About Us
Active Lives is a Day Centre for adults with a learning and/or physical disability based in the heart of Canterbury. Our centre is our own property and offers 4000 sq ft of space. A pleasant and welcoming environment. Supporting our community
Established in February 2002 we offer every day life activities to our students with a number of programmes including community involvement. We offer both indoor and outdoor activities.
Our trained and established team of staff are on hand to provide the support that our students need from day to day.
We also have our own minibuses for transporting students to and from the centre.
Our hours of operation are Monday to Friday from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
Taster days are offered free of charge to students who may wish to enrol at our centre. This will also help us to assess the needs of the student and establish the level of support required.
Indoor Activities
COOKING: A fully equipped kitchen with a large Cafeteria for our students to develop skills and enjoy their lunch breaks. Baking forms a large part of the skills support we offer. We also use the fruit picked from our back garden for creating desserts.
ART AND CRAFT: This course offers our students a great opportunity to make items and learn the benefits of recycling. We are fortunate to have staff who are experienced and creative so ideas for the sessions are abundant. This programme helps to engage our students in social interaction generate ideas and create end results. The session is calming and also helps to develop independent life skills.
FITNESS AND EXERCISE: We have a very large main hall with a stage which offers our students the perfect area for this session. Designed to help our students keep fit and active whilst ensuring that the pace is suited to each individual ability and comfort. A great session for interaction which each other and provides a fun environment.
NUMERACY AND LITERACY: This session helps to improve understanding and develop skills at a slow pace and is run in small groups to allow for participation and interaction.
COMPUTER SESSIONS: Our large Day Room provides computers for all our students and the session is designed to introduce computer use from a basic level. Understanding the safety of being online and how to use a computer to aid other sessions.
Outdoor Activities
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: Regular visits to the Community Hub(The Neighbour Centre) located 500 yards from our centre. This is a very popular session which helps to engage our students in community based projects and meet with members of the public. Lunch is also a part of this programme so all our students will enjoy the community based activities at the hub and lunch with members of the public.
Fridays afternoons are given up to walks and litter picking in the community. Students very much enjoy this session as it helps them to interact with local people and also helps them to understand the need to maintain and protect our environment.
GARDENING: We are fortunate to have large front and rear gardens and a part of this programme is to learn how to maintain the garden. We also grow vegetables and pick our own apples and pears which are used in our cooking sessions to make desserts.
EXCURSIONS: We have regular excursions to various places of interest and also 10 pin bowling sessions. Once again a great way for our students to interact with members of the public. Some sessions are given up to having lunch out at a restaurant thus enhancing independent life skills.