The E&O Project
The E&O Project is a brand new project starting in May 2021. Experiences and Opportunities are what make us who we are, and inspire us to dream big and reach our potential. We are immensely grateful to National Lottery players and the National Lottery Community Fund for funding this project.
The E&O Project will enable us to support a cohort of young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to become Lived Experience Leaders. Over the next 2 years, we will support people to become company directors, social business owners, change-makers and positive influencers in their community.
The project is based on four key principles:
- Learning by doing
- Extraordinary positive life experiences
- Innovative opportunities that inspire others
- Putting lived experience at the forefront
We aim to...
- Provide ongoing support for our two new directors and Lived Experience Leaders on our board.
- Support young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to set up and become leaders of their own social enterprise with the goal of becoming self-employed.
- Establish a panel of Positive Influencers to assist our board of directors and represent the learning disability and autism communities, both within Bridge Creative and beyond.
To keep up to date with The E&O Project and find out how you can get involved, follow our social media pages. More details will be released at the end of March.
What is a Lived Experience Leader?
Our definition of a Lived Experience Leader, is a young adult with a learning disability and/or autism, who uses their own lived experience to inform, lead and make changes, that benefit other young adults from their community.
Projects
Creative Placements
Our Creative Placements project supports young adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults in creative employment opportunities.
Creative Placements offer a pre-employment work experience placement, supporting people to run and work in our event management and design social enterprise, designing and building art installations and large-scale decoration projects for promotional events, festivals and corporate events.
Creatives will have the opportunity to:
- Work at music festivals and other large-scale events, such as Glastonbury and BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend
- Organise events of our own and on behalf of other organisations
- Gain real work experience in a fully-functioning business, in a safe and supported work environment.
- Learn new skills, build confidence and reach your potential.
- Complete a Supported Internship or Traineeship.
Creative Placements are funded through the European Social Fund, with thanks to County Durham Community Foundation.
Digital Events Team Pilot
Thanks to funding from The Fore, we have trialed a new project, creating a Digital Events Team, supporting a small group of adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to organise a virtual event, learning new digital skills, as well as event management and business skills.
The project will be delivered online, testing a new way of delivering work experience and skill-learning.
Employment Support
We will be launching a learning disability employment campaign later in the year, aiming to get more adults with learning disabilities into paid employment.
Our new home!
Later in the year we will be moving in to our new home in Bishop Auckland! See our CSEC page for more information.