About us

In 1997 a Drop in Group was set up for People with learning disabilities in Tameside. The group met every Tuesday to organise social activities, chat, have drinks, and take part in leisure activities and so on.

“ We do snooker, pool, bowling. Sometimes we have days out to Blackpool and Southport and to see Last of the Summer Wine. We get people together and have tea, coffee, biscuits, games and a chat”

The group was supported by Social Services. Through the drop-in, we heard about Tameside Advocacy.

Tameside Advocacy Project (Now Tameside SPEAK) is an independent advocacy service for People with Learning Disabilities offering advocacy support, training and information to groups and individuals. In September, three people and a support worker were sponsored to attend a People First conference in Edinburgh.

“We stopped 5 nights at Edinburgh University, the beds were too hard. We had one day off. We visited the Castle and looked around the shops. The prices of kilts were very expensive. There were workshops which we enjoyed”.

The meeting gave us the inspiration to set up a similar group within Tameside. This meant a Big Meeting was held.

In May the following year, a Big Meeting was organised by Tameside Advocacy Project in Tameside for people to find out more about setting up a People First Group. People with learning disabilities were involved in discussions and workshops.

“ About 40 people came and it lasted all day. It was really exciting but made us very tired”.

In the morning, Manchester People First presented a talk on how they got their group organised and the sort of things they do, and there experiences. In the afternoon 15 people were elected through voting, onto the People First Committee.