Making new experiences possible

Staff at The Maltings Day and Community service in Norfolk found out about a unique experience at a climbing wall and instantly thought of Kurt, who they support. Kerensa Palmer, Service Manager, told us more.

My partner is the manager of the climbing wall at Open Youth Trust in Norwich and he told me that a session had become available which he thought would be great for the people we support at The Maltings.

“Immediately I thought of Kurt. The Open Youth Trust has special equipment at their climbing wall to enable wheelchair users to experience climbing and although Kurt is able to walk he mostly uses a wheelchair, so I thought this experience would be really wonderful for him. I have a great relationship with him, his family, and his one-to-one support worker so I put the idea over to them all and they said yes!

“Kurt doesn’t communicate verbally and uses his own version of Makaton, but as you can see from the photos he had a brilliant time on the wall and was full of smiles. Sam, his one-to-one Support Worker, told us that he laughed from the moment he was placed into the harness until the very end of the session!

“When we sent the pictures over to Kurt’s mother she nicknamed him the adrenaline junkie! There are now a group of four people we support attending each week and taking it in turns to climb. When they are not climbing they get to use the other facilities that Open provide like the games room, music room, and a dance studio. I am thrilled as the session was a huge success, and just goes to show that disability doesn’t have to be a barrier to experiences like climbing!”