Holidays for auties etc with challenging behaviour

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I work as a support worker in east sussex, england, and help support 4 teens with challenging behaviour, autisim, learning disabilities, and one young man with downs syndrome.
I am trying to find somewhere to take our residents on their first holiday, just for a weekend to start with, and prefebaly not too far away in case something goes wrong. However I have not found anywhere which will accept us due to the challenging aspect of our residents behaviour. Does anyone have any information on holidays for people with learning disabilities etc?
Thank you, Charlie

Sorry, no ideas. But just wanted to say you have a heart of gold...!

Thankyou Greentea
Sadly I do not seem to be too good at reseaching though.

http://www.special-needs-kids.co.uk/leisure.htm

http://access-able.com/dbase/index.cfm

If you live in Brighton ask Carousel based at Comunity Base as some of the people who work there have taken people with challenging behaviour on holiday- ( Carousel do nightclub nights and performing arts courses.) look at the comunity base website

Sorry I can't help you re: the UK.

However, when I worked as a group home supervisor years ago, I once took three developmentally disabled (mentally ret*d) clients to Walt Disney World in Florida. It worked out pretty well until the Space Mountain rollercoaster, where I screamed so badly that I lost my voice for days. Such that now there were four disabled people on holiday, one being the supervisor ...

Restaurants became a challenge because I was the only one with the intelligence to read the menu, but was unable to read it aloud to my clients nor speak well enough to tell the waitress what we wanted. Fortunately, some of the menus had big picture items of the food so we could all point.

So it turned out nicely after all. And all the employees at Walt Disney World were very kind to us.

Best of luck to you.

thank you for your help.
I have emailled carousel- I have been to their 'blue camel club' a couple of times before.
Thanks

I was a camp counselor for profoundly affected kids over the summer. We found that the key to having things go well was to have enough support staff, and to over-anticipate what might happen. We went bowling, swimming, to water parks, and horseback riding. We also went hiking once a week. We also found it helped to go somewhere during a "special" day. Where I live (Ohio/Indiana), there are a lot of theme parks. At least one day each spring/summer, the parks will have a Special Olympics day or United Cerebral Palsy day, etc. The parks have extra staff and security on hand, and there are banners and such up at the entrances. It lets the public know what's going on, and people are apt to be more patient of strange behaviors. At the organization where I work, we will sometimes take a group to a hotel that has indoor water slides. Anything like that there? When we're on a really tight budget, we've definitely had to get creative.

Another thing we've done is to go out to lunch or dinner during times or days of the week when crowds are less likely. We'll go to dinner at 4:30, so that when crowds start between 5:30 and 6, we're about ready to clear out. It lets everyone relax a little bit more.

Grim,
am was about to reply to this when it was first posted but had a meltdown and have permanently broke the laptop,
have had to wait till weekend to get access.

Am c/autistic with high complex needs,challenging behavior and need at least one 1-1 support and access to more staff all the time for wandering,meltdowns,headbanging etc,and the holidays am offered are with a company called Chrysalis: http://www.epiphany.org.uk/chrysalis/chrysalis.html
Everyone in the home am live in,and every other LD council res. home here uses them as council don't allow home staff to support am/anyone else on holiday anymore.

the holidays with them are supported,and they do offer higher support on some of their holidays [1-1] but there are a few problems might find with that,at least these are problems with am-if need access to more staff as well as own 1-1,can't guarantee are going to have it,and the staff are going to be people that have not been got used to in routine.
If happen to work for a decent council and are allowed to go on holiday with clients,that would definitely be worth trying.
Their main centre is in Wales,but they offer to get people in their minibuses.


Another one, that am have been on with own staff/support was Bendrigg- http://www.bendrigg.org.uk/
it's been mentioned on children in need for years.
It's not supported like Chrysalis is so would need own staff,but each group has a leader and all the staff are very nice and understanding.
Bendrigg is like a little centreparcs [can do lots of activities] but for people with all types of disabilities.

Am think Chrysalis would probably be the best choice out of them both,mainly for support reasons and because theres more choice in the holidays.

I like the holidays and I cope well with them as well.

Have a look at Adept Adventures on the Costa del Sol (you will have to google it)

Its the site of the BBC soap 'Eldorado'. We are hoping to be able to provide funding for holidays, and are currently in discussions with councils all across the UK regarding this.

Hope this helps.

I hope you figure out the holiday thing. Just one note--please, please warn your auties about what exactly is going to go on. It is so unpleasant when nobody gives you specifics about what to expect, and impossible to enjoy anything if you don't know what's going to happen. You probably already know that, but I have to say it on the off-chance that you don't, because I have had such trouble with unexpected things and hate to think of anybody else having to go through that sort of thing unnecessarily.

can you take a tour of a cheese factory?

Yes Charlie, try the Thomas Centre it is specificly for people with challenging behaviours it is in the East Midlands