Dan's CoActive Story of how its got to 20 years

CoActive has helped me learn new skills when performing, it has helped me grow confidence  and it is just a good place to feel good and express myself.
 
CoActive has a lot of members and on a Wednesday we have 12 members who attend, a couple can’t make it now otherwise that would make it 14. On a Thursday it is a much bigger group with 17 people,  CoActive also  do a Friday art day and they have 10 members on a Friday.
 
CoActive is a charity run by artists with learning difficulties  for people with learning difficulties and it was originally founded by Mel Neale and Jody Gabriel came along a couple of years after, and they also employ freelance people Rebecca Simpson and Gemma Whelan. As recently as 2022 we gave Deanna Johnstone a trial as work experience and then they thought she did such a good job that we employed her on a more permanent basis. We have had lots of different places to do their sessions, they were at St Andrews Church for years, then we moved to the Ridings where they’ve been all over the place, and they even tried West Wakefield Methodist Church out, but that was on a tricky bus route for some people.  Some members come and go so for example there is one member who struggles to get out now, but she used to come every Wednesday and Thursday or most weeks, sadly they lost David Thomas last year due to illness and he used to go every week without fail, and recently we have had new members join the group such as   and they’ve been a breath of fresh air to the group. One person who come to CoActive for the last couple of years is Lily, and she is bright, beautiful, outgoing and bubbly and she’s a special person in my life. I am Dan and I am the person  who deals with the financial side of the sessions  and I enjoy that job.
 

​Also an original member is David Hartley who has been most of the 20 years, and we asked him three questions and here were his answers:
 
1) How does it feel as a original member to see CoActive still going 20 years on?
 
Very pleasing, CoActive  has done so well to last 20 years and could possibly go on for another 10-15 years.
 

• How does it make you feel coming to CoActive?

"It's somewhere you can come to relax, have a natter, sometimes talk about total rubbish, and people banter with you and it's a fun environment."
 

• What’s  been your favourite thing about CoActive?

 
The activities we do and it’s somewhere where you may not have done something before and you can give it a go.
 
CoActive is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and they have a donation page to raise money for refreshments and new equipment etc, so if you can please support this fantastic charity’s 20 year anniversary, you can go to this link: CoActive 20th Anniversary Appeal | Localgiving
 
A couple of memories I have of my time at CoActive over the years have been:
 
The seaside trips we have had to Scarborough and Whitby as we had fun on those days out, people sat on beach or going off to the arcades or looking round the shops.
 
Another memory is the numerous performances we have done and the most recent one was a summer cabaret in 2023 about sea, sand and all kinds of different stories.
 
I’ve done lots of other things with CoActive too such as: cathedral performances and all sorts.