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.
In the past our Creative Placements project has been generously funded by the European Social Fund, County Durham Community Foundation, and The National Lottery Awards For All.
You can be referred into Creative Placements by your social worker if you have a social care package that includes day services. We also offer shorter Placements for people who are looking to move into work quicker. Contact hello@bridgecreative.org for more info.
Our Keeping People Connected service offers free, regular, ongoing support for adults with a learning disability and/or autistic adults across County Durham. The service was set up in April 2020 in response to the evidence suggesting that people with learning disabilities would be significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The project supports people by phone, email, text and social media including daily group video calls allowing people to connect with friends safely online. There is a closed Keeping Connected Facebook group people can join too.
In County Durham, we support over 225 clients through our KPC service. The project has been life-saving for many of the people we have supported, highlighting issues that were already impacting people before the Covid-19 crisis including severe mental health issues, loneliness, isolation and social exclusion.
The service is commissioned through the Integrated Care Board.
The E&O Project is a previous project of ours, supporting leaders with lived experience to become leaders of their own social enterprises, and leaders within Bridge Creative. 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 enabled us to support a cohort of young adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults to become Lived Experience Leaders. Over the 2 years of the project, we supported people to become company directors, social enterprise owners, change-makers and positive influencers in their community.
The project was based on four key principles:
Our definition of a Lived Experience Leader, is a young adult with a learning disability and/or autistic adult, who uses their own lived experience to inform, lead and make changes, that benefit other young adults from their community.
Bridge Creative
The COSE, 1 Dorset Place, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, DL14 6TH
Copyright © 2023 Bridge Creative Enterprise CIC - All Rights Reserved.
Registered office address: The COSE, 1 Dorset Place, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, DL14 6TH
A Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee.
Registered in England No: 11321022