Activate, The Bracknell Centre, Kirby, Liverpool

Activate - Discover, Create, Inspire!

Activate is a truly inspiring facility and the result of over 12 years of unwavering and dedicated effort by the Chief Executive Officer, Vivienne Guy, to provide effective alternative education programmes.

Activate is based at the Bracknell Centre, Kirby, Liverpool and is a fully accessible integrated community and education facility for young adults with learning difficulties and the local community. It is deemed to be the first of its kind in the country as it incorporates social enterprises, education and community services to ensure sustainability. The site itself boasts a range of facilities such as a small animal care centre, on site café, horticulture base, SpaceKraft Sensory Pod and community room.

Activate's aim is to provide a facility that promotes inclusion and integration between disabled and non-disabled individuals and help break down some of the barriers that their students face in society.
"We have 6 young people who are regularly using the SpaceKraft Sensory Pod (these are our PMLD/high need students) but have over 50 students accessing the Bracknell Centre site each week for education and employability activities. We chose to have a sensory space incorporated into our specialist high needs facility to aid with ongoing development for our students. The requirements for the sensory space were that it was fit for educational purposes for 19-25 year olds with complex needs.

We were able to gain a small pot of funding to contribute towards the funding of the sensory space however; this covered only 1/3rd of the costs. We were limited with what equipment we could install because of the funding. The decision to use SpaceKraft was based on price and the personal service from the sales team who helped design the right solution within our budget.

The finished solution has certainly met my expectations. I think the combinations of the sensory equipment within our specially designed POD is a great combination, I don't have a favourite piece of equipment because my favourite part of the space is the whole room! Parents/carers feel that the space (including the whole high needs specialist area) is a 'grown up version of school'.

I would recommend SpaceKraft to others, I think that throughout we have had good communication and worked well together to find solutions to any issues."

Vivienne Guy
CEO, Activate