At Out & About Community Services, we offer a range of services to support people in developing skills, aspirations or interests within a community setting.  This setting can be within employment, education or leisure.

Autism Consultancy Service

This service works with an autistic individual in a personalised way. The end goal is integration of the person into the community.

Learn more about the Autism Consultancy Service (PDF)

‍Active Support

Active support is a person-focused form of care for people with an intellectual disability who live in community‐based small homes. The model aims to improve each person's quality of life by maximising participation with appropriate support. It leads to greater independence across all aspects of daily living.

We apply the core principles of Person-Centred Active Support:  

• Every moment has potential (every task or activity includes opportunities for people to be involved)
• Maximise choice and control (the more choice a person has, the more control they haveover their life)
• Little and often  (trying new things in small doses leads to greater experience and more opportunity for choice)
• Graded assistance (giving just the right amount and type of support enables a person to succeed in a task or social interaction)

Example: the following video shows an example of active support:

Employment Service

Using the core principles of Person-Centred Active Support, we enable people with Learning Disabilities to build work-based skills that lead to employment. 

We aim to get many of the people we support into work, either in a paid or voluntary role. Ideally, after a suitable amount of time, we withdraw the support we offer so the person can then work independently.

We typically work closely with small local businesses that have substantial community-based value, providing an opportunity for people to gain direct job skills, work experience and paid employment.

We also support the employment service by providing: 

• Travel training, enabling the employee to commute to their place of work independently
• Support to develop the client’s CV and job search and application skills
• Specific training tailored to the employer organisation·
• Working closely with the employer and looking at creative solutions to overcome any problems· 
• Coaching the service user to improve skills and work-related duties

Planning through PATH

PATH is a Person-centred planning tool that helps people identify and achieve their goals, applying ‘SMART’ criteria (goals should be Specific. Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound).  

We have found that working on a single goal, rather than many at a time, helps make a dream a lot more achievable. Every service user has a PATH document that is regularly updated.  

You can download an example of a PATH document here.

Example: the following video shows an example of a client (Bryan) achieving his goal of performing a concert, by first using a PATH plan: