Summer School Graduation
Monday 08 August 2011
Lady Sylvia Hermon, MP for North Down, is Patron of a Summer School for people with disabilities and has presented certificates to participants at a special graduation ceremony on Friday 5th August.
Over 40 people with disabilities aged 18-65 took part in this year’s Summer School, which has now been successfully up and running for 16 years. The programme of activities was jointly organised by The Cedar Foundation, Well 2 and South Eastern Regional College (SERC). Classes which included, cookery, light decorative metalwork, arts and crafts, and horticulture were delivered across five SERC campuses; Bangor, Newtownards, Lisburn, Downpatrick and Newcastle during July and the first week in August.
Speaking at the graduation at SERC Lisburn campus, Lady Hermon said, “It gives me great pleasure to be here today to present certificates of achievement to everyone who took part in the Summer School. The success of the School is demonstrated by the fact that this year it extended its reach beyond North Down and Lisburn, welcoming people in South Down through the Well 2 Project. The Summer School provides an excellent opportunity for people with disabilities to sample something new whilst also allowing them to experience life at college with the view to them hopefully availing of courses in the future.”
Sylvia Gawley from Lisburn on receiving her certificate of achievement said; “I really enjoyed the arts and crafts class. It didn’t matter if you’d never done anything like that before you didn’t feel uncomfortable trying. I would love to do another course again, for me the class was an escape.”
Well 2 is a project aimed at 16-25 year olds with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, mental ill health or Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The project is a partnership between the South Eastern Trust, Action Mental Health and The Cedar Foundation. For more info contact Caroline Digney on 028 4483 8943.
SERC provides a range of courses, for everyone in the community, from entry level to degrees. The focus of many courses is to help students reach their full potential, developing social and personal skills as well as their technical ability. The college partners with a number of community based organisations to ensure wide access to high quality education. Such organisations can contact Fiona Neely on 028 9267 7225 Ext. 1808 or email fneely@serc.ac.uk to discuss opportunities.
