Our Travelling with Confidence project, grant-funded by the Motability Foundation, empowers hundreds of disabled people to develop their confidence, skills and resilience when planning and making trips by rail and connected modes.

Kent CRP is one of several community rail partnerships that have received small grants as part of the programme. Read on to hear about how Kent CRP has worked with a local college to co-produce initiatives and empower disabled people to overcome travel barriers.

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Grow 19 is a college on a mission to increase the opportunities for employment and independence for a range of young adults with significant needs. For many of their students, developing confidence, skills and knowledge in using public transport will enable them to progress to independent adulthood.

One of those students, Dhurash, has special educational needs. In a classroom setting, with the support of college tutor Jo and Kent CRP officer Therese, Dhurash and his fellow students discussed their barriers to train travel and what they hoped to achieve by the end of the project.

The group decided to build towards a goal of travelling from Maidstone East to West Malling, where they would have a go at some gardening and litter picking. On the day of their trip, Therese reported that, “the students were happy and excited about planning their trip and their enthusiasm was very evident when I met them at Maidstone East Station.”

During the co-created trip, Dhurash and his classmates learned about many different aspects of navigating stations and trains safely, including how to buy a ticket, finding the right train, understanding timetables and digital displays, and how to access help.

Dhurash now feels comfortable and even enjoys travelling by train and has begun taking the lead for his group. Since that first trip, Dhurash has made several trips to West Malling and has become a volunteer at the station, which has opened up the opportunity to not only habitually experience train travel, but also experience the benefits of volunteering. He often talks to Gary in the ticket office, and this has built his verbal communication skills around asking questions and requesting assistance.

Grow 19 College has now adopted West Malling Station, which will give many more students the opportunity to visit the station regularly in the future, and take on volunteering roles which build skills and improve their employability, confidence and overall wellbeing.

Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from Kent CRP via their website.