Last week, members of The Accessible Workshop delivered and fitted two new planters to the home of Virgin Radio’s Chris Evans. They were the second set of planters they had built for Chris, after he got in touch with us some six weeks ago.

To say our members were delighted to be able to show off their skills to such a famous client would be an understatement of significant proportions! Neil Sainsbury, our Head of Adult Services, commented:

“I’m lucky enough to see first-hand the quality of the work produced in the workshop by our members. They take a huge amount of pride in their work and regularly produce items that are of the highest quality. To not only have this recognised by someone of Chris’s status, but also to be asked to design and build a range of planters is testament to this. It was a thrilling moment for each of our members, who all did themselves and Talkback proud.”

The Accessible Workshop

The Accessible Workshop is a Social Enterprise Initiative from Talkback. It enables people with learning disabilities and autistic people to build real-word work skills. As well as gain an understanding of how their skills and talents can be used to create positive social change. It’s one of the many parts to what Talkback does. Because we create meaningful life journeys for our members from education to employability. And everything in between.

The Accessible Workshop covers a wide range of woodworking and practical skills. It teaches people how to plan and manage projects, as well as how to market and sell.

Each individual works to clear and structured plans, with each project treated as a commissioned piece of work. The income generated is then reinvested back into the enterprise or is used to aid charitable partners that we work with.

From basic safety awareness around the home, through to repairing, creating, upcycling, and developing employment skills. The Accessible Workshop creates realistic progression pathways.

New workshop coming to High Wycombe

We are in the process of expanding the workshop so that we can offer this chance to as many people as possible. In addition, we are opening a new workshop in High Wycombe in October this year. We have 10 places available for new members to the workshop would be great. If you’d like to find out more about it then please just get in touch. Because we’d love to tell you more.

You can find out much more about The Accessible Workshop here.