How you can team build AND support Learning Disability Awareness Week - And why you should

So where is the common ground between team building and Learning Disability Awareness Week? It's actually not hard to find at all.

This year's Learning Disability Awareness Week (20th-26th June) is all about friendships and relationships, and why and how these are so important.

The first thing to realise is that this has total synergy with two of the key goals from any team building activity. It's not hard to realise that successful and effective friendships and relationships are key to many personal and professional achievements. They reduce the likelihood of mental illnesses such as depression, motivate and inspire people and create a sense of belonging. The benefits this can bring to your team, echo the benefits they can bring to your personal life.

It's easy to see why they are Mencap's key focus for this year's Learning Disability Awareness Week. To quote Mencap:

"People with a learning disability can find it difficult to make friends, and still often face isolation and exclusion from everyday activities. We want this to change, and we need your support to make it happen."

The second thing to realise, is that at O3e (The Founders of Charity Bike Build), we already successfully promote a union of friendships and relationships between organisations and the colleagues within, AND with their local Learning Disabled Community.

Back in 2013, our Founder Peter Lindsay, realised that team building could be so much more and that companies should expect and demand more.

Every single team building challenge that Peter and his team create, not only meets all of your business's needs, but also engages a local charity to benefit from your activity in a truly tangible and useful way.

Helping a good cause, whilst undertaking your team building activity, also delivers much higher engagement levels from your staff - as commented on in an article by HR Magazine:

"With research by accountants PwC revealing that employee turnover is costing UK firms over £40 billion a year, the business case for effective employee engagement, including CSR, is very strong indeed."

With Mental Health Awareness Week specifically in mind, why not take a look at our team building challenges, such as our Community Kitchen. This is a wonderfully supportive team building experience, which engages your team with their local Learning Disabled Community in a truly unique cooking challenge.

Not only does your team benefit from all of the expected benefits of a successful and fun team building activity (for example, enhanced communication, motivation, rapport etc), but they also get to foster and build relationships with members of their local community that they perhaps would not have previously crossed paths with, whilst also providing a valuable life skills experience too.

Help foster a socially responsible attitude within your team, whilst building their team building skills including stronger communication, empathy, engagement, problem solving, adaptability and ultimately improved performance.

Build strong and important relationships with your local community and be a leading example of how to do things right.