Open Hearts Social is a dating event for young adults living with intellectual and cognitive disability. Many individuals in this community are eager to form meaningful romantic connections but may face challenges in finding like-minded peers or taking the first step in expressing interest. Open Hearts Social provides a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment where young adults can build social and relationship skills, gain confidence, and have the opportunity to connect with someone special.
If you are interested, please read on!
Details
When and where?
Our first event will take place at
6.30pm to 8.30pm on Thursday 26 March
Crows Nest Community Centre
Registration is essential and tickets are by pre-sale only and numbers are limited.
Cost: $95
You can nominate one support person to attend free of charge. See more below.
What are we offering?
Fun, accessible and supported pre-dating events for young adults (20-35 yo). The event helps you meet people who you might want to go on to date! It is set up like a speed dating event where you will meet several people and then work out who you might want to speak to again.
Interested? Email atopenhearts@gmail.com and we will help you with the next steps.
To tailor this event we will ask some questions before registration to learn more about what people want and whether what we can offer it is a good fit for people wanting to attend. We’ll be striving for some balance such as a mix of people across age, gender, and who they seek to date, and if needed, we will create a waiting list for both this and future events. Feel free to pass this information onto others who may be interested.
STEPS:
Email atopenhearts@gmail.com to let us know you are interested to attend. We will send you more information about the event and a registration form. The form gives you more information and also asks you some questions so we have more information about you.
We will get back in touch with you once we receive your form as we are really keen to make sure there is a good fit between what you want, and what we can offer at this event.
Who are we?
We are a team of allied health professionals noticing the lack of opportunities for young people with ID in Sydney to meet other people interested in dating.
Facilitated by
Susanna Goodrich - Psychotherapist, parent of young adult who has Down Syndrome
Sarah Jacek - Clinical Neuropsychologist, runs the PEERS Program
Stella Topaz - Consent education, Wheel of Consent® facilitator
We bring skills in healthy relating, emotional regulation and communication,
and choice, boundaries and consent in dating.
Between us we have skills in healthy relating (Sarah facilitates the PEERS® Program, an evidence-based, internationally recognised social skills programme for young people with social challenges), consent education (Stella is a certified Wheel of Consent® Trainer), and emotional regulation and interpersonal communication (Susanna is a registered psychotherapist and a parent of a young adult who has Down Syndrome). We have included bios below.
A note about bringing a support person and the role of parents
You can you come on your own, or if you want to, you are welcome to bring one support person. For this event, your support person should not be your parent.
Why? Our aim is to create an adult social environment, similar to other facilitated dating events, so you explore aspects of dating without parents present.
Parents are welcome to drop you off and pick you up, but they will not be able to stay in the room during the event.
If you choose to bring a support person, we’ll ask you their name for the attendance list, and they can attend free of charge.