As part of Diagrama Foundation’s Supported Living Service in Bromley, residents are supported to develop core skills that help them live more independently as part of their community. For one resident, KO, that support has sparked a new chapter in his lifelong passion for electronics and mechanics.
KO is a vibrant, intelligent, and energetic person with a love for fixing, tinkering, and building. He has been fascinated by electrical equipment since school days and enjoys keeping busy with practical tasks around the home. But after years of collecting, a dedicated space was required to neatly house his equipment and allow for further additions.
Working closely with the Diagrama team, KO came up with a solution that would keep both his passion and his home safe. Together, they researched options and found a reasonably priced outdoor shed at a well-known retailer. KO chose the shed, helped collect it and then assembled it entirely on his own.
“It didn’t take long,” KO explained. “It was good physical education, and now everything is tidier.”
Now proudly known as his ‘spare time shed’, the new space gives KO a dedicated workshop to store and develop his projects. From learning how to create computer games to experimenting with memory circuits, KO is using the shed to practice and expand his skills. His family were thrilled with his achievement too. His brother arrived to help KO assemble his new shed, only to find it had already been perfectly built.
David McGuire, Chief Executive of Diagrama Foundation, said: “KO’s story is a wonderful example of how the right support, combined with someone’s natural drive and enthusiasm, can lead to amazing outcomes. His ‘spare time shed’ is much more than storage, it’s a space for independence and creativity.”
Diagrama’s Supported Living Service in the London Borough of Bromley focuses on supporting vulnerable people to develop the skills and confidence to live in their own house either on their own or with others so they can lead independent, fulfilled lives.
Everyone is different, the support varies according to each person’s individual needs, so they can live the life they choose.
If you’d like to help the Supported Living Service, there is a regularly updated Wishlist with many items chosen by the residents. Every gift, large or small, makes a difference: https://linktr.ee/diagramaamazonwishlist
To find out more about the Supported Living Service visit: www.diagramafoundation.org.uk/learning-disability-support/supported-living
ENDS
About Diagrama Foundation
Diagrama Foundation is a Kent based charity that supports vulnerable children, young people, and adults to live their best life.
Diagrama has a Supported Living Service across Bromley and Mid Sussex, three homes for adults with learning disabilities in Orpington, an eight-bed care home for adults with learning disabilities in West Sussex with a Community Services Programme a fifty-bed care home for the elderly with nursing and dementia needs in Essex, and a fostering and adoption service in the southeast. Plus, a 100 acre property offering farm and craft day Services cross West Sussex.
- The Supported Living Service, cares for 33 adults with learning disabilities, in seven schemes across Bromley and one scheme in Mid Sussex, helping them to develop skills and confidence to live in their own house either on their own or with others.
- At Cabrini House in Orpington the charity promotes the development of core skills for 23 adults with learning disabilities so that they can lead independent lives integrated within their community.
- Duckyls Farm, a 100 acre residential care home in West Sussex for residents with learning disabilities, allows the charity to explore the physical, mental and social skills and benefits that working with animals and in nature can offer to people with a learning disability.
- Diagrama Day Opportunities operates at Duckyls Farm and across Sussex. This is a day care provision Hub and Outreach Support for people with a learning disability, physical and sensory impairment, acquired brain injury and/or autism.
- The team at their nursing and dementia care home, Edensor Care Centre in Clacton on Sea, support vulnerable residents to live life to the full.
- Diagrama’s voluntary adoption agency and not-for-profit fostering service cares for children who wait the longest for homes in London, Kent, Sussex and Surrey.
Many vulnerable children and adults don’t get the support they need to develop their true potential, but the Diagrama team know that when someone has time and belief invested in them, they come alive, because that investment has made them feel valued and worthy.
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