Gemma and Isabel have lived together in one of our supported living houses for six years. They are great friends and really enjoying living together.

They also like going on holiday together, both with Minstead Trust and with other supported holidays companies.

Isabel attends New Forest Day Opportunities and her favourite activity is animal care. She loves working with the animals and works really hard. She also really enjoys getting stuck in with arts and crafts, especially ceramics and textiles. Isabel likes to be kept busy!

At home, she enjoys spending time with her housemates and is supported to attend a whole bunch of different activities.

One of the goals she was working towards for this year, was to use her routines at home to make getting ready for day service and other activities a little easier. She has support from the staff to do so.

Another one of her goals, which she made a big improvement with and is still working on, was cooking more meals from scratch. Isabel enjoys cooking and has support to cook meals for herself. She is particularly good at making a yummy cooked breakfast and this is something she does most weekends!

Isabel said: ‘I am happy living at Rushington. I like doing animal care. Minstead helps me go on holidays.’

Gemma also attends New Forest Day Opportunities and loves getting involved with a range of activities. She helps in Woodwork, the vegetable garden, animal care, and is great at ceramics. She also enjoys art and textiles. Gemma has got so many different interests and her attendance at Day Opportunities helps her develop these interests and skills.

One of Gemma’s goals is working towards further independence through using public transport. Staff support her to book a taxi to and from some of her evening activities, such as Zumba! Attending Zumba helps Gemma towards one of her other main goals, which is living a healthy lifestyle. For this, Gemma cooks a lot of her meals from scratch with staff support, and enjoys exercising. Gemma loves doing Zumba and yoga on YouTube at home, and enjoys going to the gym.

Sometimes she goes for walks with her housemates, or with staff on her keywork day. Gemma has done really well with working towards this goal and will continue with it as her goal is ongoing.

Gemma said ‘Minstead helps me doing all the gardening and all the work. And my money and shopping and Zumba. I like living at Rushington.’

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