This article about the Travel Buddy Scheme is sponsored by My Life My Choice
Gaining the ability to travel independently can be life changing and key to reducing some of the disadvantages that people with learning disabilities experience in their daily lives. Without the choice, freedom and personal autonomy that travel independence brings, people can feel trapped at home leading unfulfilled and isolated lives. Relying on support staff, taxis or family members to get to social activities, learning and training placements or work are not options available to all, and for those with these support systems in place, it can be expensive, feel restrictive or disempowering and place additional strain on supporters.
Research consistently reveals that people with learning disabilities are significantly more likely to experience loneliness and isolation than their non-disabled counterparts. MENCAP’s report “Stuck at Home” (2022) highlights that post pandemic 82% of individuals reported feeling ‘lonely due to rarely being able to leave their homes’. Mencap’s Big Learning Disability Survey (2022) revealed that when asked to share what would make their life better, respondents highlighted getting a paid job, making friends, socialising and becoming more independent.
In 2010, My Life My Choice (MLMC), an Oxfordshire based self-advocacy charity run by and for adults with learning disabilities, developed the groundbreaking Travel Buddy Scheme in response to this need. This was to be a travel training scheme with a difference as the travel trainers or ‘Travel Buddies’ delivering the training were all adults with learning disabilities themselves. Undeterred by dissenting voices who questioned whether this unique concept could actually work, a comprehensive system was developed to recruit, train and pay adults with independent travel skills to assess and support their peers to safely learn a journey. Allaying any initial fears, the Travel Buddy Scheme was carefully designed to provide monitored, evaluated and risk assessed travel training with individualised support for both Travel Buddy and trainee to ensure training takes place safely and at the right pace for each individual.
The Travel Buddy Scheme has proved to be an undisputed success, enabling hundreds of individuals to gain travel independence, and paid, rewarding work opportunities. Fourteen years on, the vision of MLMC is to share their expertise and experience with other organisations who believe, like they do, that adults with learning disabilities should be given every opportunity to lead independent and meaningful lives. MLMC offer a package of comprehensive training, resources, support and guidance to set up and run the scheme, along with invaluable expert advice to aid in securing funding.
The feelings of achievement and reward generated by both imparting and learning new skills are best illustrated by the words of Travel Buddy Dawn, who says: “I feel like I am really making a difference” and by trainee Sam, who having completed travel training to learn how to get home from his day centre independently, described himself as feeling “very smiley now” and “very big and strong”. Beyond the intrinsic reward of personal progress and development, the scheme has multiple benefits, not least being the opportunity it provides for paid work for people with learning disabilities, a group in society significantly under represented amongst the working population. Travel Buddies say they enjoy doing a job that helps others, gets them out and about in their community and they very much look forward to getting paid at the end of the month.
Trainees who complete the scheme are better able to access work, education placements and volunteering opportunities. After finishing college, 20-year-old Luke, for instance, was due to start a training placement at a social enterprise situated seven miles from home. His parents, who work full-time, were unable to take him and daily taxi fares were unaffordable, which meant that for Luke to take advantage of this opportunity he would need to get there and back on his own. Paired with Travel Buddy Dean, Luke practiced the route until he had gained the skills and confidence to do the entire journey independently. When asked how he felt about his achievement, Luke said: “I feel really proud.”
Some trainees have become such confident independent travellers that they have gone on themselves to become Travel Buddies, passing on the skills they have gained to their peers. In addition, the Travel Buddy Scheme has environmental and financial benefits as it reduces the reliance on taxis and lifts from support staff and family members by teaching people how to use public transport or do a walking journey.
As a result of taking part in the scheme and the transformative opportunities that travel independence grants people access to, beneficiaries experience a range of health and well-being benefits. The MLMC annual impact survey revealed that in 2023, 86% of Travel Buddy trainers and trainees experienced improved mental and physical health and a reduction in feelings of loneliness and isolation, with 95% reporting an increase in self-confidence.
It is not unusual, for family members especially, to feel amazed at the degree of travel independence the trainee can achieve. In the words of the parent of a trainee, who has recently learnt how to get to college independently by bus, having previously relied on taxis:
“He feels a part of the world, and not kept at a distance from it. This training has made me realise how much he can do by himself and how much happier he is with independence”.
My Life My Choice dared to do things differently, lifted barriers and created a scheme that supported service users to exceed the societal expectations and limitations often placed on them. The next step in this journey is to offer these benefits to others by sharing their experience and expertise with like-minded organisations, to create a network of Travel Buddy Schemes and show what, with the right programme of support, people with learning disabilities can achieve.
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