The workshops are ideal for self -advocacy groups, colleges and any organisation that believes in developing self- advocacy with people with a learning disability.

The Connections workshops will enable people with a learning disability to begin to develop team building and trust skills. The 4 sessions will cover:

• How we work together as a group.
• Trust exercises.
• Team building games.
• Problem solving activities
• Group devising exercises.
• Making or reviewing the group contract.

The workshops would be ideal for any new group of people working together for example, a new members committee, a new class in a tertiary college or a new self- advocacy group. The workshops would also be ideal for existing groups where we would look at how we work together and what makes the group strong.

Have your say will enable adults with a learning disability to discuss and role play an important issue that may affect their life.
This workshop(s) could be a one-off, a series of workshops or a longer-term project.  

• Advocreate will spend time prior to the workshop(s) researching
   the issue to maintain a good background knowledge.
• The workshops will contain a mixture of participatory games,
   thought shower, image theatre and role- play.
• There may also be opportunities to record the findings of the workshop
  via visual images, audio or AV recordings, interviews or the subsequent
  writing of a report.

Have your say is ideal for any organisation that would like to seek the opinion of people with learning disabilities surrounding services, activities, social pressures or any other issue that is deemed pertinent to their lives.

Fun in a day will use fun drama games and exercises that will enable people with a learning disability to relax and enjoy themselves in a safe and relaxed environment. The half-day or full session may include a combination of:

·         Physical and vocal warm up.
·         Get to know you exercises
·         Team games
·         Storytelling
·         Improvisation
·         Mime
·         Masks
·         Devising  

This workshop is ideal for day services or any organisation that may be holding an event where they would like to involve some drama for a group. This workshop could also act as a taster to the longer ‘Experience Drama’ workshop package.

Not a care in the world will use fun drama games and exercises for unpaid carers to let their hair down, meet other people in their situation and learn some confidence building performance skills. The workshop will gradually build skills throughout the session so no performance experience is necessary just a willingness to have fun!
The half-day or full session may include a combination of:

·         Physical and vocal warm up.
·         Get to know you exercises
·         Team games
·         Storytelling
·         Improvisation
·         Mime
·         Masks
·         Devising  

The workshop is ideal for carer groups as part of an event, training day, carer’s week activities or for a ‘get to know you’ event.

Train the trainer will enable support staff from day services, supported housing or carers to begin to understand the practices of using drama with their clients, relatives or friends. Drama games and exercises are a very useful tool for developing self- advocacy and do not always have to be used in a drama workshop context. Drama can be used in many educational and leisure activities or in ‘down time’ and this 1 or 2 day workshop will help develop these skills.
The workshop(s) will cover:  

• How to structure a drama session. This will be mainly practical with some theory and literature handouts.
  The participants will experience and understand the theory and practice of a typical drama session foradults with a learning disability.
• Social and communication skills. Again practical with some theory and literature handouts. The participantswill experience the benefit of focussing on certain social and communication skills for adults with a learning disability to include communication, listening, eye contact and concentration skills.
• Drama in action. An opportunity for the participants to facilitate some of the exercises themselves learnt in the session in small groups with feedback.

This workshop(s) is ideal for support staff and/ or carers as part of a training programme delivered by an organisation that supports people with a learning disability and/ or carers.

Experience Drama will enable people with a learning disability to begin to develop social skills by working through drama focussing each week on a different social skill. It is recommended that the whole course of 10 sessions are taken although fewer sessions can be negotiated from a minimum of six sessions. It is also important that the group takes part in a ‘taster’ session with an evaluation after the session to examine whether the group would like to carry on with the full programme. The full 10 week package will contain work on the following skills:

• Communication
• Listening
• Concentration
• Eye contact
• Memory
• Space
• Trust
• Feelings
• Music and sound
• Status

These workshops are ideal for people with a learning disability who may attend a day service, youth or activity group.

Marvel at me is a fantastic tool that allows people with a learning disability to develop their own story either fact or fiction and create a page in a makeshift comic book. All the other members of the group will act in each other’s story.
The stories can explore an issue, event, person centred objective, ambitions or a fictitious story that they would like to tell. Advocreate will work with a graphic designer to produce the final book and each participant will receive a copy.
The 5-6 workshops will cover:

• Storytelling
• Storyboarding
• Devising
• Image theatre
• Characterisation
• Comic book construction and production.

These workshops are ideal for self-advocacy groups and/or as part of person-centred planning.

In the Picture will enable adults with a learning disability to explore their democratic rights in how they protest about an issue to the media. The workshops are fun and interactive and aim to prepare the participants to make their voice heard further than the self-advocacy group setting. The 5 sessions will cover:

• Communication skills
• What is the media?
• What is the story that you are trying to tell?
• What do you want to say?
• Who is the target audience?
• Identifying ‘real’ stories
• Strategies and role playing for working with the media
• Vibrant protesting.
  
  - The participants will receive factual accessible handouts each session
  - The final session will be filmed and you will receive a copy the final edited DVD

The workshops are ideal for self- advocacy groups and any other organisation that would like to gain confidence and take their case forward.