Poss+Abilities Dance and Fitness Group
“Where Anything is Possible”
Cost: £10.00 per session
Age: 18+ - our oldest member is 75! The group has been running since April 2013 for people with special needs and disabilities and now has an overall membership of 40+. We meet three times weekly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday – 11.00 – 2.30 pm. The sessions are open access and anyone interested can come and join us for a taster session. We offer a Summer Programme running throughout August that is open access. This has proved very popular with school and college students unable to attend during term time. This truly is a ‘whole group’ experience with coaches, peer coaches and members working together to choose music, work out dance and fitness routines and identify areas to develop or change. All dances are choreographed by the whole group working together, this ensures that all members, regardless of ability, can take an active role and fully participate in everything we offer. The group love to perform and show off their skills, we undertake an increasing number of public performances throughout the year. They are also very actively involved in fundraising activities and have raised a staggering £720 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, helped raise funds to buy specialist equipment for SEN children in a local school, performed in a show raising funds for Crohn’s Disease and collected toiletries for a local charity supporting homeless people. We are now focussing our efforts on raising funds to purchase a changing bed and portable hoist for our new premises to improve access for all. Six of our members have now taken on the role of Assistant Coaches, every dance routine has a peer Lead Dancer and fitness routines are peer led. This ensures that all members have real ownership of the group and the programme. The main aim of the group has always been to have FUN and along the way get fit, socialise with friends, meet new people and learn new skills. We have seen significant progress in all our members – improved co-ordination, communication, problem- solving and negotiation skills. They are fitter, losing weight and are stronger emotionally, mentally and physically. The difference in all our member’s confidence and self-esteem is apparent and parents/carers have all commented on this. Weight is an ongoing and serious health issue with many of our members and to date the response to our healthy eating programme has been excellent. One of our members has now lost 100lbs another 65lbs, another 54lbs with many others reaching and maintaining an ideal individual weight. All weight loss/gain is controlled and monitored and we work closely with parents and carers to ensure this. Members are encouraged to make small, healthy changes to their daily diets and routines. Through the keeping of weekly food diaries there has also been a significant improvement in member’s literacy and numeracy skills. This aspect of our work has been so successful that other similar groups in Derby are now following our lead. Feedback from health professionals has been very positive. We have seen significant health, mobility and well being improvements in all our members. From time to time we are asked to undertake disability and special needs awareness training with local organisations and groups. These sessions are fully interactive and informative with members participating in the delivery of individually designed and targeted programmes. Poss+Abilities is part of the Disability Direct family. This added support is enabling our group to further develop and expand the services we provide. In April 2021 we moved to the Community Centre, Alice Street, Derby. This has given us much improved facilities with a full kitchen enabling us to improve our healthy eating and independent living programme. We are fully accessible. Lorraine Bhatti
Co-ordinator
