Thursday 13th October, 2016 at 1:10pm
Saturday’s Community Champions are ‘team workmates’.
Workmates is East Park’s day service for young adults aged between 17-25 with high support needs. All young people have a learning disability but may also have:
· A physical disability
· Autism
· Challenging Behaviour.
We work with each young person in a 1:1 basis to develop their potential to enable participation in:
· Continuing Education
· Work Experience
· Community Based activities
· Independent Living skills
· Therapeutic activities.
We have a base at the East Park site where we have access to various facilities but make the most of community resources. These include for litter picking, Maryhill Burgh Hall’s and the British Walkways, where support workers and young people join the community in weekly activities in trying to keep the canal and Burgh Halls Litter Free, Matthew from workmates was asked why he thinks it is important to participate in the litter picking within the Maryhill community, Matthew replied “To keep it clean and tidy. People must pick up their rubbish!!” Along with the litter picking, when the young people see any graffiti around the Maryhill Area this is reported and work will then delegate to volunteers to clean the graffiti.
The Conservation volunteers at Maryhill Hub shared their knowledge and experience in showing young people and support workers how to build bird boxes and raised beds, this was ideal for our community allotment based at the science park, where Workmates maintain their own allotment plot of vegetables and flowers.
Within East Park, Workmates gather recycling to take to the Tesco recycling bank, as Laura from Workmates says “It is important to recycle” In participating within the recycling programme the young people of Workmates become familiar faces to shops and businesses around East Park, resulting in good relationships being formed.
In demonstrating such commitment to keeping the area of Maryhill littler and graffiti free, it’s not difficult to see why all of us at Partick Thistle consider ‘team workmates’ real community heroes.
