PROPS CHARITY V3.qxp_Layout 2 24/11/2022 10:20 Page 1
PROPS is a small, local charity that provides access to a wide range of skills, training, and employment opportunities for over 50 adults with learning disabilities
Breaking boundaries
PROPS charity is on a mission to support adults with learning disabilities to achieve their full potential by providing access to practical learning, skills development and accessible work-based experiences. With a whole host of new ventures popping up around the city, we caught up with PROPS’ Fundraising Manager Konna Beeson to hear more about the brilliant work taking place in our communities... or those that may not know, can you tell us about PROPS, how it supports adults with learning disabilities to achieve their potential and how it is making a difference to communities all over Bristol? PROPS is a small, local charity that provides access to a wide range of skills, training, and employment opportunities for over 50 adults with learning disabilities. From growing food and cooking in a café, to a sports leadership programme where five of our trainees now teach sports at schools across Bristol. It’s all about long-term empowerment – providing the tools that are missing to enable adults with learning disabilities to live fulfilling personal and professional lives. Support for adults with learning disabilities effectively ends postcollege age, which is why 95% are not in paid employment. In fact, most adults with learning disabilities only leave their homes for an hour a day due to stigma and a lack of accessibility. To create true equality, we need to raise awareness city-wide of what disabled adults are ABLE to do. Only then can we ensure more businesses serve and employ disabled adults to create meaningful, long-term change.
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Can you tell us about the services you provide, from taking part in purposeful work to growing fresh produce at several accessible sites? Our project areas include cooking, sports, music, our own print room, arts and crafts, horticulture and even beer brewing. Each session has a project lead, with 121 support for trainees where needed, and is designed to bring out the individual skills of each of our trainees. For example, some adults have an affinity for cooking whereas others are 40 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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DECEMBER 2022
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No 217
skilled at small-detail work in quiet environments like Jack, who is now employed in our print room. We’re here to support trainees to try new things, while enabling them to develop skills that could lead to paid employment and greater independence in the future. Covid was particularly hard on our trainees and with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, we knew that practical opportunities would be even harder to come by. We’ve always prided ourselves on being a small charity with big ambitions and so to do more for our trainees, we decided to launch two new projects in 2022: The Vassall Café and Tapestry Brewery by PROPS in Totterdown. We hope that by creating opportunities like this ourselves, our trainees will be more confident and able to secure paid work anywhere in Bristol. Speaking about his current workplace at PROPS’ print room, trainee Jack said: “I was unsure about working because of my autism. I was scared I might get fired for making mistakes…. Now working in the print room makes me happy. I think it’s better than anything else.” How did PROPS come to own Tapestry Brewery by PROPS? Can you tell us about how the brewery is creating long-term meaningful jobs? Before Covid, we had a great partnership with Tapestry Brewery. Our trainees learned a lot of new things, they brewed beers, designed cans, grew ingredients like rhubarb to use in one of the beers and helped sell hundreds of cans. Some of our trainees, like Jordan, got so much out of the experience and really wanted to do more. So when Tapestry Brewery made the decision to close after the pandemic, we worked with them to take it over. Jordan is now working at the
