Who are Pelican Project? Who are they for, and how can you get involved? If you’re curious, bring your questions for an informal session with the team!

ABOUT THE PELICAN PROJECT

On leaving school, learning-disabled adults face a devastating drop-off in support and opportunity and enter a gruelling process of transition to adult provision. The social networks, passions, interests, identities, wellbeing and opportunities for individuals to grow that were once nurtured by a familiar school environment are lost. The search for a new place to belong becomes punctuated by scrutiny and rejection.  Families endure this process on top of the already pressured experience of supporting the complex needs of their loved ones. Our membership of young people have a host of physical and cognitive disabilities, including profound, severe and moderate learning disabilities, severe and less severe manifestations of autistic spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, downs syndrome, mental health conditions and augmented and alternative communication users. The Pelican Project’s program aims to change these stories of survival to stories where the potential of our exceptional members is realised.

Exeter Phoenix have been supporters of our work since we started in 2017, providing us with spaces and expertise across our program. We co-run Freefall+, a visual art group for artists with different needs with Exeter Phoenix, which has been hugely important to promoting our members as artists and producers in their own right. Following a couple of years of exploring “wellbeing” with our members in response to the disproportionate challenges that the pandemic has brought to the learning-disabled community, we have started our regular wellbeing group this term. Our members are looking forward to contributing to Bloom from a learning-disabled perspective.

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