Uptown:Unlimited – an open day

Where: Sutton Inclusion Centre

When:  This Saturday 18^th April 2015, 11am to 5pm.

Chaucer Estate residents and the Inclusion Centre are inviting all Sutton residents, irrespective of age, background or ability, to this community event.

Sutton Inclusion Centre is a community resource for customers living with physical/learning disabilities, complex needs, sensory impairments and/or mental health conditions and services/facilities have been designed with these groups in mind.

Activities

Drama Workshop – led by Harry Phillips/Jigsaw4U

The workshop will demonstrate how drama can be a powerful tool for people to increase their confidence and self-esteem, and can also be used to help us explore important issues and scenarios. There will be lots of games and activities to help the group develop their drama skills and it will all culminate in a Britain’s Got Talent style show. The workshop group will create role plays around a particular problem or scenario such as bullying or applying for a job, and then in the next round they can do something of their own choosing, either a scene from their favourite film or another talent like singing, dancing or comedy.

Harry Phillips said: “I’ve known Jigsaw4u for six years now and I am very active in the Participation Project for young people with disabilities. I have a disability myself and I like helping other young people with disabilities. My favourite hobbies are playing for the disability football team at Sutton United with my coach Steve and going to the Spiral Youth Theatre.” 

Writing workshop with BAFTA nominated writer Simon Carlyle (hosted by Sutton LGBT Forum)

Simon’s latest TV ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Boy Meets Girl’ is the UK’s first transgender sitcom and has been commissioned as a full series on BBC Two. Simon has also worked as a script editor for Tiger Aspect Productions across shows including series four and five of ‘Benidorm’, Kathy Burke’s ‘Walking and Talking’, ‘Jack Whitehall’s Christmas Cracker’ and both series of ‘Bad Education’, as well as various development projects for BBC1, BBC2, Channel 4 and Sky. Simon will take part in a Q&A on the representation of ‘difference’ in TV and lead some creative writing activities to inspire you to create vivid and interesting characters yourself.

Knitting and Natter                                                                                                                                                                                                

The Chaucer Estate residents want to meet you for a knitting and natter session.  Whatever your age, bring any knitting projects that you are working on to the event and show off your work.   If you are new to knitting, the group would love to meet you and share their expertise to help get you started.  They are confident they can get you knitting in no time. The group have lots of experience in needlework and other crafts and would love to meet you to share ideas.

Story-telling Workshop                                                                                                                                                                            

Storytelling is an enormously valuable form of communication and a marvellous instrument for focusing and using imagination – and of course it’s wonderful entertainment too. Human beings are natural storytellers in all sorts of ways. The Inclusion Centre’s in-house dramatherapist, Deborah Haythorne will lead a powerful  session which will demonstrate the power of stories to unleash creativity, find solutions to life’s challenges and create meaningful connections with members of your community.

Art Activities and workshops

Everyone is welcome to come to the art room and use all the materials to get painting, drawing, making!

Try your hand at Silk Screen painting with Sutton-based SamiArt.  SamiArt delivers arts, music and community experiences, projects and courses to all ages, abilities and disabilities. They are proposing that participants to make their own A5 size silk painting with the key theme being ‘switch off the mind & let it flow’.   They guarantee that anyone who thinks they are not creative will leave feeling pleasantly surprised.

Sensory Room experiences

A sensory room is extremely therapeutic for both children and adults with sensory processing disorders… from mild to severe. In fact, anyone in the general population could benefit from spending time in one! There are three different sensory rooms at the Inclusion Centre (Light/Dark/Interactive).  Come along to meet our staff who will explain which one could work for you and give it a go.

Love Food Hate Waste cooking workshops

Chaucer Residents will be leading cooking demos and activities focussing on making tasty food that saves you money and reduces waste. Every year UK households are throwing away 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink. Some of this is made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority is perfectly good food. Little by little, all this waste really adds up. Every month, the average family throws away up to £50 worth of good food and drink. Wasted food is also a major contributor to climate change, most of it ends up in landfill sites where it rots and releases methane, a damaging greenhouse gas. The food we throw away is also a huge waste of the energy, water and packaging used in its production, transportation and storage.

Relaxed and interactive music performances

Relaxed music performances are open to everyone but are specifically welcoming to people with an Autistic Spectrum condition, a learning disability or a sensory and communication disorder. It’s a great way for individuals, families, groups and schools to experience live performances together in  a welcoming environment. A relaxed concert or performance is designed to be less formal and embrace different types of audience reactions – an easy way to think of them is ‘the opposite of the quiet carriage on the train’. Bring an instrument, use one of ours, and join in if you feel like it.  We will also have our Soundbeam machine set up which supports people with sensory impairments, processing disorders and disabilities to compose music and collaborate with other musicians.

Multi-sensory cinema experience            

Come and have a sing-a-long and munch on popcorn as we round off the day with a pop cinema experience.  We will be showing clips from well-loved movies that are suitable for all ages.

Refreshments by Nickel Enterprises and Inclusion Centre regulars  

 Nickel Enterprises is a business project run and managed by trainees. The aim is to develop Nickel Enterprises into a social enterprise in its own right, enabling people with learning disabilities to have paid employment for the work they undertake in the future. The Nickel team will be making teas and coffees and serving delicious cakes made by the Inclusion Centre regulars.

ALL Sutton residents are welcome to take part in the open day and residents from the nearby Chaucer Estate have played a lead role in designing and organising the day.

Uptown:Unlimted would not be possible without the participation and tireless energy of Chaucer Estate residents. They have been so generous with their time and energy to help design the day, setting up the planning meetings and spreading the word about the event.

For general enquires about the event, please contact Project Officer John Wallace on 020 8641 4275 or [email protected]

Help us to spread the word of  #UptownUnltd on social media. View our social media pack.

For social media related enquires, contact Digital Media Officer Lee Tobin on 020 8770 5634 or [email protected]