#MentalMovement are firmly behind supporting Yadapa; ‘Young and Disabled and Positively Artistic’ this year for the Aviva Community Fund award and we REALLY need your help to ensure they get it!
Yadapa is a small local community organisation working with disabled children and young people between the ages of 11 to 18 who live in the Kingston upon Thames area.
My involvement with Yadapa began shortly after I received a friend request from the wonderful Fran O’Brien who admitted she had been ‘stalking me on Facebook for some time’ and wanted to get involved with me because apparently I seemed “cool”, something she later discovered couldn’t be further from the truth as she realised I was a complete and utter weirdo. Weirdo in a good way of course, I have my quirks and so did Fran. It was the perfect Facebook friend request ending anyone could have asked for.
Photograph Credit: Kingston Arts
She quickly introduced me to her world, where she proved that she was without a doubt hope, inspiration and hilarity personified. An extraordinary character full of wit who always left me in absolute stitches. She knew how funny she was and I loved that about her. She cared about people, especially those like herself who too were confined to living in a world that didn’t always cater to them. Fran always had their back and with this, she created the most wonderful world that saw freedom in expression through art, dance and dramatics and offered it to countless young people, who too, were disabled.
I’ve yet to meet a person who knew Fran and who’s life remained unchanged by her incredible presence, personality and love. Fran changed my life in many ways and I saw how she changed the lives of so many others. As an artist, photographer and passionate campaigner for disabled children and young people, every part of her soul became so artistically intwined in the work she facilitated at Yadapa. And that work was incredible.
Sadly, in 2015 Fran lost her battle with cancer and a huge hole has been left in my heart ever since her departing. She would however be happy to learn that her equally inspiring and incredible daughter Sam, along with Fran’s devoted husband Mike still hold up the fort along with the best team of support workers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Each person carrying a tiny part of Fran with them as they continue her great work.
Today, Yadapa continues to offer free workshops with free accessible transport. Every Drama, Dance and Art workshop comes with one to one support workers and there are no charges for those in attendance. During workshops participants engage in drama games, rehearse plays, perform scenes and learn contemporary dance and acting techniques. The young people learn a range of skills in communication, confidence building, team-work, improvisation, literacy, movement and voice. The remaining Yadapa team live by Fran’s vision to improve the confidence of and teach new skills to young disabled people who live or study in the borough and they do a really stellar job.
I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating my own workshops with the group over the past year and thoroughly loved every minute of it. Printmaking, designing products and prop making is a real passion of mine and it’s been a real joy to share my skills and knowledge with these young people through my little ‘Yadapa Design Crew’ and prove that actually, they can create anything they desire and be whoever they want to be. A young designer, an artist, a photographer, a merchandise consultant – they are all of these things and more in my workshops and they excel in the everything they create.
For myself, working with Yadapa on behalf of #MentalMovement is hugely important as creativity promotes positive mental wellbeing, always. I often speak with the young people at Yadapa about their anxieties and worries; art and design are the perfect mediums to support those healthy conversations.
Here are some images from my ‘BFG Dream Jar Prop-Making Workshops’ made from old frisbee’s and plastic lemonade bottles by the young people at Yadapa.
Tasmin Lang, Yadapa member and volunteer says “Being a previous member and volunteer at Yadapa was an amazing experience. It helped build my confidence and made me very happy. I liked going because I got to meet so many lovely people and had such fun doing all the drama performances and art workshops.”
But work like this cannot continue if Yadapa do not secure funding from this year’s Aviva Community Fund award. YOU could be the reason why we manage to secure it. To help us continue the work we do, please click this link here. You will help provide a safe and collaborative space for our young artists, dancers and actors explore their creativity.
I’ll leave you with a quick video edit of a product design workshop (excuse the phone filming, it’s not me best work but it’ll do for now) and if you could share this post with ANYONE and EVERYONE we would be ETERNALLY grateful!
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You can keep up to date with Yadapa by following their Facebook page here.
