Exploring The Rural Life Living Museum

Since the lockdown restrictions have started to ease, The Farnham Group have been looking for opportunities to get out and about within the Farnham area. One of the places they were keen to visit was The Rural Life Living Museum which had both inside and outside facilities where you could maintain social distancing.

Travel

Stephen, one of the people we support, was keen to explore the museum as he comes from a farming background. So with the help of Surrey Choices staff members Patrick, Sharna and Monica, they organised a visit to the Rural Life Living Museum by public bus. Stephen was very excited about this opportunity as he had not been on a bus for many years and he was going somewhere that he had never been before.

Volunteering

During the walk around the museum we met Emma Midgley, the director of The Rural Life Living Museum. We had organised to see her on the day so that she could meet Stephen to discuss volunteering options for Stephen and customers of The Farnham Group. Emma was blown away by Stephen’s abilities and his experience working with machinery from his farming days.

Health and Wellbeing

The Rural Life Living Museum provides a great opportunity to get involved in the local area. You can make new friends and contacts there, as well as having the chance to do volunteering and keeping yourself healthy by doing activities such as going on nature trails and bird watching.

Outcomes

Throughout the day Stephen used public transport which can help remove barriers to independent travel and give him greater access to places he wants to visit in the future. Stephen has also been able to pick up some volunteering opportunities which has had a positive impact on his health and wellbeing, as well as developing and improving his skills.

After a couple of days, Patrick phoned Stephen and his brother up to get feedback on the visit. Stephen’s brother Andrew said:

Stephen is buzzing, he has told everybody about his visit and has been going on about it for days.

Stephen said:

When are we going back there again, I really enjoyed it.

If you would like to find out more about how we could support you on your journey to work please contact us here

You can listen to a snippet of one of our speakers from the media industry who had started as a runner and ended up as producer and director here.

 

 

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