Support Worker, Ariane, is Highly Commended as a Care Innovator
Many congratulations to Ariane Lawson, Support Worker at Moor Lane in Backwell, Bristol, our finalist for the South West region in the Great British Care Awards 2021. Ariane was Highly Commended by the judges in the Care Innovator Award category.
They described her as a “fantastic, innovative worker with a specialism in learning difficulties, who has trained with the charity Gig Buddies, uses Gig Buddies services to enable the people she supports to attend events, and now trains other staff to make a big difference in the Learning Disability world.”
This award recognises a person who has shown exceptional entrepreneurial skills in identifying, developing, implementing and establishing a new service; or a new administrative system; or the launch of a new product which has benefits for staff, the business and users of the service.
Moor Lane is a residential service for people with learning disabilities and complex needs, and Ariane is committed to creating opportunities for them to build friendship networks and mix with likeminded people in the community. So she has been instrumental in bringing together many people who are supported at Moor Lane with a new Gig Buddies scheme in Bristol.
Gig Buddies is a befriending project that enables and empowers people with learning disabilities and/or autism to find new friends with similar interests locally, and pair-up with them to go and to enjoy music, cultural or sporting events. Each participant is matched to one volunteer by the Gig Buddies coordinators. They then meet once a month to plan what they’ll do together, and once a month to go to a gig, concert, club night or other entertainment.
Ariane has helped with a fundraising event for the project, spreading the word about Gig Buddies and creating accessible information about the event, as well as organising a “festival” for people at Moor Lane to enjoy whilst they watched the live stream of the fundraiser. She’s also taken on the role of Training Facilitator, using her skills gained from working at Consensus and with Gig Buddies, to coach and inspire colleagues.
Find out more about Gig Buddies here.