In News

This year’s Learning Disability Week will take place from 15th to 21st June with all previously planned events heading online for every one to get involved. This year, the theme is the importance of friendships during lockdown.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, everyone is having to live in lockdown and for many people with learning disabilities and other underlying health conditions, it has been difficult to not feel isolated, particularly from friends and family. As many people with learning disabilities already experience high levels of lonlines and social isolation, the organisers of this yearly event wanted to make friendship a key theme.

Speaking about their plans for Learning Disability Week, the charity MENCAP, said: “We want to show the importance of friendships to help with tackling isolation, as well as exploring the different ways of maintaining friendships during this unusual time.”

As many of the events and activities that were planned for Learning Disability Week have been made digital, MENCAP is asking you to get involved by celebrating the friendships and connections that you have made through charities and workshops like theirs and how important those people have been to you during lockdown. All they ask is that you tell your story on social media, it doesn’t have to be someone you’ve met through them, it can be literally anyone, just someone who has been a friend to you during this time.

Learning Disability Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness of various learning disabilities and how they can affect people differently. There are many types of this kind of disability and it can often accompany another condition, such as Autism or Down’s Syndrome. This can often impact the kind of support they and their families need on a day to day basis, you can find out more about MENCAP and the work that they do to support families here.

Do you have a friendship story you can share or learning Disability Week? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook and don’t forget to use the tag #MencapFamily

You can find out more about the events and activities planned for this year’s Learning Disabilities Week on their website here

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