People at Dorothy Lewis Court enjoy where they live

Dorothy Lewis Court (DLC) is a purpose-built development within Canton of nine flats that is home to nine tenants who have learning disabilities. It was developed to offer individuals the opportunity to live more independent lives within a supportive community setting.

On Sundays, some of the people who at DLC get together to cook, catch up and eat lunch. It’s become so popular, they now call themselves the ‘Sunday Club’.

Each person is given the option of how they would like to contribute, from being responsible for collecting money from everyone and using it to form a budget and shop for ingredients, to preparing vegetables – and of course, everyone’s least favourite job, washing up!
Everyone gets the chance to learn new skills, discover their strengths and talents, and develop their abilities to make them feel more independent, and prepare them for more self-sufficient futures.

Laura says: “I’m a good chef, and I like chopping and preparing vegetables. I enjoy helping others with the cleaning.”

It’s not all hard work and chores though, ‘Sunday Club’ is a great opportunity for people to socialise and build relationships with the people they live with, and creates a real sense of community within the development. The people who live in DLC often spend the majority of their time doing their own activities independently or with their Support Workers, and Sunday Club offers the opportunity and time to relax and establish bonds with those around them.

Rhys says: “The reason I like Sunday Club is because it’s fun to socialise and get together and talk about how our friends’ weeks have gone, and what activities they’ve got up to. It’s the best day of the week”.

Tasha also particularly enjoys the social aspect of Sunday Club, and says: “It’s great because we all talk to each other and find out how our weeks have been”.

The people who live at DLC have had further opportunity to develop their relationships with each other by working collaboratively on a project with lecturers from Cardiff University to create a toolkit of visual communication aids for people with learning disabilities. Inspired by the way those at DLC naturally communicate with each other when making decisions, expressing feelings and ideas, the toolkit aims to offer guidance and a ‘shared language’ that individuals and groups of people who have a learning disability can use and understand.