We are a small and friendly group of people with learning disabilities and/or autism from all ethnic communities. Our project is lucky to be based at the Lenton Centre (TLC) which is a community not-for-profit leisure centre, with a swimming pool and gym on site.

The West Area Project (WAP) was started 40 years ago by the families of people with learning disabilities to create an alternative day service which was smaller and personalised.

17 years ago under the direction of its new manager, WAP started to move its goals beyond maintaining people's independence to actively promoting healthy eating and physical activity with the aim to combat the major health inequalities faced by this uniquely vulnerable group. This direction was informed by research which demonstrated that people with learning disabilities and/or autism were more likely to suffer from the health consequences of obesity-related illness and inactivity. Equally, often due to issues around communication, their health needs were often overlooked or ignored which directly resulted in increased incidence of preventable or premature death.

WAP has also extended its service to provide an out-of-hours outreach service (provided by the manager) to support our members, ex-members and their families in accessing GP and hospital appointments.

We also offer, in partnership with TLC, Activ2 - which is a Tuesday night activity group for any adult with learning disabilities and/or autism, offering a combination of yoga, swimming, team games, gym training and Boccia. At Activ2 we also offer weight management, measure blood pressure and provide individual sessions to each of our members around maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We also offer free fruit and vegetables as healthy snacks.

Thank you for supporting West Area Project in its endeavours to promote health eating and physical activity for this uniquely vulnerable community.