Do you want to perform at SoDaDa?
Club Soda on BBC London news
Following our London Faith & Community Award in November, we were interviewed by the BBC.
Check out this short film that was featured on BBC London news in December and features The Carbonators.
Club Soda WIN a London Faith & Belief Community Award
Club Soda Trustee, Sedley Wilson, and Project Manager, Rachael Phandey, represented Club Soda at the London Faith and Belief Community Awards ceremony in Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 23rd November, where we were presented with an award in the Health & Wellbeing category.
Sedley Wilson said, “I am incredibly proud to have received this award on behalf of Club Soda.”
Rachael Phandey said, “We develop opportunities for people with learning disabilities in Croydon to showcase their creative talents. In recent years we have had to adapt how we deliver our sessions and events. This has been a big challenge for us and our members but the creative results have been amazing. Our Musicians have written and recorded new albums and our Gig Buddies project has found new ways to connect that we never would have imagined possible.
But, we know there are still so many people with learning disabilities in the borough who are still socially isolated and we want to find and connect with them too.”
Where Are You?
Gig Buddies want everyone in our community to have an equal choice in how we live our lives. Everyone with a learning disability should be able to go out and enjoy the things they love.
Not enough accessible events, everything costing more money and the fear of being out and about after lockdown, means lots of people with learning disabilities are at risk of social isolation. This means seeing friends less, staying in more and life not being as fun as it should be.
Click here to read more about our Where Are You? campaign.
Could you be our new Trustee?
Club Soda is looking for a new Trustee to join our Trustee team.
Trustees are people who help decide:
- what Club Soda do
- how we do it
- and how our money is spent.
Trustees do not get paid. This is voluntary role.
Who we are looking for:
- You must be over 18 years old.
- You should have the skills, knowledge and experience to help run Club Soda well.
Skills help you do things well.
Knowledge is what you know and understand. Experience means you have learnt from things you have done before.
What will you get out of it?
- You will meet new people
- Have the chance to make a positive difference in the lives of the people we work with
To find out more, click on the links below:
- Recruiting new Trustees (https://www.clubsoda.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Recruiting-New-Trustees-easy-read.pdf)
- Being a Trustee with Club Soda (https://www.clubsoda.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Being-a-Trustee-for-Club-Soda.pdf)
How can we make Croydon’s social scene truly accessible?
People with learning disabilities have as much of a right to go out to socialise, party and have a good night out as the rest of us. Yet there are longstanding and pervasive boundaries that stop this from happening. Or at least makes it far more difficult than it should be.
At Club Soda we are continually fighting these barriers to try to create an accessible and inclusive social scene in Croydon. However, there is only so much we can do without systemic change in local venues and organisations. Adjustments need to happen across the board. It should not be left to projects like ours or people with learning disabilities having to advocate for themselves.
On November 25th 2021 we invited local learning disability organisations, local venues and representatives from Croydon Council to get to the bottom of what needs to be done to shake up the status quo in Croydon’s social scene.
You can read our report here: