Gamechangers Established Leaders

photo: we are looking into a large room where people are doing strange poses. In the foreground two people are standing with their legs wide apart. One has their arms out straight in front while the other has their arms folded. A person behind them is holding their arms up and on the shouldon of the front people. We can see someone else in a wheelchair they have one hand on their head while their other hand points off to the floor.

Gamechangers is DIY Theatre Company’s ambitious Leadership Training programme for leaders with lived experience of learning disability.

It is being funded for 3 years by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The Gamechangers programme builds on the many years’ leadership development by DIY’s Friday Leadership Group and the experiences and achievements of our Young Leaders initiative, (click here to see the report).

Gamechangers Established Leaders are free sessions, taking place on Fridays from 10am to 2pm at The Angel Centre, 1 St Philip’s Pl, Salford M3 6FA.

During our Gamechanger Sessions we use drama to explore our own unique leadership identities and how people lead in different ways.

Gamechangers is DIY’s exciting programme for adults with learning disabilities who want to explore creative leadership skills in an accessible and supportive space. – Molly, DIY Gamechangers Coordinator

Representing ourselves as Leaders

Gamechangers have created a series of fantastic leadership profiles that can be accessed via the Gamechangers Leadership Profiles page.

Gamechangers worked with super creative Visual Artist Audrey Albert, to create images of our individual identities as leaders with our chosen backdrops and creative props.

Three individuals showcasing their creativity. On the left, a woman smiles warmly, wearing a white cardigan and a T-shirt with a Minnie Mouse design. In the centre, a person dressed in a red and black jester costume holds a colourful book and a small green singing bowl, with dramatic clouds in the background. On the right, a woman joyfully sings into a microphone, adorned in a vibrant outfit with a rainbow scarf and holding an artistic creation featuring a musical treble clef.

Image credit: Audrey Albert

Gamechanger Training Sessions

Training inputs across 2023 and 2024 have included Arts for Health and Wellbeing (Cartwheel Arts), Black History Month (Jade Williams), BSL training sessions (Leah Whitton), Lived Experience of being Deaf (Manchester Deaf Centre), Developing an Evaluation Methodology (Dr Roz Hall), Anti-Racism Awareness Training (Contact), Marketing and Communications skills (Daisy O’Brien & Andrea Fanchette), and Safeguarding (Pathways Associates).

Two women enthusiastically engaging in a workshop. On the left, a woman with white hair smiles and gestures with her hand near her mouth, dressed casually in a striped top, beige trousers, and a dark cardigan. On the right, a woman wearing a headscarf, purple T-shirt, and red dungarees strikes a lively pose with one hand pointing upward, exuding energy and joy in a bright, welcoming room with colourful artwork on the walls.

Acting for Health

During 2024 and 2025 DIY Gamechangers are developing an exciting new initiative called Acting for Health.

DIY Gamechangers are working with film-maker Hilary Easter-Jones to co-create four short films on the themes of:

  • Effective communication –encouraging health professionals to adopt Total Communication approaches and respond to peoples’ preferred forms of communication.
  • Lived Experience Leadership – highlighting the importance of lived experience and engaging with expertise of people with lived experience
  • Health and Wellbeing – outlining DIY’s participatory, inclusive approaches to evaluating outcomes using NEF’s 5 Ways to Health and Wellbeing.
  • Social Model of Health – highlighting how the Social Model complements the Medical Model and represents essential knowledge for health professionals.

DIY Leaders will also work with a graphic artist to co-create Training Resources that enable health professionals to explore these issues.

The project aims to have a positive impact on Health Inequalities by:

  • Enabling Health professionals to become better informed through working with people with lived experience of learning disability
  • Supporting healthcare professionals to develop more inclusive communication skills, leading to improved communication.
  • Increased communication and understanding, leading to better health and social care outcomes for people with learning disabilities.

Do you want to join Gamechangers Established Leaders?

We are always looking for people who want to develop their creative leadership skills. Find out more by emailing Molly – molly.stedman@diytheatre.org.uk

DIY gamechangers logo; 'DIY' and 'gamechangers' at the top. Underneath we can see colourful stick figures balancing on each other. The ones at the top are moving the letters of 'gamechangers'

Paul Hamlyn Foundation logo