Chainreaction provides opportunities for disabled adults to explore work-experience, training and their own personal development.

Chainreaction is the name chosen by the first participants to describe themselves. In 1989 three former pupils of Lord Mayor Treloar College first attended the Kingsley Centre to embark on a project working on their personal development with the assistance of a trained counsellor and voluntary helpers.

Chainreaction as a service has consistently been seen as an alternative to attendance at a day centre. The need for personal development opportunities for disabled people has been identified in various studies including Living Options.

Chainreaction was an early attempt to provide such a service based on this need. It has always been stressed that attendance at Chainreaction is time-limited. Participants are not expected to benefit from Chainreaction for longer than four years but continuing attendance at Chainreaction may be negotiated on the basis of assessed need. The aim is to enable people to achieve more independence and to encourage integration within their own community following the acquisition and development of skills within the model community of the Kingsley Centre and the actual community of the village itself.

The client group was originally young adults with a physical disability, but the benefit of such a service for individuals with a learning disability has now been proven and we are able to offer places to people between the ages of 18 and 65 with any form of disability, including survivors of the mental health system ( the Centre subscribes to the social model of disability which stresses society's failure to ensure that the needs of disabled people are fully taken into account rather than the medical model which views disability as a medical or personal problem owned by the individual).

In order to facilitate efficient and appropriate learning we stress the value of individual work. We work predominately in small groups and staffng levels are high so that each participant can be supported on a one to one basis as appropriate.

As well as at Kingsley Centre, the Organisation has Chainreaction groups in the London Borough of Camden and Reading.

Chainreaction is an alternative to local authority and traditional charity day centres. It is suitable for individuals who will benefit from time spent on their personal development, from time to explore their ambitions, their fears, their experiences and their aspirations.