Summary
We provided four Fun & Friendship youth clubs for disabled young people aged 8-20. The clubs ran for two hours on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 48 weeks of the year, and were based at our accessible play centre in central Edinburgh. Through a mix of creative and social activities which are always planned in consultation with the club members, we helped 66 young people develop their confidence, independence and life skills, and gave their parents and carers valuable respite time.
What The Yard Fun & Friendship Sessions did
Across 48 weeks of the year, we delivered 88 Fun & Friendship youth club sessions. These took place for two hours on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings at our accessible play centre in central Edinburgh, with each of the four clubs running on a fortnightly basis.
Barriers to participation such as inaccessible premises, a lack of staff training on disability, costly membership fees and judgement from others mean that disabled young people often have limited options when it comes to clubs and activities. Our Fun & Friendship Clubs provide an ideal solution. For many of the young people we supported in the last year, it was their first time attending a club by themselves, without parental supervision, this was made possible by the fact that most had already attended our family sessions at The Yard, meaning that they already felt familiar with our staff and environment. Due to overwhelming demand, we had to close our waiting lists for the clubs, but we were still able to introduce some new members who had been waiting for a space for a while.
Club members not only got to experience a sense of real autonomy and independence by attending The Yard by themselves, but also in that we led monthly planning sessions where they could suggest activities. Throughout the year, we ran fun activities such as pizza making, movie nights, creating sensory toys, tie dying t-shirts, and hide and seek in the dark – complete with glow sticks.
Parents and carers were able to use this as a valuable respite opportunity, safe in the knowledge that their young person was in a safe space. They could use this time to enjoy hobbies, run errands and devote time to their other children. Although the clubs were a parent- and carer-free zone, drop-off and pick-up times allowed them to meet one another and build a community of peer support.
What Scotland Yard Adventure Centre (known as The Yard) has learned
While delivering this project, we experienced challenges arising from a rising number of incidents (for example, conflict between members, aggression towards staff and potentially unsafe behaviour) during service delivery. One reason for this is that our children and young people often struggle with their mental health and cannot always express difficult emotions verbally, so behaviour is one of their main communication tools. Moreover, many of our members are still experiencing significant anxiety adjusting to life post-lockdown, the latest cost-of-living crisis has further reduced their family’s access to other leisure activities (through both facility closures and families needing to cut back on paying for non-essential services), and some are on part-time timetables at school or do not attend school at all. Our clubs play a vital role in the social lives of these young people, as it gives them a sense of routine and helps them establish a consistent group of peers. For this reason, we decided to close the waiting lists for all clubs, so that we can prioritise supporting existing club members rather than increasing their stress levels by bringing in too many new members in a short period of time.
We also faced challenges collecting case studies for several reasons. With the additional pressure that comes with parenting a disabled child, on top of other responsibilities, many of the carers we contacted were simply too busy to provide a case study for us. Another challenge was that carers need to feel comfortable sharing their experiences openly and honestly, which can often lead to real moments of vulnerability. We need to be mindful of portraying this accurately and with respect for their privacy, whilst also creating powerful messaging that appeals to funders. This is a very delicate balance to achieve, and it meant that in some cases, we couldn’t use all the material gathered. Finally, it proved difficult to acquire case studies that accurately reflect the diversity of our community. Factors such as language barriers and the different cultural understandings around disability may have affected how comfortable families felt with sharing their child’s story. Gender was another factor we needed to consider; while no diagnosis is needed to join The Yard, research suggests that boys are four times more likely to receive a diagnosis and the need for additional support often goes unnoticed for longer in girls. This has meant that we ended up with more case studies about boys, creating an imbalance in gender representation.
