“Manchester Day parade was brilliant! I absolutely loved it… can we do it again?” You can help us say yes! In 2016 we joined 12 people with autism/learning disabilities to take part in the Manchester Day Parade and this year we want to do even more. By starting earlier in the year we aim to get involved in every aspect of the parade, creating opportunities for the people we support to be active and involved in every stage of the planning and creation. This means the people we support to take full ownership of their costumes and their parade, creating craft workshops with a real purpose whilst learning new skills and having fun along the way. We need to create 40 costumes and a float and we want you to help us make it a magical as possible. With your support we'll create: 10 basic costumes (like the card soldiers) at £20 20 medium costumes (characters) at £40 10 advanced costumes (animal characters) at £100

What we'll deliver:

• Create 40 costumes
• Create a float
• Have a fantastic day
• Re-use costumes and float for a modern Pantomime in November/December

Why it's a great idea:

It's a great idea because it means a group of people who are normally invisible to society get to be an equal part of a massive cultural event. It gives those individuals a huge boost in confidence to have achieved the parade, which can help them turn that self-confidence into personal belief. All the costumes will also be re-used as part of a modern musical to be performed later in the year (the float will be the basis of the set) so that nothing goes to waste after the parade. We are commited to recycling all of the costumes created to further the arts opportunities for the individuals involved and creating a fantastic visual and musical performance.

Steps to get it done:

• begin float creation workshops
• Begin float design
• begin regular costume creation workshops
• Buying of materials
• Hire professional costume consultant
• purchase float materials

As well as helping us create great costumes and an amazing float, you'll be helping some amazing individuals realise how amazing they can be. We want this day to be fantastic for all involved and we want this day to be the start point. Remember, the set and the costumes will be re-used in a modern musical pantomime later in the year. This will be another opportunity for the float and the costumes, but more importantly another opportunity for some wonderfully talented and lovely individuals to deservedly take centre stage.