All together now

All together now

A facility that supports adults and children with multisensory impairments and complex needs also offers opportunities to the whole community, writes Rebecca Hodgson

TouchBase Pears is a fully accessible, multipurpose building for the whole community in the heart of Selly Oak in Birmingham.

The ethos of the facility is to provide opportunities for everyone, regardless of ability, to come together, learn new skills, meet people and to be an active part of their community.

TouchBase, which opened last year, is run by charity Sense, which has been supporting people who are deafblind and those with complex needs, as well as their families, for more than 60 years.

Services for adults and children run from the building include a specialist college, children’s groups and day services. TouchBase Pears also hosts arts and wellbeing sessions for those with and without disabilities and offers employment and volunteering opportunities to local people so they can gain and develop skills.

Within the building’s public spaces are the Selly Oak local library and a friendly, fully inclusive cafe that hosts social and support groups, including those for families and siblings and a coffee morning with communication in British sign language.

For those who find new experiences difficult, familiarisation sessions are held where people are introduced to the building at quieter times.

TouchBase offers a varied programme of activities for the whole community including theatre productions with relaxed performances, sensory story time, messy play and sensory play and a sing and sign choir for newcomers and experienced signers alike.

Sense believes and promotes the idea that everyone has the right to enjoy creative, social and active opportunities, which are vital for living full, rich and engaged lives. The TouchBase offers a host of arts and wellbeing activities organised by an in-house team of artists and facilitators to run sessions, including dance, drama, yoga, gong therapy, pottery and massage, to name a few.

By working with other disability and arts organisations, we are able to share skills and experiences to deliver the best possible support, and work with others to trial new programmes and technology, such as the use of SubPac audio systems, which translate sound into vibration, offering an immersive experience.

These sessions are made fully accessible by tailoring them to the specific interests, needs and wishes of the people who take part. This is done in a number of ways, such as offering deafblind communication awareness, consultation with those taking part in the sessions and inclusion training to arts practitioners who deliver sessions. This enables genuine, creative collaborations with people who have complex needs.

All sessions are planned with consideration given to the environment, communication and mobility by using outcome-focused planning and evaluation tools. Through understanding the needs of individuals, we can tailor experiences to ensure people can be as engaged as possible and participate fully.

Stay and play

Sense’s specialist services for children and young people host and support a number of initiatives and projects based at TouchBase Pears.

One of these is a ‘stay and play’ group for children aged 0-5 years who have a combined vision and hearing impairment (multisensory impairment or MSI) and those who have a single sensory impairment with additional complex needs. This group is designed to bring parents together in a safe environment.

Many families have tried more general sensory sessions. However, they comment they can find these difficult and isolating because their child is often the only one with sensory impairments and cannot keep pace.

The groups at TouchBase Pears are run by MSI-trained children and family support workers and a specialist MSI teacher. They offer advice and early intervention for the children and their families, and engage with other professionals who are often supporting families.

The sessions and activities on offer start with the child and consider how best to stimulate and engage them. Parents can receive practical support in modelling and advising around communication, stimulating and functionally assessing vision and hearing, and creating suitable environments for play.

Teen social

At the same time, we host a teen social for young people craving more independence, space and the opportunity to socialise. This group continues to grow from strength to strength and has helped teenagers develop social relationships outside school, which is often difficult as they use school transport so get less time for informal interaction with their peers.

Because of the effects the facility has had, some young people have been supported to gain work experience at TouchBase. We have also supported them to learn the route to TouchBase as part of their mobility training.

TouchBase continues to develop and grow in response to the needs of those who use it and the community it sits within. Next year, an employment project will be set up to support people with disabilities to gain work experience and skills, and to support people into paid employment and voluntary roles.

There will also be a new programme of inclusive childrenÕs theatre, as well as more inclusive social groups for both adults and children.

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See the programme of activities at www.touchbasepears.org.uk/whatson. Anyone interested in finding out more about TouchBase Pears is welcome to visit.

Rebecca Hodgson is practice development team manager at Sense. Email: rebecca.hodgson@sense.org.uk