How Scotland Yard Adventure Centre (known as The Yard) has benefitted from the funding
The Yard is lucky enough to have had Better Breaks funding for our clubs for several years now, which has ensured that we have been able to keep these clubs running on a consistent basis, even throughout COVID-19. Our track record of achieving positive results for both the carers and young person in the club, combined with the trust demonstrated by receiving consistent funding from Better Breaks over the years, has proven to other funders that our Fun & Friendship clubs are worth supporting, allowing us to secure funding from other funders such as BBC Children in Need. Having a strong funding relationship with Shared Care Scotland has allowed us to be flexible and adaptable to each child’s needs, as we know that we are trusted to make changes where necessary in order to achieve the best results – for example, by closing our waiting lists in order to focus on supporting our existing club members. Being able to make this change gave us the opportunity to slow down and reflect more closely on the mental health needs of our club members, and as a result, we increased the number of staff trained in trauma-informed practice.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
Disabled children and young people between 8-20 years will have had more opportunities to have fun, develop friendships and do activities they enjoy.
Results
By providing a safe, parent-free space, our 66 club members were able to feel a real sense of ownership over the club, which led to them developing close feelings of community with one another. All activities within the club sessions were decided upon by the club members themselves as part of a monthly consultation process. This meant that we could guarantee that all activities we delivered were enjoyable and relevant to each member’s interests. The families of approximately a third of children and young people attending a club responded to our November 2023 membership survey, which revealed that 86% of club members had more fun in their lives, 73% had made new friends and 91% were happier overall.
Case study
M is autistic and has ADHD, and lives with her parents and older brother in Edinburgh. She first came to The Yard with her brother, who also has ADHD, years ago – long before her own diagnosis. As a result, her family were well aware of the support that The Yard could offer, and the pure joy that it could bring into young people’s lives. Her parents describe M as “a whirlwind” and “very get-up-and-go”, meaning finding clubs where staff can keep up with her level of energy has proved difficult and they have often experienced judgement from others.
M joined our Girls Club last year and it has been an incredible outlet for all her energy, giving her time and space to take part in fun activities like dancing, baking, art and cycling around our adventure playground. M’s mum told us that, “she goes in and runs riot…She really enjoys it.” It has also been helpful for her to be around a group of girls, since she is “at that age where they want to do the same things other teenage girls do.” Her mum also commented on how M has made very close friends within the club, and that they now spend a lot of time together outside of the club, including having a pumpkin carving party at Halloween and a Christmas get-together.
Outcome
In 12 months’ time 150 carers will have had 96 hours of respite where they had been given the opportunity to enjoy a life outside of their caring role.
Results
We supported 137 carers, which was slightly fewer than anticipated, but we went above and beyond this target and delivered 176 hours of respite across the year. Confident in the expertise of our staff, carers were able to enjoy total peace of mind while their child or young person was at the club. They told us that they used this time to relax, enjoy hobbies, exercise, spend quality time with their other children or simply catch up on household tasks like food shopping. Our November 2023 membership survey found that 67% of parents and carers with a child attending one of our Fun & Friendship clubs felt that The Yard gave them more opportunities to enjoy life outside of their caring role.
Case study
M’s mum A told us about how her whole family has felt supported by The Yard over the years, commenting specifically on how staff are very attuned to the needs of parents and carers – without them even needing to ask for help. A mentioned one member of staff in particular, saying “he’ll notice if you’re not yourself, and he’ll ask you.”
M’s time in the Girls Club has also proved beneficial for the rest of the family, as she is able to attend these sessions independently. Caring for an adolescent with additional support needs and budding hormones can be challenging, and A explained that it is “nice to take half an hour, or hour, to yourself.” This is also very helpful for M’s brother, with A describing their sibling relationship as “like cat and dog, they do enjoy their time away from each other.” In addition to the respite time that their family enjoys while M is at the club, A has also built strong friendships with some of the other mums. They often get together at a nearby café, meaning that like M, the club has enriched A’s life in more ways than simply providing respite on a Tuesday evening.
Outcome
Over the course of the year 150 carers will feel better supported and as a result of the respite they will have the opportunity to relax and improve their mental well-being, thus ensuring they are better supported and equipped to sustain their caring role.
