Our Social Networks
We are funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to collect the stories of friendships and
relationships
Relationships are about the people in your life. You might have different types of relationships like friendships, family relationships, or a boyfriend or girlfriend.
experienced by people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
in Wales.
Our Social Networks is a new project that aims to tell the stories of 60 people with a learning disability primarily through personal accounts captured in conversation with their friends, romantic partners or family members.
This will focus primarily on those aged 18-25 and aged 45+ to look at differences between generations.
We're gathering from a range of people with a learning disability, including those with one to one support, those with limited or no formal support or those living with parents / family members.

What is Our Social Networks?
This project is about history and nature of friendships and intimate relationships experienced by people with a learning disability living in Wales today.
Read the stories
Take a look at the stories from member of the Our Social Networks team.
Click the Our stories heading below to reveal the links to the articles.
Our stories
Our first year
Our first blog is from Paul Hunt, the Senior Project
Manager
A manager is a boss at work. They tell you what you need to do and give you support if you need it.
for Our Social Networks.
Read the blog to find out what the project is about and what has been achieved in its first year.
Hello from Anna!
Our second blog is from Anna Suschitzky, the Project Manager for Our Social Networks.
Read her blog to find out hows he's settling in to the role, what she's been up to so far, and what's to come in 2019.
An update from Cardiff
Our third blog is from Alex, the Project Officer for Our Social Networks from Cardiff.
Read his blog to find out what he's been up to.
An update from Wrexham
Our fourth blog is from Jane, the Project Ambassador for Our Social Networks from Wrexham.
Read her blog to find out what she's been up to.
New faces
Our fifth blog is from Rachel, our new North Wales Project Officer.
Read her blog to find out what she's been up to and how she's settling in to the role.
Hello from Alex
Our sixth blog is from Alex, the Project Officer for South Wales.
Read Alex's blog to find out what he's been up to over the summer.
Jane says hello
Our seventh blog is from Jane, the Project Ambassador for North East Wales.
Read Jane's blog to find out what she's been up to.
Sammy says hello
Our eighth blog is from Sammy, the Project Ambassador for South Wales.
Read Sammy's blog to find out what she's been up to.
What we've learned
Hear from what we've learned from the Our Social Networks project and the stories we've gathered.
Volunteers
We want to meet people interested in volunteering with us.
We have a number of roles available including photographer, transcriber, exhibition assistant and graphic designer.
Visit our jobs site and search for 'our social networks' to find volunteering opportunities.
For more information please email anna.suschitzky@mencap.org.uk.