The picture I captured above is a photo of a creative skills class where we were introduced to some members of the community who have intellectual disabilities and our classes collaborated to create a piece of artwork that represents how each member felt in their community and how the member of the group who has an intellectual disability feels about themselves. In this class we got into groups, and we received an A3 sheet of paper, markers, and stickers to start our creation. When we were taking part in this activity, I felt a great sense of fulfillment when I was creating an art piece that was meaningful to me and my group as it was personal and allowed us to portray our artistic abilities. When creating this art piece, I was feeling a sense of happiness for working with and getting to know someone with an intellectual disability and this made me think of my future career in social care and I bagan to research services with intellectual disabilities as I really enjoyed working with and getting to know the people in my group. I think this activity was well suited to everyone in our group as everyone was interested in art and crafts and everyone felt comfortable about speaking about and drawing themselves and things that represent them. I have always been interested in art, so I think this activity suited me very well. I was initially nervous to carry out this art groupwork as I never worked with an adult with intellectual disabilities before and I was nervous as this was new for me, but as we started talking and working on our art piece I was at ease once again. I think my own creative skills were put into place during this activity as I don’t draw as much as I would like to, and this made me feel calm and happy. I think bringing art activities that interlink with your own personal likes and interests is a great idea for bringing art into practice in the area of social care. As I said I felt outside of my comfort zone at the beginning of this activity but once we started working together, I felt very comfortable and calm. I understand why this activity is a great opportunity to get to know everyone and I think it can empower both the service users and the social care workers as it gives us all a sense of community and involvement by working together to create a positive art piece that represents us in our community.

The photo I captured above is from a facitilitation class me and my friends carried out in our creative skills class. We were assigned to create activities that could be carried out to benefit children ages 6-12 with ASD. The main theme of our activities was sensory play as the three of us worked on placement last year with children with ASD and we discovered how much they enjoyed and learned from sensory play. In this class we set up three different activity stations the first one being the rice bag station, the second one was creating cookies they could eat and then the last one set up was creating an image of how they see themselves. When carrying out the activities such as colouring the rice with foodcolouring by using your motor skills and touching and pressing the ziplock bags to colour each grain of rice with the food colouring we engaged with sensory play. Before conducting this activity based facilitation I felt anxious as I was speaking in front of the class but when we began our activities which we prepared and I showed and explained to everyone about my activity with the bag of rice I felt calmer and more confident as everyone engaged well.This activity made me feel calm and relaxed as I enjoyed feeling the texture of the rice in the bag along with the bright colours of the food colouring I was coloring the rice by squishing the bag. I could see everyone’s creativity during these activities as everyone engaged well and showed their creativity skills. I think the sensory rice activity would be a perfect activity to bring to practice for children with ASD as it is great for motor skills and sensory play. I felt outside of my comfort zone at the start of this activity as I was teaching the class what to do but as everyone in the class listened and engaged, I felt confident, and my nerves wore off. I think this activity can empower service users aged 6-12 with ASD as it allows them to use their motor skills and engage with sensory play whilst creating a mixture of colours whilst feeling the rice textures with little effort as they create the contrast of colours in the bag.

The last picture above was taken in a creative skills class where we were taking part in one of our classmates facilitation presentations and we engaged in their activities and listened carefully to what they were teaching us as the activities they used helped us understand the types of things we could carry out in further social care practices on placement and in our social care work. In this particular activity we put shaving foam in a bowl and mixed glitter around with the foam we then touched the foam with our hands and could feel the sensation of the glitter and foam combination on our hands. This sensory activity is what inspired my group to carry out sensory activities for our presentation. I felt very calm during this activity as I was in a group with my friends doing sensory play which I find very interesting and fun to do. My preconception of this activity was that it would be messy and make me feel uncomfortable but it actually wasn’t as there was tissue beside our chairs to wipe our hands and I didn’t feel uncomfortable at any stage. I think this activity would be perfect for children and adults with intellectual disabilities as it involves both motor skills and engaged with their sensory needs. I felt my own creativity whilst creating the glitter foam as I was mixing the ingredients and adding my own amount of the measurements. I felt very in control throughout this activity. I think this could be brought into practice in different areas of social care such as in ASD units and intellectual disability day services. I felt very comfortable throughout this activity and I believe this activity can empower service users who take part in it as they are giving the chance to take control during this activity as they are in charge of the ingredients and create as much glittering foam as they would like.

Traces Dance Artist Brian McSweeney and Jess Rowell

(1.)  Personally, when I watched this video of the fifty dancers in Draíocht I was immediately intrigued as the opening of the video included the words “A Day of dance, inclusion, presentation and celebration.” I think this powerful message represents the group of the service users taking part in dance perfectly as it gives a sense of community and empowerment throughout the message. The start of video portrayed the service users hugging and greeting eachother showing a sense of belonging and compassion towards eachother. I think the excitement of the dancers was evident in each of the clips as they were all happy to be taking part in the dance. Some of the service users showed their musical skills by playing the box drums and the rest of the service users danced to the rhythm of the music whilst the drums were being played. I think this part of the video shows us the creativity and commitment the service users had to have when learning the choreography for the dance. I feel a great sense of pride as a social care worker when watching this video as I learned it was videoed in dublin and had over fifty service users taken part in the dance. This video made me think of the service users in our community and how we can show their creativity and give them a greater sense of comm by learning and practicing dance and music together. This video has given me an insight into empowering service users by fulfilling their passion creativity needs and by helping them gain a stronger sense of community.

(2.) I think this video demonstrates the importance of practicing in a non-discriminatory, culturally sensitive way as it involves service users who have come together to create a meaningful dance interpation by treating everyone as an equal and by allowing everyone to take part and have a role to play. For example, if the service users didn’t want to dance, they could take part in the musical aspect of it by playing the floor drums or bongos to create music for eveyone to dance to. I think it is very important for social care workers to have a non biased approach whilst working in the area of social care by treating everyone equally and respecting each others culture and ethical values. This video shows the importance of non-discriminatory practice as they treat everyone equally with equal respect and dignity.

(3.) This project of dance meets the needs of the service users by giving them the opportunity to express themselves through music and dance. This gives them the chance to feel accepted and gives them a greater sense of belonging in their community. This dance project is a great way for the service users to engage with others giving them opportunities to make friends and bond with others. It is known to improve self-confidence and is also going to benefit the service user’s health as it is a great movement exercise. This project of dance empowers the service users by providing a safe space to express their creativity and allows them to work on their skills as a dancer giving them a sense of pride and accomplishment by performing in their communities and engaging with others. I believe this project empowers the service users to strive for creativity and belonging whilst reaching their full potential.