What we have been up to and how Vegware funding has helped us.
Garvald Edinburgh is a charity providing day services for people with learning disabilities and special needs. Across its five sites it currently supports around 260 people (at Garvald we refer to them as
‘members’).
Garvald’s work is inspired by Rudolf Steiner and the principles of Social Therapy. This approach brings together all the factors that are important for any person in their daily life. A work like environment provides meaning, structure and stability. The physical environment is even more important for people with learning disabilities. Our day facilities are calm and creative spaces and we encourage respect for the natural world around us. This nourishes the senses and develops a feeling of community and respect that would be otherwise very difficult for our members to experience.
Over the past year, our Puppetry Workshop has been developing a new show based on ” Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, where they have experimented with a range of techniques (shadow puppetry, masks, costumes, coloured acetates, sound and spoken word etc). It will debut at our Harvest Festival, and we are planning a program of performances to invite the local and wider community into our theatre space at Waterside.
Last winter, some members of our Drama workshop had the opportunity to perform “Clown Town” (a production of their own creation) at the Birds of Paradise Theatre’s 25th anniversary fundraiser in Glasgow which was very well received.
Since most workshops across all our sites are virtually full, we are looking at ways to expand our services so that the community we support can continue to grow. To this end, over the past few months we have been developing a brand new workshop called “The Media Team”. It will offer new skills and opportunities to members in a world full of multi-media, and encourage members to be actively involved in the recording, celebration, and promotion of what we do at Garvald Edinburgh. Members attended taster sessions in June and we hope to open the workshop in early 2020.
Each of our sites has a canteen where members work alongside staff to prepare healthy meals that are shared by all at lunchtime. This process generates food waste which we aim to recycle as much as possible and the Vegware bags provided have been used to collect and compost all our food waste.
We also hold events open to the public, to showcase and celebrate our work, such as our Harvest Festival and Christmas Bazaar, for which Vegware has kindly provided ad hoc donations of cups and plates to assist with the catering.
