Andrew Trifourski has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He is supported by SLC Homelife to live in a shared supported living tenancy in Burnage, Manchester with four other people. Andrew moved out of his family home and into his new shared supported living tenancy three years ago.

Talking with Andrew and his Senior Support Worker, Sarah Moorhouse, it is clear to see that Andrew loves his new home. “Andrew’s mum had been his main carer all his life but as she is getting older she wanted Andrew to move into his own home.” Explains Sarah. “Living here, Andrew has become much more independent.  He still sees his family all the time and goes to stay every Christmas. He is very close to his mum and she is really pleased that the move has worked out for him.”
 
Andrew is deaf and doesn’t communicate verbally so one of the most important things for The SLC Group staff team who support him is to establish effective two-way communication so he can make choices and decisions about how he lives his life.
 
Sarah explains: “Andrew can lip read and makes lots of signs and communicates through hand signals. When we first began supporting Andrew he worked with us (staff) so we could get to know how he likes to communicate and what the different signs he uses mean.”
 
Over time staff have worked with Andrew to create a 'communication passport' which is unique to him and provides an effective way of engaging and communicating with people who don’t know him.

Looking through Andrew’s passport you start to understand the key ‘need to know’ issues that are important to him and the creative and personalised document is full of photographs and information which allows you to chat to Andrew his way.
 
I find out Andrew loves to go on holiday and was supported by Sarah to visit his native country of Cyprus two years ago. This was Andrew’s first trip back home without his family and his enthusiasm tells me he had a fantastic time on his trip.

Andrew shows me some photographs from his holiday and tells me he loves dancing. Sarah adds: “We did have lots of fun in Cyprus - dancing and making new friends. Andrew loves to go on holiday.” The photographs he shows me certainly prove it.
 
It’s the combination of his communication passport and his dedicated support team that has allowed Andrew to increase his independence and is giving him the new found confidence to achieve his goals and aspirations.