sign of the
week” to help people learn sign language,
and a monthly Corali creative challenge.
Jon C Archdeacon/www.joncarchdeacon.co.uk: Corali Quarantine initiative. The response has
The BBC included a film we made last
year with the Tate in its Culture Under
been incredibly positive, proving the quality
of dancers with learning disabilities and
how they capture the nation’s imagination.
It is not the same as being in the studio
together, but it has certainly encouraged
us to think creatively in new ways. n

Corali youth company Kick Up at The Place in
London shortly before the lockdown
www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 33 No 4 | Summer 2020 15