Getting to work in the Dolphins’ Den

Dolphins’ Den is an innovative project to help people set up a business or community project. Andrew Bright, whose idea this was, explains how it works.

 

I came up with the idea of Dolphins’ Den after being frustrated about the lack of employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities. As a Service Quality Director at Thera, my role is to use my experience of having learning disabilities to make sure people receive good support and have the same opportunities as everyone else.

 

Dolphins’ Den is based on the belief that people with learning disabilities should have the opportunity for self-employment. We run a series of workshops for people to help them come up with ideas, think about what it means to set up a business or community project and what the next steps are. Finally, we match people with a mentor, a local person who has experience of running a business or community project.

 

The first two Dolphins’ Den workshops in Preston took place on the 15 March and 15 April. We had 12 participants plus their support workers and/or family carers. Participants travelled from all over the county to come to the workshops, some coming from Lancaster and some from Skelmersdale and Chorley.

 

Most of our Preston participants have clear ideas about what they want to do. We have a group of people who would like support to make their advocacy group sustainable by expanding the services they provide.

 

Another idea is to set up a project to support young people with learning disabilities to use public transport. We also have two people who would like to set up a car cleaning business.

 

Other people would like to follow their hobbies and interests to create a business in baking and jewellery making.

 

After attending the third workshop on 13 May, participants were matched to a mentor who will work with them for six months and support them in the next steps of setting up their business or community project or expanding their existing one. When the mentoring ends, we will celebrate everyone’s progress and achievement at a celebration event.

 

For the first time in the history of the project, we will be holding three extra workshops. Local business people who were not able to commit to mentoring but wanted to support the project have organised workshops that will help participants expand on ideas about peer mentoring, marketing and business planning.

 

The Preston project is running parallel to one in Burnley, run in partnership with Vedas. So far the projects have been very successful and we are hopeful that the project will generate real self-employment opportunities for people.

 

Dolphins’ Den is a really important project for Thera because people sometimes need support and coaching from others to make their ideas happen. The project has been great in bringing the local community together and making it more inclusive.

 

If you would like to find out more about Dolphins’ Den, visit: www.thera.co.uk/dolphinsden

or email dolphinsden@thera.co.uk