LinkAble is a registered Mencap Gateway Award Centre.
Therefore anyone who attends our adult services can work towards their awards.
What is the Gateway Award?
The Gateway Award is a non-competitive activity-based award in which people with a learning disability, of any age or ability, can take part in
The award uses activities in areas of everyday life to help participants experience new things, develop life skills, build confidence, become more independent, improve health and wellbeing, make new friends and most importantly, have fun!
Who is it for?
- Anyone with a learning disability of any age or ability.
- Those who want to decide their own goals and activities (with support) and work at their own pace.
The awards
There are three levels of the award (Bronze, Silver and Gold), made up of five different sections. Participants receive a certificate and a medal upon completion of each level. The sections include:
- Hobbies: Participants select a hobby from one of three sections: arts and crafts, collections or recreation (Eg; a participant may take part in painting classes over three months, developing painting skills either in their own time or as a group in a leisure or learning environment.
- Fitness: Participants select new fitness activities (Eg; taking part in Zumba classes, swimming, table tennis, football and yoga etc)
- Volunteering: Participants choose a volunteering activity to benefit their community, (Eg; volunteering at a leisure club, running a recycling project, doing gardening for a neighbour or volunteering at a local charity shop)
- Lifestyle: Participants choose new lifestyle topics to learn about (Eg; first aid, money, independence or healthy eating)
- Gateway Challenge: Participants identify a challenge and an activity, or project to explore. It can be a personal or a group challenge (Eg; a personal challenge may be to plan a trip to a local museum, the planning would include looking into travel to the museum, budgeting for the visit, researching information on the museum and then the challenge would be visiting the museum).