Parish council in £15,000 bid to kickstart provision for adults with learning disabilities

A parish council in Telford has submitted a bid for nearly £15,000 to ‘kickstart’ a project to provide activities for adults with learning disabilities.

Hollinswood & Randlay Parish Council has for some time supported a Special Needs Activity Centre (SNAC) run by John Olenik, whose work was praised at a meeting this week.

Katrina Baker MBE, the parish council clerk, told Monday’s (September 1) meeting of the youth provision partnership that the council is “very fortunate to have John”.

She added: “That was recognised by Telford & Wrekin Council in that they have asked us to work with them on quite a major project for adults with learning difficulties.”

The parish council’s work at SNAC has identified a lack of provision for people with learning difficulties after they reach 18.

The clerk added: “Consequently we have submitted a grant application which will provide funding for up to nine different activities where they can have a go at other things that we don’t normally do.”

The application has been made, working in partnership with Telford & Wrekin Council and partner organisations, to Sport England’s ‘Activity For All’ to provide physical activities for adults with learning disabilities.

The activities are set to include gym sessions, foot golf, yoga, dance, gymnastics, swimming, sailing, cycling, bowls, curling, archery and seated boxing.

The meeting was told that Hollinswood & Randlay Parish Council could not host some of the proposed activities but they are working with others including Dawley Town Hall and Sutton Hill.

“We just hope that we have ticked all the boxes to get the funding,” the clerk told the meeting at Hollinswood Community Centre.

The events, if they go ahead, will be subsidised but not free. The money received would be ploughed back in to keep activities going.

“We hope that this will make it sustainable and it will be able to go on after that,” the clerk said.

“We are pleased to be able to do it – it will take a bit of time but it certainly puts SNAC on the map.

“When we first started SNAC we didn’t really know what age group needed additional activities and John has established that it is adults with some learning difficulties.”