Results
Although we supported fewer carers than expected, the 137 carers who benefited from our Fun & Friendship clubs told us that getting support from The Yard had had a positive impact on their wellbeing. According to our November 2023 membership survey, 77% felt less stressed, 81% said they felt able to turn to other parents and carers at The Yard for support, 81% said they found The Yard staff to be supportive, and an incredible 95% described staff as kind and understanding. Through their child’s participation in a club, parents and carers were able to meet others with similar life experiences, helping them build strong support networks encompassing both peers and professionals. These support networks ensured that they felt more equipped with the resources and solidarity needed to balance their caring responsibilities with their own wellbeing.
Case study
J is autistic and has ADHD, and is a proud member of our 8-13s Club. Before finding The Yard, J and his family felt incredible isolated. His mum G expressed that she often felt they were judged by others when out and about, attracting “unwanted looks and sniggers from parents of neurotypical children.” G told us, “The saying: ‘a parent is only as happy as their unhappiest child’ is very poignant. When Jack is struggling, the three of us struggle.”
G looks forward J’s evenings at the club, saying that when she arrives at The Yard, she “instantly feels she can breathe again.” She praises the staff highly, and has developed a fantastic community of peer support, getting to know other parents and carers that she can turn to for support when time are hard – a world away from the negative reactions she had received in other settings, often from parents of neurotypical children. She summed this up as: “the last five years there have been some really happy times, but also some devastating times in my family's life. My 'Yard family' have hugged me, been a listening ear, and carried me through until I regained my strength. Tell me where you can find that level of support from a service, for a family with an ASN child in Edinburgh?”
Outcome
80 disabled children and young people and 150 carers will have improved well-being, resulting from access to time to be independent of each other, allowing for opportunities to experience new things, gain respite and socialise, thus improving their self-confidence and self-esteem whilst lowering social isolation.
The Yard model tackles loneliness often experienced by disabled children (and their carers) most of whom are in special schools that are not in their own community, therefore are in a far more difficult situation to make friends locally. This inevitably leads to increased social isolation and issues around mental health and well-being.
Results
We supported 66 disabled children and young people through our Fun & Friendship clubs. Although this was slightly fewer than we initially calculated, we feel we achieved this outcome overall in terms of the quality of support we provided. By listening to each club member’s suggestions of activities that we could offer at upcoming sessions, we were able to help every young person feel actively involved in the club, helping develop their independence and confidence. To ensure everyone felt safe within the clubs and didn’t feel overwhelmed by a constantly changing environment, we closed our waiting lists and decided to take a more measured approach to admitting new members to the club. Creating a more stable membership base for each club meant that club members were able to form closer friendships, as the group dynamic changed far less often and they were able to feel more confident in their place within the group. As a result, our November 2023 membership survey found that 91% of club members were more confident and 86% felt less isolated.
137 carers benefited from the club sessions, as having this time to themselves for two hours every fortnight gave them valuable respite opportunities and the chance to prioritise their own needs. By meeting other parents and carers with children attending The Yard, for example at pick up and drop off times, many reported that it became easier to open up to others and talk candidly about their families’ experiences. This was backed up by evidence from our November 2023 survey, which found that 77% of parents and carers with a child attending a Fun & Friendship club had increased confidence in discussing their child’s needs with others, and 77% felt less isolated overall.
Case study
Prior to joining The Yard, J found very few places where he could be fully accepted and embraced by others. His autism means that he thrives on routine and needs this structure in order to feel safe, which his mum G told us could sometimes feel like a barrier to meeting other families. They often experienced judgement from others when in public spaces like play parks, creating a real sense of isolation for the whole family.
Not only has J’s involvement in our 8-13s club given his mum valuable respite time, it has also significantly boosted his own wellbeing. Since joining the club, J has made a fantastic new group of friends, and he feels much less isolated , he is always very excited to attend the club and see his friends. At The Yard, he can express himself in any way he likes, stimming openly with no judgement from others. This freedom of expression has also given him the confidence needed to contribute his ideas to the group, and he has been able to share lots of fantastic ideas during our monthly session planning, although the bikes and go-karts remain his favourites!