“A message for the best football supporters in the World: Where are you? Where are you? Let’s be avin’ you!”

— Delia Smith, Norwich City F.C.

Aged 19 years old, SV arrived with Cascade on the very first day it opened, with a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder and a moderate learning disability. SV has a very supportive and loving family, but as he grew up, his behaviour became increasingly challenging and demanding.

When unwell, SV is extremely vulnerable in the community and would exhibit impulsive and risky behaviour. He had significant difficulties in managing his money, and would also become extremely challenging when unable to do something that he wanted to do but was unable to due to financial constraints - for example going to see his beloved Norwich City!

SV wanted to change his environment. He was living in a residential placement just outside of a quiet rural town twenty miles from Norwich, with little access to shops or any places of interest that an 18-year-old might want to visit.

Moving to Cascade gave SV greater access to community facilities and, over time, has allowed him to develop his adaptive skills - including using public transport by himself. SV has needed extensive work and support in developing his daily living skills, including food shopping, cooking, regular personal hygiene, laundry, keeping his living environment clean and as already mentioned, budgeting skills.

As with many people with or without a learning disability or mental health diagnosis, progress in learning these new skills has seen periods of progression and periods of regression. Finding the motivation to complete mundane daily tasks has been and continues to be a significant challenge for SV. What he is beginning to realise is that in order to reach his true potential, these adaptive skills lay the foundation for independent living.

SV wants a job in the future, he wants a girlfriend or a wife and he wants to have a family! He wants to be able to watch Norwich City every week and is slowly starting to recognise that in order to achieve these goals there are certain (less interesting) areas of life that he has to make part of his daily routine.

For the last 3 home games of the season, SV went to Norwich city independently by bus and watched his beloved Canaries play. This means the world to him and represents a huge achievement.