The Gateway Award is all about experiencing new things, gaining confidence, improving health and wellbeing, meeting new people and having fun.
How to complete the Gateway Award
There are three levels to the award; Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each level has five different sections to complete:
- Hobbies
- Fitness
- Volunteering
- Lifestyle
- The Gateway Challenge
Participants receive a certificate and a medal when they complete each level.
Who can take part in the Gateway Award?
The Gateway Award is for anybody with a learning disability.
There is no age limit and it is open to people of all abilities. This includes people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
Activities can be tailored to an individual's needs making this a truly person centred award.
Where can you do the Gateway Award?
People enrol for the award at a Gateway Award Centre.
These centres are responsible for supporting people to complete the award.
A Gateway Award Centre can be in any number of settings including local Mencap groups, leisure groups, schools, colleges, residential or day services, and youth organisations.
For people who are not able to access a centre, it is possible to sign up as an individual to complete the award.
What activities can you do as part of the Gateway Award?
A diverse range of activities can be undertaken for each section of the Gateway Award.
We have an ideas booklet that can help people come up with ideas for different activities.
Activities can be completed at the award centre or in the participants own time.
They can be completed in any order and done simultaneously.
Some example activities for the Gateway Award include:
- Hobbies: Participants select a hobby from one of three sections: arts and crafts, collections or recreation (Eg; a participant may take part in painting classes over three months developing painting skills either in their own time or as a group in a leisure or learning environment.
- Fitness: Participants select new fitness activities (Eg; taking part in Zumba classes, swimming, table tennis, football and yoga etc)
- Volunteering: Participants choose a volunteering activity to benefit their community, (Eg; volunteering at a leisure club, running a recycling project, doing gardening for a neighbour or volunteering at a local charity shop)
- Lifestyle: Participants choose new lifestyle topics to learn about (Eg; first aid, money, independence or healthy eating)
- Gateway Challenge: Participants identify a challenge and an activity, or project to explore. It can be a personal or a group challenge (Eg; a personal challenge may be to plan a trip to a local museum, the planning would include looking into travel to the museum, budgeting for the visit, researching information on the museum and then the challenge would be visiting the museum)