Independence

Watch: Young pioneer takes you travel training (opens new window)

Advice about housing options should be discussed with you as you grow up and should include information on:

• support at home
• Wiltshire's Shared Lives Scheme
• private rent
• social housing
• residential or nursing care services
• supported living

For more information visit: Somewhere to live

You may also find having a Personal Assistant useful in aiding you in a range of daily activities:

For more information on visit: Using a personal assistant

There is also a great organisation you can talk to for advice and to make your voice heard: Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living

We started with contacting Social Care to request a social worker, they got in touch with us as a family to go through the paperwork...

Watch: YouTube: Wiltshire CIL - Nathan’s Moving Out Journey, His Mum’s Perspective (opens new window), looking at how the process of registering for housing support worked for them in Wiltshire, captured by Wiltshire Centre For Independent Living (opens new window).

Wiltshire has a wide range of place you can visit to access community support across the county. These include places to stay warm and safe and to get access to food support.

The ethos behind the community spaces providing this support is to be:

• welcoming and inclusive
• safe with appropriate safeguarding, insurance and all appropriate policies in place
• non-judgemental, where everyone in treated equally with dignity and respect
• no cost or low cost to attendees

Visit the hub page to find your nearest support:

Interactive Community Directory - find out where local warm spaces and community food providers are in the county

There are lots of financial support options which you may qualify for. The following page will assist in highlighting who to talk to about money, how best to use it to support you, and what you are entitled to.

For more information visit: Money advice and support pages

You can also watch a short video made by Wiltshire Centre For Independent Living (opens new window) with one of their Young Pioneers families discussing their experience around money and independence.

Watch: Learning to use money (opens new window)

The Community Connecting team assist customers to find out more about their local community and how they can access some of the following.

• finding voluntary work
• socialising
• joining a club
• further education; including college courses and other training opportunities
• using their community facilities to do things they enjoy
• meeting friends
• traineeships
• travel training

We provide a time-limited service; with the aim of working with the customer so they are able to find, take part in their chosen community activity, and to do this independently.

For more information visit: Community Connecting information

If your young person is not ready to access the community due to heightened anxiety, the early intervention service may be able to help them onto the pathway to employment [ Insert Factsheet ] and can only be refered by your send lead worker on agreement with the early intervention manager.

Your voice in the community

This section has ways to find activities with other people or tell people about things you have planned.

Wiltshire Together

The digital platform that connects people, groups and organisations in Wiltshire to their community. You can list support, volunteering, groups and relevant events.

Wiltshire Together (opens new window)

Centre for Independent Living

You can contribute alongside other people with lived experience of health and social care services to have your say, ensuring that your voice is heard to influence how services are shaped and developed in Wiltshire.

Wiltshire CIL (opens new window)