Have you heard of our Gateway Service? It has been running for many years and is for adults with learning disabilities to socialise, have new experiences and most importantly have lots of fun!
We have three clubs in total, two fortnightly Tuesday evening clubs for our members who prefer small group work, which are run in Beenham and Hungerford, and our Newbury Gateway Club which is has more of a party atmosphere and runs weekly on a Wednesday evening with more than 40 members attending. We are very proud of our Gateway Service, especially as it has been awarded Gateway Beacon status by Royal Mencap, as an example of good practice for other Gateway Clubs to follow.
Our Gateway Service has a committee which is made up of the members who attend our three clubs. It is a great way for them to give us feedback on what they think of the clubs, any changes they would like to make and any ideas they have for how the club can develop. All of our committee members work very hard to gather feedback from the other members who attend the clubs and are full of enthusiasm about their role. One of our members has even become our official Newbury Club photographer. She helps keep our supporters updated by taking photos of the club and writes up information to go alongside it to be used on our social media.
Last Saturday, the Gateway Committee had their committee meeting at Nando’s Newbury to discuss their latest ideas. We would like to say thank you to Nando’s Newbury who did a fantastic job looking after our Gateway Committee at their meeting. It was lovely a meeting, which everybody very much enjoyed, lots of wonderful ideas were put forward, and some great feedback was given on how Gateway has gone so far this year.
Saturday’s meeting highlighted how much our committee has progressed since it began, and how our members take their roles very seriously. The committee plays a vital role in our Gateway service. Well done to all our committee for their hard work through out this year, and we look forward to hearing their ideas and feedback at our next meeting.
