East Belfast service giving disabled young adults opportunities after school

“This is their world as much as it is ours. They deserve to have their needs met.”

A new service in East Belfast is giving opportunities to young adults with disabilities after they leave school.

LASO Day Opportunities was started this year by Rachel Ferguson, who has been working in learning disability services for the past eight years. Noticing a gap in smaller services offering young people with disabilities opportunities after finishing formal education, she took the plunge to start her own.

Operating each week day from 9am to 3pm from Cregagh Community Centre, Rachel said the aim of LASO, which stands for Life After School Opportunities, is to teach young adults life skills in a welcoming, caring environment.

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Speaking to Belfast Live, Rachel said: “A lot of services when kids leave school and transition into adult services aren’t full-time, places like that are funded through the Trust and aren’t always guaranteed. What you’re finding is a lot of parents are either having to give up work or go part-time, because they’re maybe only granted three days a week for services.

“It can be quite challenging for parents. We offer a full-time place, and it falls within school hours of Monday through to Friday from 9am to 3pm.

“One of the boys who is with us, Tyler, left a special needs school and went on to tech, which a lot of young adults with learning disabilities do. It’s great because it gives them a wee bit of independence. Special needs schools are fantastic, but a lot of kids go there when they’re three or four and don’t leave unti they’re 19, so it becomes all they know.

“The schools are amazing, but there’s not many chances for them to integrate into the community and social settings. Tech offers that, but the problem is it’s only for maybe three years, so what happens after?”

For LASO’s first term, Rachel said so far they have two young adults availing of their services. However, she said many more parents have been in touch, but are unable to get funding to attend due to being unable to gain access to a social worker.

She added: “I’ve had so many parents reach out about bringing their young adults to the service. I could fill up to around ten spaces. But just because people don’t have access to a social worker, they can’t access our service, which is really sad.

“At that stage, all you can do is offer support to parents and try to get them a social worker. I’m very happy to try and help any parent who thinks they may want to access that, I’m very happy to stand by parents to help them.”

As for what young people will gain from attending the small service, Rachel said their focus is on life skills. She said: “We have access to the kitchen, so we’re going to do a bit of cooking and independent living skills. Even simple things like road safety, or what to do in an emergency situation, like learning to ring 999. Real life-long skills they maybe don’t have because they’ve just left school.

“We also want to focus on mental well-being too. The boys love swimming, so we’ll bring them once a week. They also have access to the gym if they want to use that.

“Today, for instance, we got them to write a list of shopping items they would need and we went to Tesco. While I was there, they were able to independently find everything they needed, which is great, as there may come a stage they will be out shopping for themselves, so it’s important to build on those skills.”

Ahead of starting LASO, Rachel said she visited a lot of schools, attended meetings with the Education Authority, and spread the word about the service at Learning Disability Pride.

She said an aspect of her job she loves is being able to make a difference. “I have worked in learning disability services in the last eight years across day services in schools. The place I worked previously lost some funding and that’s what sparked me to set up a smaller service,” Rachel explained.

“You see a massive decline in being able to meet the needs of service users at such a huge service. It made me realise there’s such a need for these smaller services throughout Northern Ireland.

“It’s a job I don’t think you could do if you weren’t passionate about it, but it totally has my heart. I absolutely love it.

“This is their world as much as it is ours. They deserve to have their needs met, and if they aren’t able to work, then it’s our responsibility to find out what they can do. It’s our responsibility to create a service that meets those needs, that gives them a place within their community.”

To find out more about LASO Day Opportunities, you can get in touch through Facebook by clicking here or email lasodayop@gmail.com.

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