تأسست في 20 اكتوبر 2009
Ella Perris is looking forward to a year of international travel. In May the Cornish teenager flies to Bucharest where she will take to the stage and perform in front of hundreds of people. Six months later she will repeat the performance after flying thousands of miles to Perth in Australia on a 10-day tour.
Like many 13-year-olds, Ella is eager to travel abroad and excited about the show, in which she plays the part of deaf blind activist Helen Keller. But unlike most teenagers, Ella and her fellow cast members all have visual impairments and a range of complex needs, including deaf-blindness. This remarkable production is thanks to an innovative project that is helping end the social isolation that disabilities can bring.
Ella hugs a friend. Photograph: Get Out There Get Out There (GOT) helps young people such as Ella access leisure activities in the county, allowing them to enjoy activities ranging from flying light aircraft and power-kiting to ice-skating, bell-ringing and surfing.
Set up five years ago and run by Sense, a charity supporting deafblind people, GOT was originally commissioned by Cornwall county council in the wake of the government’sAiming High policy to improve the lives of disabled children. However, unlike many projects that receive start-up funding and fizzle out, it has grown into a model of good practice, transforming the lives of record numbers of young people with disabilities in Cornwall.
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Indeed, the scheme is now so successful that GOT Warwickshire and GOT Avon have been set up and similar schemes are planned in Exeter, Bath and Cambridgeshire for young people with disabilities who would have no life outside home or school. Now, with funding from a variety of sources, it provides weekly activities and events for young people from Land’s End to Launceston. In the last 12 months, spin-off groups have been launched in Cornwall including GOT 18 Plus for adults and Got 2 Act – a highly successful drama group.
Ella’s mother, Rachel Perris, has seen a transformation in her daughter, who was born with Koolen syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterised by weak muscle tone, impaired sight and hearing, and heart problems.
Speaking from her Truro home, she says: “Ella has been in GOT for nearly two-and-a-half years. It has given her friends and allowed her to take part in all sorts of activities, from going to the cinema to going on holiday to the Isles of Scilly. At the same time it has given us some respite at the weekends. Meanwhile, being in GOT 2 Act has really developed her confidence. It is amazing.”
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Ella is not the only one to benefit. Despite the complexity of needs, the group supports 32 young people thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers lead by project coordinator Simon Allison. A former intervener (interpreter) at a special school for children with little or no sight, he set up the group after he became aware that visually impaired young people with multiple needs faced social exclusion at weekends.
“We were initially given a year’s funding from the local authority and the group took off because we could show it was changing lives,” he says. “Since then we have grown and grown. Three years ago we formed GOT 18 plus, because we were aware there was nothing for young people after 18. Funding for that is through direct payments.”
GOT is mainly funded by Cornwall county council and Sense, but a separate grant from the West Cornwall Youth Trust has enabled it to set up a drama group. Allison wrote a script, American Idol, loosely based on the life of Helen Keller, but quickly realised he had to adapt it to fit the needs of the eight cast members. “I originally had lots of speaking parts, but now there is one narrator and the young people act out the story. Props are used as cues. We had one boy who used to mumble who now strides on to the stage with enormous confidence.”
Ella on a boat ride. Photograph: Get Out There
The play, which was performed at the Deafblind International conference in Belfast year, has won international acclaim and lead to an invitation for the group to open the Deafblind International conference in Romania in May. This will be followed by an exchange visit with deafblind young people from Senses in Australia, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Taking the group abroad is an enormous challenge but one that Allison is confident can be overcome thanks to the dedication of its volunteers, who can provide one-to-one and even two-to-one support. “These are fantastic opportunities,” he says. “These young people have as much right to fun and adventure as other teenagers.”
Ella, who has the opening line and final word in the play, admits she is a “little nervous” about the trip but feels “happy and proud” to be taking part. Summing up Get Out There she says: “I did not know anyone out of school. It felt lonely. Now we have good fun going out, we stick together and have great activities.”
