Activities for young people with disabilities go virtual

Thankfully, one group that works with young people with complex needs has moved its programmes online to ensure their members continue to have structure and contact with their peers.

The Playtrail provide a range of services for young people with disabilities and since mid-April all of them have moved online.

The services are funded by BBC Children in Need, EA Youth Service in partnership with Longtower Youth Club, WHSCT and The National Lottery Community Fund N.I.

Gavin Melly, Social Inclusion Manager at The Playtrail, said the lockdown can be particularly difficult for some of their members.

“There are members who are struggling with anxiety, as they can’t understand how this has happened to them and it has made them realise how small their world is. There are others who aren’t phased by it at all. We decided to continue with our programmes in a way that would find a happy medium between the two.”

The Playtrail set up two private Facebook groups, one for their programmes aimed at children aged 11-14 (BUD Juniors) and another for the 15 plus age range (HUB, ACT Project and BUD Club).

“We structure all the activities at the times the young people would normally be accessing our services (morning, afternoon and evening) and tried to stick to the same activities they would normally do at those times.

“For example at BUD Club we always run our weekly fitness class with our personal trainer Aidan Doherty on a Wednesday evening, so we are continuing this via Zoom at the same time and keeping this structure in their lives,” Gavin explained.

BUD Juniors which works with 79 young people with disabilities and complex needs, are set 13 activities a week including Kids Farm, audio stories and arts and crafts.
In addition to this BUD Juniors members get a fortnightly phone call from staff members to check on their well-being.
The older group take part in 20 activities a week, with a new activity set four times each day. They include fitness and dance, singing, inventors’ lab challenges, baking, quizzes and silent discos.

They also take part in group video calls with their peers and each member gets a weekly phone call from staff.

Gavin said the engagement so far has been brilliant and is providing much needed structure for their members.

“Each week we ask children/young people to post pictures or videos of them engaging in the activities and we make a video called ‘The Good News, News’. This helps us promote positive news each week and this is also shared on The Playtrail Facebook and BUDClub1 Twitter account.

“Everybody is at home and watching the news, which can be quite negative due to all the coverage of coronavirus. We are trying to turn news into something positive.”

He said that they also do other fun activities with their members which gets the whole family involved.

These include the Big Family Movie Quiz, which has become the highlight of the week for many of the group.