Create a future for people with disabilities through the provision of professional therapeutic and development services
Our focus is to care and provide for the educational, training and therapeutic needs of children, youth and adults living with physical, mental, intellectual and neurological disabilities
Children’s Day Care Centre
Our Children’s Day Care Centre
Supports children with disabilities. The Centre can accommodate 30 children from as young as 18 months. The mission of the centre is to develop each child to their full potential, whether it be get them school ready or to ensure that they are capacitated with life skills to live as independent as possible. Our children are cared for on a daily basis between 08h00 to 15h00. They receive two meals and an afternoon snack before being transported back home in the afternoon.
Interactive & Facilitated Therapy
The Centre staff receives ongoing support and training from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) through an Inclusive Education Outreach Team. The Learners With Severe to profound intellectual disability (LSPID) outreach team consists of an Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist, Educational Psychologist, Learning Support Educator and a Physiotherapist.
In addition to stimulating the cognitive and physical development of our children, they are taught and encouraged to independently engage in activities of daily living – all of which form an important part of the developmental care programmes. Parents are encouraged to participate and facilitate learning at home.
Ongoing Staff Training & Development
Capacity building and ongoing support of our staff is always a priority. We receive regular visits by volunteer therapists who share their knowledge and expertise with us. These staff sessions facilitate continued skills development and training in various new techniques that can be used to enhance our children’s development. Our dedicated staff regularly attends training courses held by the Western Cape Forum For Intellectual Disability (WCFID) which keeps staff up to date with best practices.
Adult Day Care Centre
Our Adult Day Care Centre
Supports people with disabilities who are older and who have higher support needs. The mission of the centre is to maintain socialization, life skills and continuous development of beneficiaries.
Daily Interactive Activity
Both residents and beneficiaries from the community benefit from this programme. Beneficiaries from the community are collected in the morning by our transport team and transported back home in the afternoon.
Day programmes are implemented based on the group’s needs and abilities in collaboration with an outreach team from the Department of Social Development, Senecio.
Residential Care
Ongoing Staff Training & Development
Senecio also provides continuous training to staff with regards to implementation of the programmes and ensuring each person equally benefits from the programme. They receive two meals during the day and transported back home in the afternoon.
Our Residential Care Department
Accommodates 80 permanent residents. Our Residential Facility comprises 6 houses, each with a unique mix of individuals. Currently we have 4 homes catering for clients who requires assisted living, in other words, they can do most things for themselves but they need assistance with some of their daily tasks, including personal care and routines.
Residential Care and Support
Residents are supported in their activities of daily living (ADL) by home supervisors. These ADL’s include following a routine, administration of medication, ensuring personal hygiene are taken care of and the provision of their meals, prepared by our Central Kitchen.
Four of the homes are managed by two home supervisors who work in shift to ensure that residents are safe, fed and healthy.
Independent Living Home
In June 2019, Orion opened its first Independent Living Home on the premises. This home currently accommodates eight (8) adults who have been capacitated and are receiving ongoing support to live without a permanent home supervisor. The end goal is to develop these individuals to the extent that they are able to live independently from Orion in the community.
Orion Art Centre
Launching the Orion Art Centre
The Orion Art Centre was launched in 2010 after realizing the amazing talent our children and profoundly disabled adults have.
This art is used as a tool in the awareness creation amongst the public to showcase the exceptional talent of persons with disabilities.
Creating Opportunities
We are constantly looking for opportunities in galleries and exhibition centres to showcase our work and potentially use this as a vehicle in order to generate sales and income to sustain the project, funding which would then enable us to identify and start upskilling more of the artists within the organisation.
Orion Art Centre goes a long way
We believe that our communal society also have challenges to overcome, it may not necessarily be a physical, psychosocial challenges or intellectual disability so our ART CENTRE goes a long way to promote understanding and engagement.
Business Development & Income Generation
A sense of Purpose and Productivity
Providing the disabled person with a sense of purpose and productivity is integral to any therapeutic endeavour. It is our continued mission to maximise the capacity of people with disabilities for independent living and to avoid the cycle of poverty, our organisation has focused strongly on skills training and job creation. This has led to the establishment of a number of successful income generating initiatives.
Protective Work Centre
Our Protective Work Centre and work methods are well adapted for workers with a disabilities. It has the capacity for 150 disabled adults, and is staffed by 7 hands-on supervisors reporting to a Work Centre Manager. We have in the past secured a number of significant contracts such as recycling 20 000 plastic hangers per day for Hangerman/Woolworths and weighing of products for Bokomo Foods.
We are also proud of our partnership with TRW Automotive Occupant Restraints, assembling various components (i.e. seat belts and air bags) forming part of their production line. Other contracts include Mondi Plastic Containers, Ysterplaat Medical Supplies, Baltimore Aircoil Company, AMC, Powertech, Kaytech, Hisense, to mention a few.
Income Generation
Throughout the work centre all our members are taught about hygiene, workflow, time management, machine operation and safety across a variety of machines. Many of the high-functioning adults with disabilities learn a variety of skills including specialised packaging, basic numeracy and literacy, machine operating techniques, as well as exercising their fine motor control skills.
Our work centre provides space for existing contract work partnerships, unfortunately this space is inadequate. It is utilised to its full capacity, and the organisation is in need of another building so we are able to create more job opportunities and skills development for our members and serve as additional secure storage space for incoming/outgoing stock.
The more members we are able to gain employment for will continue to assist in their own personal development and independence and serves as additional income generation for our organisation.
Business Opportunity for your Future
Do you have an existing business or business idea in manufacturing or producing products?
Submit your detailed business idea/plan to our marketing office or visit our offices.
Successful business plans will be allocated a space and marketing assistance will be provided to ensure you thrive.
Preference given to people with disabilities from Atlantis and surroundings.
Also, register your CV for future work opportunities at Orion (only people with disabilities).
