Case Study – Minstead Trust Partnership

Below is a testimonial from the Supporter Relations manager at Minstead Trust.

Tuesday morning I was privileged enough to be invited into the newsroom at Minstead Lodge to talk to the Minstead Enquirer News team about their Christmas issue.

Richard, pictured below, was extremely excited to have his article all about the Morris Dancing Group he belongs to in Brockenhurst on the Front Cover! Richard sat with a volunteer to practice typing on the laptop kindly donated by Netserve. Typing is not a skill that he has had the opportunity to learn before. Richard is from a generation of people with learning disabilities who were left behind by society and given no expectations to achieve any kind of independence or contribute to society. But this doesn’t suit Richard, he is proactive and frequently supports me with tours and events, he is charming and funny with a really genuine desire to simply help out!

Thank you for making this laptop available.

Andy, the support worker who runs the Minstead Enquirer sessions, is very keen for everyone he supports to become as independent as possible and it shows. The team really own the project, while Richard is typing Silas, Lucy and David set up the other laptop and projector so they can start proofreading the final issue for the month.

David and Lucy have a great eye for detail and get to show off their skills in proofreading. Everyone in the team has specialist knowledge which they want to share with the wider Learning Disabled community. Robert loves all types of sports with a particular interest in horses (his father was a farrier) David is astoundingly knowledgeable about trains and Andy has been noticing his own train knowledge improving!

Lucy is very interested in celebrities and her articles are hugely popular and Silas is a walking encyclopaedia of geographical knowledge.

Every issue is a celebration of the love and enjoyment that each person gets from their areas of interest.

Meet the Minstead Trust News Team – Robert, David, Richard, Lucy and Silas

At Minstead Trust we try to nurture people’s interests with the aim of supporting them to become as independent as individually possible. Coming together to write about the things that they love empowers each person in our News Team to learn new skills such as typing, proofreading and using computer programs such as Microsoft Publisher. It also gives the learning-disabled community who receive the Minstead Enquirer a platform to share stories, make recommendations and promote a sense of togetherness.

Thank you Netserve!

Find out more about Minstead Trust