Current Activities

The Friendly Group: This group of people with learning difficulties meet every other Thursday to talk about the services in Lambeth and what needs to be done to ensure that services for people with learning difficulties get better. The Friendly Group are a sub group of the Lambeth Learning Disability Partnership Board. Two members of the Friendly Group are representatives on this board and another member is the co-chair. People First Lambeth supports them in their roles.

The People Group: This group meets every other Tuesday afternoon. People can bring whatever subjects they want and need to discuss to this group. Painting and drawing materials are provided and interesting art work is being made in the group.

The Training Group: This group meets every Tuesday afternoon to work on developing and delivering their own training. Recently, they have trained Lambeth service staff at the Estia Centre and provided training for Values into Action and the British Institute of Learning Disabilities. The work in this group has followed on from that undertaken by a group of researcher's with learning difficulties within People First Lambeth. Their work resulted in the publication of We Are Not Stupid, a book on the lives and human rights of people with learning difficulties. This book is now on the Royal College of Nursing's recommended reading list and People First Lambeth members and a supporter were asked to talk about it at Oxford University. We Are Not Stupid can be accessed through Social Care Online, Shaping Our Lives and the National Health Evidence website.

The Taking Action Group: This group is run fortnightly, usually on Monday's. This group has been focussing on supporting people who are worried about crime and who might have had bad things happen or seen things. This group is also looking at issues around keeping safe.

The Mum's and Dad's Group: This group is for parents with learning difficulties. People can come to the group and get support for any problems that they might be facing around being a parent. The group also talk through issues connected to being a parent, like providing healthy food and keeping well through getting the right exercise and support.

The Story Telling Group: Although this group includes a number of people with high support needs all people with learning difficulties are welcome to take part. People do not need to use speech or any formal language to join in but people with very mild learning disabilities can take the lead in telling stories to the group. This group includes art, singing, dancing, dressing up, using props and recording sounds. The group has told traditional and classical stories from around the world.

The Culture Diversity Group: At present three ethnic groups are represented in the Culture Diversity Group. These are the African, Caribbean and Asian communities. At this point the group are looking at ways to involve people from other communities in the group. This group are also a sub-group of the Lambeth Learning Disability Partnership Board. The group meets one a month on a Thursday. The group includes people with learning difficulties, carers and workers. Together they talk about what is good and bad about services and what needs to change to make services better and more accessible for people from culturally diverse communities in Lambeth. The group holds information days, and every year they celebrate Black History month and the end of Ramadan. These events are attended by large numbers of people.

Young People First: In September 2010 we will be starting Young People First Lambeth. This will be a new group for people with learning difficulties aged from 16 to 25. People who come will be supported to do whatever they want and will be offered the opportunity to do drama, art, keeping safe, speaking up and to work on the newsletter. In addition people will be supported to say what they want to managers of services for people with learning difficulties in Lambeth.