SUSO (Speaking Up Speaking Out)

Who we are

SUSO started out in 2005, as a small self-advocacy group which met once a fortnight at a church hall.  From this advocacy group it became clear that there was a want for a flexible drop-in where people could visit as frequently or infrequently as they wanted, but most importantly could meet new people and enjoy a range of activities at an affordable rate.  After a few years of hard work, sharing building space and applications for funding the group were successful in securing funding from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities team.  This enabled the group to gain their own premises in Macclesfield town centre.

SUSO drop-in is open Monday – Thursday, 10.30am–3.45pm, offering a wide range of activities, computers and a place to meet new people. Due to very low costs we are affordable to anybody with a learning disability or additional needs over the age of 19 :–

It is also very important to us to raise awareness about learning disability issues and we have regular planning meetings at the drop-in to decide the kind of things we want to do – like:

Invite guest speakers, pub lunches, fundraising, coffee mornings, newsletters, committee meetings, workshops and training, trips out, go to conferences, go to our local learning disability Partnership Board, visiting schools and taking part in community events, and to raise awareness.

Additionally, we run regular social activities in the community, such as a fortnightly pub quiz at a local pub.  We also hold socials such as walks, pub lunches, discos, karaoke, bowling and more.  We regularly ask our dropper-inners what socials they would like to do and sometimes they arrange them themselves.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT 
Speaking Up Speaking Out –  run with and for adults with  learning disabilities; to help them  live the lives they want to. 

OUR VISION STATEMENT

SUSO’s vision statement written with and for adults with learning disabilities:

SUSO will get bigger and reach more people with learning disabilities,including everyone equally and with respect. We will continue to encourage and support self- advocacy, and involve everybody who wants to, in planning and making decisions.

We want to be an equal part of the community – don’t exclude us. It is important to raise awareness about SUSO, and we want more help from the community and volunteers. We want to offer an alternative to day services, and will be a forward thinking group, offering information and help with different skills; we don’t want to be all the same every time.

We want to stay independent and to help us to do that, it is important that we are paid for what we do.