Land Securities select Mencap and ENABLE Scotland as official charity partner

Land Securities, joint owners of Princesshay together with The Crown Estate, has chosen learning disability charity Mencap and their sister charity ENABLE Scotland to be its official charity partner for 2014.

To launch the partnership, Princesshay will host Mencap’s launch event titled ‘Creative Spirit Galleries’ on Friday 25th April from 10am. A team of Mencap Young Ambassadors will host the event which will showcase a collection of artwork, music and poetry. Competitions and entertainment will feature throughout the day. This event will focus on promoting Mencap’s ‘Looking beyond the label’ campaign, which aims to challenge negative perceptions of people with a learning disability. The event will be a chance for members of the public to meet people who have benefited from Mencap’s initiatives and learn more about the work of the charity and how they can support it.

At the heart of the campaign will be Mencap’s Young Ambassadors: people between the age of 16 and 25 who have a learning disability and use their various talents and life experiences to help break down pre-conceptions of learning disability.  In partnership with Mencap, Land Securities hope to raise enough money to support and train 100 Young Ambassadors over the coming year.

Wayne Pearce, Centre Director said: “We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Mencap to support the inspirational work of their Young Ambassadors. We hope that this partnership will encourage other businesses and the general public to support the “Looking beyond the label’ campaign.”

Jan Tregelles, Chief Executive of Mencap said: “We are absolutely delighted that Land Securities has chosen Mencap and ENABLE Scotland to be their official charity partners for the coming year.  The partnership with Land Securities will help challenge the way people think about learning disability.

“When people hear someone has a learning disability they often see the label.  They often fail to see the person behind the label and the variety of qualities and talents that person may have. Our Young Ambassadors have a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the issues that people with a learning disability face to the huge numbers of people that visit Land Securities shopping centres and retail parks every week.”

Mencap Young Ambassador James Hamilton said: “Working with Mencap has opened up a whole new world for me. I wanted to stop studying as it wasn’t helping me develop the skills I needed and I felt people refused to look beyond my learning disability. Mencap’s Young Ambassadors programme gave me the confidence, knowledge and ability to find a paid job. I now feel happy to speak about learning disability in front of big audiences and can’t wait to speak to people at the Land Securities events about the importance of looking beyond the label.”