Go For It! (GFI) was founded back in 1995 by Michelle Clarke and another volunteer through some voluntary work with a local charity run by students for children and adults with learning disabilities to play sports. This was leading sessions but also 1:1 support to about 20 young people around the villages and towns of Oxfordshire.
Having a disability as a child, Michelle found it very difficult to communicate with her parents and other people and didn’t speak until she was 5 years old due to speech impairment.
Her school identified that she was very good at sports and amazingly confident on the football pitch, tennis court or hockey court but not in the classroom.
During her volunteering, coaching sports build her confidence. The challenge came when she led a session of basketball and had to communicate. Being difficult at first, it got easy and it helped her speech and making her the person she is today, full of confidence, never giving up and always believing.
Our main purpose is to help and support young people and adults to be able to live and be free to achieve, dream and believe in possibilities within their daily lives. We do so by providing high quality person-centred support in their daily activities to enable a more productive way of living.
Our role is to bring out the best in the people we support, to respect their differences, be kind, compassionate and friendly towards them. We encourage and look out for opportunities for growth at every stage.
We strive to promote excellent social care and support. The support we provide is underpinned by our core values, respect, honesty and responsibility. We create an environment where the people we support are respected as equals, feel safe and very secure
GFI facilitates social opportunities and personal development for young people aged 16 years and over with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Asperger in Oxfordshire.
We are providers of fun, educational-quality support within your chosen environment i.e. school, college, university, in the community or at home.
Young people leaving school and college receive bespoke and flexible support with the option of providing similar timings and schedules that one may have come accustomed to at the educational institutions.
At GFI we believe everybody should use their talent, skills and their ability to the max but also develop aspirations. We encourage and help them to identify what it is that makes them “tick” and build on that.
We aim to recognize and develop potential. Working with our service users, parent/carers and professionals and other stakeholders, we encourage towards Person Centred challenges that are within reach. These challenges are laid out as goals and targets worked in the short, medium and long terms.
We use different skills, methods and resources that promote communication, but also social opportunities like social interaction and leisure or recreational activities that foster development.
We put into consideration past learning and future needs. We plan what is necessary and important and incorporate that into their support