Each year, Scottish Learning Disability Week celebrates the incredible lives of people with a learning disability. From 8 – 14 September, inspiring individuals and those supporting them unite to share stories of achievement and brilliance.
Advocating for positive change, the campaign attracts a thoughtful theme each year. This September, ‘I Am Here’ aims to promote social inclusion and visibility of individuals with a learning disability in their local communities. Focusing on equality in everyday environments – like healthcare, workplaces, and creative organisations – it represents a wider need for those with a learning disability to be seen for who they are beyond their disability.
Our homes in Scotland are marking the occasion with special activities and events. And, on Saturday 13 September, our Edinburgh-based services will be hosting an art exhibition! Centred around the theme, ‘I am here’, the people we support will display self-portraits and portraits of each other.
The exhibition will hold space for the people we support to express how they see themselves and their place in society. It will also shine a light on how they want to be seen, while inviting non-disabled audiences to question how they view people with a learning disability.
Community clubs
Across our Edinburgh-based services, the people we support have a wide variety of needs, requiring different levels of support. But they all have one thing in common: a powerful sense of togetherness.
Recognising the importance of relationships for people with a learning disability, Service Manager Norma and our support colleagues ensure each person has opportunities to get to know each other and create memories. Quickly, they’ve fostered their own close-knit community.
Throughout the week, everyone we support has lots of opportunities to get involved in different clubs and organisations. Led by our support colleagues, they nurture equality and inclusion for the people we support.
All our social groups – which include a weekly music meet-up and our ‘Discover Edinburgh’ club – are popular with the people we support. One club is particularly popular: our weekly art sessions. Held every Saturday, this vibrant meeting is led by Lydia, one of our talented, artistic support colleagues.
Community and creativity
Our Edinburgh-based art club was founded when Norma recognised how popular other creative clubs were, and how they influenced a sense of community for the people we support. They also bridged gaps between the people we support and the wider community. So, she established the art club.
When Lydia first joined our team, the art club was ticking over but needed an expert artistic eye to truly bring it to life. With Lydia’s creative background and passion, the club came to life and attendance boomed.
An advocate for bringing people with a learning disability together, Lydia understood the power of using art to nurture connections.
People can observe each other creating and step back, see things from different angles and perspectives – something they couldn’t necessarily do in a 1-1 session. Being together also makes it more fun, they make new friends, and they can share ideas with each other. They empower each other.
Lydia, Support Worker, Edinburgh Outreach
Lydia’s art club sessions go beyond simply painting and colouring – they focus on maximising the abilities and potential of those who attend. Lydia understands each person is different and has their own unique thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the world around them. Art acts as a safe tool for them to share that information with others.
Lydia’s sessions are thoughtfully designed to support the needs of those with a learning disability. She draws inspiration from a variety of sources including her daily support duties with people we support across Edinburgh.
Across the group, favourite activities include painting stones, crafting bunches of paper flowers, and repurposing household items destined for the recycling bin. Whatever artistic activity they engage in, the people we support find joy in being creative.
Lydia’s art club naturally invites a relaxed atmosphere. So, the people we support can find peace and respite from the world around them. Everybody takes what they need from each session – whether that is a calm atmosphere or enjoying the company of others. Our Edinburgh-based art group provides endless benefits to the wellbeing of the people we support.
Do you see me?
With so much talent under one roof at our weekly art club, Norma, Lydia, and our Edinburgh team knew they needed to spread the word! So, for Scottish Learning Disability Week, they’re taking on a special project – hosting their very own art exhibition!
For the occasion, the people we support have been tasked with creating self-portraits and portraits of each other, observing the theme, ‘I Am Here’. Their pieces will invite audiences to question how they see people with a learning disability. Offering a thoughtful extension of Mencap’s Learning Disability Week in June – with a similar theme, ‘Do You See Me’ – the portraits will communicate how the people we support see themselves, each other, and their place in society.
Supporting self-expression, Lydia chose this exercise because it doesn’t have a set approach. It invites people to express their feelings around being seen by others. They can create their portraits in any way they want. There’s only one rule: to create from the heart and communicate what being seen means to them.
Their works will be displayed at the supported living accommodation where the art club is held each Saturday. Norma and the team will install some display boards and Lydia will hang the paintings for the exhibition.
The people we support will have their names beneath their paintings and are inviting friends and family to the event. With word spreading quickly of the exhibition, Lydia’s been approached by other members of the local learning disability community, who are keen to show their work too!
Everyday life can be special and that’s what art helps us to understand. It supports us to appreciate every moment and be grateful for each other – and see the beauty in each of us. That’s what art brings to the people we support, and we hope our exhibition brings this to others as well.
Lydia, Support Worker, Edinburgh Outreach
Promoting positive outcomes
Our team in Edinburgh have been amazed by what the people we support have created in art club and wanted the world to see it. Hosting an art exhibition will demonstrate their talents and abilities, as well as giving them a sense of ownership and inclusion.
For Lydia, bringing people together is a big motivation in her daily support. So, seeing people connected through art is extra special for her.
Holding these art exhibitions encourages people to recognise their own talents and believe in themselves. They support people to understand their own perceptions of disabilities. Our exhibition for Scottish LD Week will be an encouraging and interesting experience for everyone involved.
Lydia, Support Worker, Edinburgh Outreach
For Norma, combating stigmas and shifting the focus away from disabilities through this community exhibition is important.
Our team in Edinburgh works hard every day to empower people with confidence and reassurance, so they can freely express themselves. Through creative activities, the people we support can recognise and prioritise their own needs, wishes, and desires, and become more present and active in their communities. Through art, they can make impactful, lasting changes in their lives and in society and experience the world in a more meaningful way.
We need to recognise that people have talents beyond their disability – we should see their talents and abilities first, understanding that they have lots to offer to their communities.
Norma, Registered Manager, Edinburgh Outreach
Find out more!
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