Self-building our lives
'Self-building Our Lives' is a collaborative research project
The project is about finding out how adults with learning disabilities, with the help of others, are self-building their daily lives when responsibility for daytime social care and support is handed to them.
By 'self-build', we do not mean that people do it all by themselves (or should have to). Instead, we mean that individuals, with the help of their family, friends, and advocates, build their own local support networks, activities and identities, from local resources and services.
When this works well, people with learning disabilities have more of a say in the design of their support, activities and opportunities. When people are not given enough support though, they can be left isolated or without access to activities of their choosing.
This website is a resource to share the stories of the people with learning disabilities who took part in the research. It shows their everyday lives, the challenges they face, and some of the ways that they manage them.
The resource also includes the views of organisations that support people – support organisation managers, advocates and commissioners – who took part. We share their experiences of the challenges they face and their efforts to enable people to self-build their lives.
To find out more about the project, please go to our About page.
The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council: Reclaiming social care: Adults with learning disabilities seizing opportunities in the shift from day services to community lives (ES/P011764/1)
