The Life Changing Impact of Community Support – Diana’s Story

The Meeting Place (TMP) is a community-based day support in Peterborough run by Thera East Anglia. The Meeting Place supports adults with a learning disability to access a wide range of opportunities to access their local communities, build skills, access work placements and improve their wellbeing.

Crucially, the Meeting Place offers a stepping stone from education into adult life. This can include when someone is still accessing further education. Diana began support with TMP in September 2024 whilst still attending college. When they first met Diana, she asked TMP to support her with confidence building and to learn new skills in preparation for moving into supported living. After spending time with Diana, the team discovered her passion for hair and makeup, including watching many beauty YouTube tutorials.

Andy, a Support Worker at TMP, researched possible work placements for Diana and found Spencer’s, a hairdressers located in Peterborough. With Andy’s support, Diana met the owner of Spencer’s, Liza, who offered her a work placement! The placement started a few hours on a Friday afternoon and after a few months, this increased to a full day. Talking about working with Diana, Liza said:

As a parent of a young person with a disability, I understand the difficulty of finding work experience placements that give a real experience of working in a business. Diana’s skills have improved immensely, she has really grown in confidence particularly with greeting and speaking with customers and has become well-liked by colleagues and customers alike.

She is now able to choose the work activities she wants to do, which is showing initiative, and she can see what needs to be done. Potentially, she could get a job as a salon assistant!

Diana did not stop there in her ambition to gain new skills! To prepare for her move into supported living, Diana wanted to improve her cooking skills. After some research, Andy found Chimes Coffee Shop and supported Diana to meet Julia, the manager. Julia offered Diana a placement, also starting with one afternoon which then increased to a full day. Julia told us about Diana:

It’s been a pleasure having Diana with us. When she started, she didn’t have a lot of confidence but over the last few months her skills have improved, her listening has improved, and this shows in the things that she is producing. [She is] Definitely more confident when in the kitchen and with any other task she does.

On Diana’s journey, Steph, Support Worker at the Meeting Place, said:

Diana has grown so much with the work placements at Chimes and Spencer’s salon, she has more confidence and seems to really enjoy both placements. She’s able to speak to clients without me standing next to her, she remembers what she’s meant to be doing and is able to get involved without me reminding her, Diana is always wanting to learn more and shows so much interest.

Diana’s story shows the huge impact person-centred community support can have on the lives of people with a learning disability. It has the power to break down barriers to areas of life such as employment. Her story also demonstrates how much of an asset people with a learning disability can be to employers. Currently, only 4.7%* of people with a learning disability are in paid work, and we hope with the right support, more people like Diana will be able to enter the world of paid employment.

Finally, let’s hear from Diana herself!

I enjoy the baking at Chimes, at Spencer’s I really like using the blockhead and joining in with the staff, I feel like part of the team.

* Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report, England, 2023-24 – NHS England Digital