UPDATE: We will be starting a trial of reopening Gateway on Monday 19 October and Tuesday 20 October. You must book on to Gateway and on to the activity you want to do – which we will call you all about in the next few weeks.

On our trial dates, we’ll be offering:
?Baking in the Coffee Bar
?Art in the Meeting Room
?Chat, tv and music ‘Common Room’ in the Disco Hall

The important things to remember now are:
✋Please don’t call us to book your place at Gateway, we will call you.
✋Please don’t turn up for Gateway if you haven’t booked on to the trial dates, or on other evenings.
If you aren’t booked, you won’t be able to come in because of social distancing measures we have in place.

We will call you in the next few weeks and you can ask us any questions you have then.

Here are some useful guides about Gateway, including how to book your place and how things will work once you are here:

You can also watch a recording of Gateway Live from Tuesday 6 October, in which Liv interviews Jonathan about Gateway and how it will work. Just click here.

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We are excited to tell you that Gateway is coming back in mid-October!

We have been busy planning and we now have the go-ahead to reopen next month, however there are still some things to be done to make sure that Gateway is safe. So for now, please bear with us – we will be able to answer your questions soon.

Everything is a little bit different right now, so we’ll have to be too. But it is still Gateway and we are doing everything we can to make it as fun as it always has been!

You might not be able to do some of the things you normally would at Gateway; you won’t be able to dance or sit as close, you won’t be able to hug as much, but we’re all having to get used to that anyway aren’t we? We will make Gateway safe, we’ll make it fun and we’ll make it fair.

Here is a little guide on how it’s all going to work:

  • We’ll be running on Mondays and Tuesdays only (for now) 6.30pm-8.30pm with an extra member of staff to keep everyone safe
  • We’ll have 3 rooms open each night (games and music in the Disco Hall, art in the Meeting Room, baking and games in the Coffee Bar)
  • Each room will have a staff member and a volunteer helping
  • Members (including their support worker/carer if they have one) will have to book to attend and book their room/activity
  • There will be no communal areas; members (and their support worker/carer) will have to stick to their room and activity
  • The rest of the building will be cordoned off; only one person will be allowed to use the toilet at any one time (staff will take you to make sure you can go in)
  • Instead of the Coffee Bar, there will be a trolley with drinks and snacks to buy
  • It’s Gateway, so there’s still bingo plus other games will take place on the microphone so all rooms can play together
  • We will have a maximum capacity for each room and each night but we’ll make it as fair as we can 🙂 You might not be able to come every single week, but we promise to make sure everyone gets a fair turn and will do our best to make sure you can be with the friends you want to.
  • We need to be as safe as we can. So when you arrive, we’ll take your temperature and take you to your group. There’s hand sanitiser to use and we have a one-way system. Baking and art will run in the way that they have done in the day at ALH, safely and still lots of fun.

We are looking forward to seeing you soon.