When the Ron Short Centre first opened during the 1970s its primary focus was on supporting people living with physical and/or sensory impairments.
As time has passed, that focus hasn’t changed at all, but the services offered and the breadth of opportunities available will surpass most peoples’ expectations.
Now known as UnLtd, the charity aims to ensure all its service users know that their lives are just that – unlimited.
With a team of staff supporting them, including Development Manager Tim Feak, the service users of the Ron Short Centre are able to access a number of schemes including UnLtd Living, UnLtd Transport, UnLtd Enterprises, UnLtd Training and Shopping UnLtd.
As well as enriching the lives of the service users directly, Tim said these programmes mean that they in turn have a lot to offer other organisations and businesses across Guernsey.
“We are not just asking for businesses support out of pure altruism, but feel we have valuable expertise and connections to offer, particularly as they will be mindful of the equalities legislation passed in 2022 which is gradually coming into effect,” he explained.
That law is being brought in in stages with the first phase meaning it’s illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of race, disability, carer status, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.
These protections apply in the context of employment, the provision of goods and services and of accommodation, and in the membership of clubs and associations.
Tim said these are some areas that UnLtd service users can help other organisations and businesses with to ensure they are complying with the law.
“Our mission is to improve the lives of Guernsey people with physical and sensory disabilities, and we’ve identified that there are some particular areas with which people really need help.
“One is getting into employment, the other is a wellbeing programme, which is for people who, as a result of their disability, might become isolated from normal parts of life.
“We also run a transport programme, because one of the biggest barriers over here is the lack of accessible transport. No matter how many good things there are around, if you can’t get there you can’t access them, so we run a transport programme for our members to come to our activities and we also run a shopping bus which we’ve rebranded as Shopping UnLtd.
“The fifth thing that we do, which is just as important, is that we’re working to make the island a more inclusive place for disabled people, and we’re doing that with a couple of programmes. One is called Disability Confidence Training which aims to make organisations confident about interacting with disabled people. Our experience is that most people want to do the right thing, but they’re just not quite sure what that right thing would be.
“And another project is where we can do a disability audit of your business and give you some simple, practical, hopefully not onerous advice on how you could just make the disabled customer a bit more welcome.”
These programmes help the service users of the Ron Short Centre find employment and maintain it and live fulfilling lives while doing so. Tim said it comes down to unlocking skills and talents that may have previously been hidden.
“This is what we’ve discovered really by working with our members, people who would like to be able to work, but who have faced all sorts of challenges.
“Some of them may have tried jobs on repeated occasions and things didn’t work out. But we’ve discovered that people who have skills, if they can organise their own time, then work at a pace that fits with their health condition, then they can be very productive, and they can offer a useful skill.
“One chap here is a very, very talented woodworker and handyman who is now producing adaptations for peoples’ homes and all sorts of useful, one-off stuff for around the house. With our support he’s starting his own business.
“There’s also a young autistic man who is brilliant with technology. Working with us, he’s setting up a project to train disabled people how to use the latest enabling technology. This is technology that creates a level playing field. We’ve looked outside Guernsey for our inspiration as to how this could work, and we’ve hooked up with a UK company called Enabling Technology UK which supplied the technology and research. Since the year 2000, they’ve been working, with the UK Government, with employees and employers during the first 12 weeks of their employment to look at their specific strengths and the challenges and the barriers in the way of them doing their job, and what technology might help them to work around any problems.
“This has been a very successful scheme in the UK and we’re hoping to set up the same scheme here in Guernsey with our technology enabling suite.”
The technology enabling suite is just one of the facilities available on site at the Ron Short Centre itself, which is in the grounds of Beau Sejour.
With its wide-open spaces, accessible corridors, and adjustable tables, plug sockets and more, it was redesigned to meet the varying needs of modern day service users a few years ago.
The island’s first fully accessible bathroom is immediately to your left when you come in the front door and straight ahead of you is the main communal area where service users both work and socialise daily.
A fully accessible shop is on site, with much of the stock hand made in house.
The shop offers employment opportunities to members of the UnLtd community, preparing them for working in other retail settings.
The day that I visited, a young lady was running the shop who had previously worked in retail before having to step back for her own wellbeing. Now, with her confidence being built back up she was enjoying working again and will one day soon be looking elsewhere for a new role.
Having a fully accessible retail space also means that everyone else can use it too, said Tim.
“The shop is set up so it’s completely accessible to customers with disabilities themselves. It has automatic doors, continuous flooring throughout, there are big turning circles, and if you look at the displays of the shop environment, the eyeline is suitable for people who would themselves be in a wheelchair.
“We have other devices like NaviLens, which helps people with visual impairments too.
“But not only is the shop there to be accessible to customers with disabilities, it’s set up in such a way that all of our employees can work here too. We have a special till system, which is touch button so if you have limited manual dexterity, the buttons are big, and the till is dual height meaning someone in a wheelchair can work behind it. These are all the little adaptations that we’ve put in.
“In terms of what is being sold in the shop, a lot of the products have been made in house. So, when people come to see us, it’s like the classic visitor experience that some companies talk about nowadays, customers can come in and they can see things being made by our members, and then they can purchase them in the shop.
“We have a lovely range of hand painted bags painted by the members and we have a range of goods that are targeted towards the tourist market, things like bookmarks, fridge magnets, we’ve got puffins and donkeys, and a whole range of different things that made by the members. There are also our T shirts as well as a range of jewellery, some of which have made here and seasonal goods as well.”
Offering UnLtd opportunities isn’t just about getting people to visit the Ron Short Centre to go shopping though. Tim is hoping to get more businesses signed up to the Shopping UnLtd service – starting with supermarkets.
“For a number of years we’ve been running the shopping service, aimed at older people who are otherwise isolated, otherwise unable to get into the shops,” he explained.
“But we realised that obviously this is a service that would be very important for other people with disabilities. So, we’re expanding it, and we’ve raised the money for a wheelchair accessible bus which will now take 10 people.
“We have a unique partnership with the retailers, who pay £100 to take part and for that you get a bus full of passengers come in and do their weekly shopping with you, rather than doing it over the internet or elsewhere.
“It means these people get out of the house, which is good for their independence. They’re doing their own shopping rather than having to ask someone else to do it, and they’re in a group of ten people. We have the same people on each trip each week, so they get to know each other, and on the bus, there’s a qualified driver and a trained passenger assistant. These people check in and they get to know each other so if there are any health problems that are becoming apparent, we can then refer them to other professionals. All of the people who go on the shopping bus fill in a simple question to start with so we kind of know about any additional health needs, but also we know what businesses they want to engage with.
“We currently go to the Co-op and we’ll be going to Alliance from February onwards. That will get us up to four shopping trips a week, but we want to have at least 10, so there’s plenty of room for other retailers to get involved.
“This is all really a way to help Guernsey businesses access the ‘purple pound’.
“Disabled people need to shop and, unfortunately, if they can’t get there then they may be forced to shop off island, so we want to help them and help the businesses.”
The services on offer through UnLtd and the Ron Short Centre all play a part in the wider offering said Tim, with their programmes all aligning.
“Our disability confidence training will help you train your staff so that they can work better with disabled customers. That’s all good for your business, because it means more customers.
“The technology program will help businesses who want to employ someone with a disability, to make sure that they get the most out of their time, and our work training people in the shop produces more qualified retail employees too.
“Let’s face it, one of the challenges that certain businesses over here face is finding the right people to work, and we can help you work around that.”
Contact Tim Feak at the Ron Short Centre, Amherst, St Peter Port, GY1 2DH, by calling 01481 724333.
