What can services can we offer social prescribers, people with ECHP, those supporting their mental wellness, and anyone with special educational needs? This isn’t all of our games, but it’s those where we can offer personalised support or are most likely to help with socialising and supporting wellbeing.
We are often asked question like “I have a service user who would like to start D&D, what can you offer?”, or “my child has a special condition but loves Pokemon, do you have anything suitable?”. Along with our close friends People’s Meeples (a not-for-profit CIC), this page has some of the events that are particularly suitable for referral from social prescribers. We’re happy to set up a conversation first by emailing info@gamersathart.wpenginepowered.com
Role Playing Games
Dungeons and Dragons is the classic fantasy role playing game, but we have others too – Shiver for those who want a horror themed RPG, or Deadlands for those who’d enjoy steampunk Wild West. RPGs are an ideal form of escapism and a fantastic creative outlet – use your imagination to tell stories collectively. If you find new social situations awkward you don’t need to spend the evening making ‘small talk’, you’ll be too busy discussing the monsters you’re fighting and the spells you’re casting!
Overview of benefits
- Express your creativity through collaborative story telling
- Develop speaking and listening skills
- Develop social networks and build friendships
- Gain confidence in numeracy and literacy
- Develop problem solving
- Cooperate with others
When can I take part?
To take part in our groups please email info@peoplesmeeples.co.uk and we will put you in touch with the Games Masters. Our groups run: Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday afternoon, Friday night, Sunday night.
Cost
These are currently funded by the NHS Resilience Fund, and are therefore free to play, however in summer 2022 we expect to introduce a small charge.
Painting and Miniature Models
Painting models can be therapeutic and calming – a way to focus on a task and develop creativity. The hobby can be quite expensive to begin with (paints, brushes, and models can be an investment to start, but they will last a long time once you begin). However, if you paint in our rooms, we have some starter models for Warhammer 40k and paints and brushes, all for free!
You can also enter into the hobby by playing these games too, though many people do just enjoy the painting.
And there’s so much variety! Marvel superheroes, sci-fi Warhammer 40k, fantasy Age of Sigmar or Lord of the Rings, focus on fantasy ships in Armada, or paint your favourite Star Wars characters and vehicles in Legion.
Overview of benefits
- Express your creativity
- Fantastic, ego-boosting results very quickly with a few simple techniques
- Focussed, calming activity
- Take those models and play with others
Board Gaming
Board games have undergone a huge resurgence in the last 10 years, with a huge amount of variety and many of people’s criticisms (too long, too complex, too boring) thoroughly debunked with the huge variety of games available. Comparing board games in 2023 to those you might have grown up with is like comparing the production quality of Clash of the Titans with Avengers: Endgame – great for their era, but things have moved on. Like Role Playing games, if you want to socialise but you’re not sure about having to make ‘small talk’, don’t worry – we’ll get you straight into a game and the board becomes the focus! We’ll also make sure you’re only playing games you’re comfortable with, and we don’t expect you to know any rules. Our board game community is very friendly and we have some excellent, patient teachers.
Overview of benefits
- Strategy and problem solving
- Cooperation and team work
- Increase confidence with numeracy and literacy
- Develop social connections with gentle levels of communication
- Listening
- Following directions and learning rules
When can I take part?
Every Saturday Night, currently at The Dancing Cup on York Road, from 6pm.
Cost
£1 per person
Magic: The Gathering Intro League
Magic: The Gathering is the world’s most popular collectible card game. Set in a fantasy realm, you take the position of a ‘planeswalker’, a powerful wizard-like character who casts spells represented by a deck of cards. Your aim is to reduce the life of your opponent to from 20 to 0.
The ‘Intro League’ is designed for people who don’t want to spend a lot of money collecting lots of cards. We provide everything you need. It’s £15 to sign up and receive your deck, and then £6 per week after that – each week you get an extra booster pack of cards for your deck.
Overview of benefits
- Learn to play online first at MTG: Arena
- Enter into a global community.
- Meet others in a gently competitive environment
- Enjoy 30 years of lore and back catalogue of cards
- Develop strategic thinking, reasoning, and logic
- Creatively craft your deck to make it more powerful
When can I take part?
Every Friday Night, from 6:30pm, at LilyAnne’s Coffee Bar.
Cost
£15 for the first week, then £6 for every subsequent week
Yu-Gi-Oh League
YuGiOh is perhaps one of the more complex games on here, but it’s a well loved anime-based card game that many teenagers and young adults play. Our Tuesday nights are very friendly, but a little more competitive than some other events on this list. Unlike our other events here, you need your own deck too.
Overview of benefits
- An entry point into a friendly local community of young people and young adults
- Ideal for people who love Anime
- Develop strategic thinking
- Become more confident with numeracy
When can I play?
Every Tuesday from 6:30pm at Gamers@Hart
Cost?
£6 entry
A note for people receiving PIP
We know that gaming can have huge benefits for people with a range of impairments or disabilities. Painting miniatures can be fantastic for mental health and creativity, and attending events can be a fantastic way to socialise, board and card games .
If we can help you access funding for gaming, for example through providing invoices or offering bespoke interventions, please get in touch. If you have, or know someone who would benefit from, one to one support when engaging in groups, which could be financed through PIP, we can arrange that too. Please speak to us if we can help you to engage with your hobby.
Please note: We are always happy to offer trials for people to try us, we attempt to be inclusive, and we can offer significant amounts of patience and a non-judgemental atmosphere. The directors, in previous roles as youth workers, teachers and occupational therapists, have some broad knowledge about creating inclusive and accepting environments. However, we are not SEND or mental health professionals, and there will be some levels of need that we may not be able to cater for safely without someone else to support the transition to the groups or providing some external support. We would love to know how we can include you in our groups, please contact info@gamersathart.wpenginepowered.com to talk to us about how we can help.