Facilitation service

The Facilitation Service was introduced to support sight impaired and disabled members of the community, and to give them an equal opportunity to attend and take part in Adult Education classes as well as other cultural pursuits and to allow more people to take up activities outside of their own homes. As the potential of this service continues to grow, its scope is constantly under review.

The Facilitation Service provides a volunteer (facilitator) to enable a disabled person to take part, as fully as possible, in a range of educational, leisure and cultural activities, such as:

Educational classes e.g. learning a foreign language, cookery or obtaining an academic qualification

Visiting an exhibition, library, museum or gallery

Attending a meeting, interview or other appointment

Accompanying someone to the theatre

A good rapport between the volunteer and the user is needed so that practical tasks can be shared e.g. in art or cookery classes. Additionally, tasks like reading important information can be dealt with promptly and descriptions of objects on a museum tour can be made instantly accessible.

The skill of the volunteer is to work under the direction of the user to provide assistance which enables a disabled person to integrate, as far as they can, in any array of activities.