Making the connection: New friendships forged at Wath learning disability centre

GARDENING, bowls, pool and even a spot of karaoke — it’s all on offer at a new centre for people with learning difficulties.
Service user Bryan Adams tends to the plants in the greenhouseService user Bryan Adams tends to the plants in the greenhouse
Service user Bryan Adams tends to the plants in the greenhouse

Community Connect, based on Moor Road, Wath, is a place where people can learn new skills, socialise and connect with new and old friends.

It is the brainchild of Gary Burton and Kath Atherton, who had both worked in social care at Rotherham Council for decades and happened to be thinking at the same time about opening a new facility.

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Community Connect, which opened in the spring, is open to those with mild to moderate learning disabilities in Rotherham or elsewhere in South Yorkshire.

Gary and Kath are the new centre’s service directors, along with Dianne Stalker, having previously worked at The Oaks, which is due to be closed by the council.

Dozens of their regulars and staff attended an official opening following the base’s transformation from a storage unit into a social centre, boosted by a £9,990 start-up grant from the National Lottery and £1,500 from Social Enterprise Exchange.

Anyone referred to the centre by the council can grow their own produce at a community allotment, try their hand at pool, have a go on the karaoke machine and take part in music therapy and relaxation.

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There are also bikes to ride, a walking group and weekly day trips.

A group from Community Connect, which has 16 daily users, goes to Montgomery Hall every Tuesday for baking sessions, there is a coffee morning on Wednesdays and the new friends play bowls three times a week at nearby King’s Bowling Club.

Gary said he had first heard about the premises in Wath around a year ago when it was being used as a lock-up.

“I said: ‘I’m going to start my own day centre up’, and, unbeknown to me, my colleague Kath had been thinking the same thing, so we got our heads together and joined up,” he said.

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Gary said staff at Rotherham Investment and Development Office (RIDO) had been instrumental in helping the new service get going, recommending that Community Connect set itself up as a non-profit social enterprise.

“RIDO showed us how to start from scratch and showed us everything to do with starting a business up,” said Gary.

“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.” Gary said he had been getting excellent feedback on the service since it opened a few weeks ago. “It stops social exclusion and it gets people involved in their community,” he said.

“It’s about friendship — and they are all learning new skills “I’m really pleased with how we’ve forged community links.”

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Service user Kerry Widdison (34), goes to Community Connect three days a week.

“I like doing bowls — it’s good fun,” she said.

Bryan Adams (59), who attends twice-weekly, said he thought the service was great and especially liked playing pool and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Gary said the centre had big ambitions for the future, with plans to turn a nearby strip of land – currently owned by Wath Rugby Club — into a sensory garden run by the group and open to the public

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