Feel Alive Drama Group started in February 2017. Although originally the group was part of a “Confidence through Drama” course, it came to an end due to cuts in funding. Babette Grimaldi had high value for this group which lead her to set it up as an independent voluntary group. Feel Alive is a drama group for adults with learning difficulties and physical disabilities. The group is purely ran by volunteers who work closely with the members to develop their acting, singing, dancing and performing skills, as well as social and many other skills. The group meets every Tuesday afternoon during term time at the Polish Club on Kedleston Road, Derby.

Often people with learning difficulties and disabilities will be heard to say that 'People don’t think that we can, but we can, we can do anything that other people can do given the chance” and that is exactly what Feel Alive drama group does, it enables people who have learning difficulties and disabilities to be able to develop their performance and acting skills just like anybody else could. The group helps them to overcome barriers and meets the members individual needs, scripts are changed to make lines easier, the font is made bigger, volunteers give one-to-one support on stage to prompt for the lines, whatever support the members require they get . The volunteers work closely with the members to build their confidence, performing skills and social skills as well as having lots of fun!

Not only does this group benefit the members but it also benefits the families of the members because it gives them the opportunity of respite as some of the members who come have a member of their family as their full time carers, they don’t get much time to themselves however the group allows them to know their loved one is happy in a safe environment, whilst they can go and have some time for themselves which without the group they would not be able to have.

The skills that they learn within the group can transfer to everyday tasks and can even help towards employment such as the planning and organisation that comes with doing the shows, the responsibility that comes with taking on a part, time management by coming continuously every week, and of course the positiveness of the group has a huge impact on everyone's mental health.

I am a volunteer for Feel Alive and it is the most rewarding thing I have ever had the pleasure to be involved in, I personally get to see the development of each and every one of the members as the weeks go by and I have seen and been a part of the journey which we as a group have travelled on. We have gone from strength to strength and we even managed to go on a tour around local care homes and day centres. We pride ourselves on the quality of service whilst being affordable at the same time with sessions being just £5 per week per member, however being so affordable comes with it’s downfalls as we still have rent to pay, props and costumes to make and we also would like to be able to upgrade our equipment to be able to have better quality productions and also to be able to showcase the members hard work.

Please consider donating to our cause and help Feel Alive to continue thriving.

Thankyou for your time,

Stacey Spencer. Feel Alive Volunteer.