No Limits is a parent-led volunteer group providing activities for young people with Aspergers Syndrome. People with Aspergers have difficultly engaging with others and understanding 'normal' behavior because of poor communication skills, a lack of social awareness and impaired imagination.
At the beginning of 2010 we found ourselves at a loss about how to engage our members and meet their needs as we had noticed they were not connecting with each other.
Having worked with darts before, I approached them to see if they could help. Following this discussion, we designed a questionnaire which went out to all of our members to find out what they would like to happen at the youth group.
The results helped us develop the idea of using creative activities to engage with the young people through weekly sessions with the aim of increasing confidence by learning new skills they could develop and use in their everyday lives. This blended well with our group's overall aims of providing peer support, friendship and companionship for our members.
Our members' disability means they are reticent to join in with new activities and anxious with people they don’t know. Parents were encouraged to attend the sessions and join in to encourage participation.
Working with a third party was a radical approach for us – it's not something we had done before, but the sessions proved to be revolutionary and completely changed the dynamics of the group.
Previously we had never been able to get our members to talk to each other unless they already knew each other, but by working with artists from darts we went from a quiet group with sporadic attendance by some members to a group that was buzzing with full attendance on most sessions.
Through the arts, we were able to give the young people the opportunity to make friends and develop their own social and communication skills in a safe, non-threatening environment.
By providing interesting activities we made the youth club more fun and a place that the young people wanted to come back to week after week. The creative activities which included photography, music, dance and drama also gave the group a new focus as it moves forward.
By Michelle Cresswell
Parent from the No Limits Group