Testimonials
Music Gym Members:
"I've been Y's key-worker for 16 years and never found something she enjoys as much as this."
"i did 3 little jumps when she walked in the hall - she was so excited to be back again." Members' support workers.
"It's great to see an organisation which reaches out to people who face a struggle every day of their lives and offers them help and a way to enjoy and express themselves." Lucas Neill, former West Ham captain.
From Open Days:
Fantastic! Great team effort. Lots of fun and sooooo creative.
Wow!! So stimulating. An excellent resource – we need more like this.
A great range of innovative, creative equipment, to stimulate the mind and body – lots and lots of fun.
Fabulous fun for everyone, fantastic use of colour and music, very interactive and inviting.
Great concept, hopefully that will expand.
Fantastic facility, makes you want to explore and try everything, then go back and start again. The sensory input is gentle and soothing. Scope for stretching the imagination, the mind and body.
Penny Precious, Arts Development Officer, HBC: A really intriguing and dynamic approach, fascinating for all people I’m sure. No doubt a really exciting way to work with people with special needs.
Mencap Services Manager: My visit was very exciting. I am manager for a day service for adults with a learning disability and some of our members would really benefit from using your equipment. What a wonderful innovative idea.
This must be one of the best, most rewarding things you can do.
From a parent (after daughter used her walker without assistance at the Music Gym) We are absolutely sure that it is because of her having the opportunity of being there with your team of people who have made the environment a friendly space for her to develop her mobility. Giving the opportunity can bring out even the smallest progress – in A’s case bigger than we had ever expected.
From a local special needs school:
I am writing to congratulate you on the Decoda Music Gym sessions which I assisted two of our students to access last term. The young men both have severe learning disabilities and have very different needs but both got a huge amount from the sessions.
One of the young men is very visually impaired and able to experiment freely in the large space available. The equipment set up was very motivating for him to move around independently to find the various options available. The music mats were thoroughly enjoyed and the young man had fun in the sound beams but he said his favourite was the musical bouncy castle. This young man said he would like to access the Music Gym more often.
The other young man finds strange situations and people very challenging and takes time to feel comfortable. For the first couple of sessions he would only interact with me and my colleague, who he is familiar with, but Tom and John were very patient and gentle in their approach to the student and eventually he began to interact with them and had some excellent sessions using the microphone and the sound beam tent. He entered the tent and sat with Tom for a long period. Tom clearly has excellent skills in working with young people with learning disabilities and that enabled the two young men to get the most from the Music Gym experience.