Speaking Up Together newsletter Summer 2017

issue 32 Summer 2017

Speak Up Sutton win new contract Now we are working with children and young people as well as adults. see page 22

We are getting stronger!

Advocacy for All is an independent advocacy organisation and an equal opportunities employer. Charity no: 1064855.

in this newsletter page project

2

3

Bromley Speaking Up Group

4

Bexley Speaking Up Group

6

Bromley Sparks

12

Having a Voice in Bromley being together

14

Kent Artistic Spectrum exhibition

16

Speaking Up Together

17

Young Advisers

20

Speaking up in Schools

22

Speak Up Sutton

24

getting in touch

Twitter Campaign - #ImwithSam Bromley Speaking Up Group (BSUG) are very proud to announce that they are involved in the campaign “I’m with Sam”.

An autism and learning disability hate crime campaign.

It is run by Dimensions.

They work with    

groups organisations government services individuals

They share the message that learning disability and autism hate crime is wrong and that something can be done.

The latest numbers show that 73% of people with a learning disability and autism have experienced hate crime.

Very recently, one of our members experienced hate crime on the bus. Our member reported it to the police and they are happy for us to share this story in our Twitter campaign.

We will follow his story and launch our campaign in the next few weeks.

Watch this space!

3

Bexleyheath police station visit At the big safeguarding event, Safety in Numbers, run by the A team in March, we met PC Andy Cork who invited us for a tour of his police station.

“He talked about what would happen if you reported a crime.

We had our photos taken with some hate crime leaflets.”

People had a go at going in to the cells, people said it was quite scary.”

We looked in the interview room and found out how the police have to treat you. Some people had a go in the police van.

We are going to work with PC Cork doing the

respect campaign written by the Bexley Speaking Up Group

4

Healthwatch Enter and View training On the 6 June some of us went to Healthwatch to get some training. The training is about us going into doctors surgeries and asking questions to people in the waiting room.

We will be asking people what they think about their GP surgeries.

We give the doctors the answers so they can make their patients happy and give people a more suitable service for people with different needs.

We will be making posters to put up in the waiting rooms telling people about the good ways GPs can treat people with a learning difficulty. written by Lucy

5

On Friday 12 May Stas and Paul came to film us in the easy read group.

The film is for Health Education England.

They are in charge of training for doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers.

We did some easy read work which they filmed.

Then Stas interviewed us 1 by 1. He asked us how we make easy read and why it is important.

We do a lot of work for local councils. One of the most important things is no jargon. We get rid of jargon and make things easy to understand.

In the film Teresa used a bell to say when a word was jargon.

The film will be important for doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers.

When they send you information it must be easy to understand.

6

Bromley Volunteers Awards ceremony 2017

I got my volunteers award in 2013 for volunteering with Bromley Sparks Young Adults. Community Links Bromley wanted someone with a learning difficulty to speak at this years event.

I told them about my work with Bromley Sparks and about my work with the old peoples home in Penge.

I got a big round of applause. written by Laura

At the Bromley Sparks office we have been looking at our photographs which show our 15 years of

Bromley Sparks

We started off in a small office and now we have a bigger office with more room.

This means we can offer our service to more people and include people who use wheelchairs now we are on the ground floor in Community House. written by Linda

7

15 years of speaking up in Bromley

We celebrated having 15 years of speaking up in Bromley. All the speaking up group members were invited.

We heard about what has been happening and we voted for our committee.

We also had Having a Voice in Bromley and we had a Question Time panel with guests from the council and the CCG. We gave out some awards.

Here is to the next 15 years!!!!!!!!

Bromley Sparks has given me independence and made me confident

8

The winner of the first Vivienne Lester self advocacy award

Lucy The Jo Storey Fundraising Award was won by

Gill Watch out for 15 years of speaking up report coming out soon

inside the report money money

health health

keeping safe

transport transport

9

Jack Petchey Achievement Awards given to

Tre James

Mollie 10

meet the committee We voted for some new committee members. We each had a voting slip and chose who we wanted to be on the committee.

Here they are:

.

Gordon chair

Polly chair

Sarah

Ben

Gillian

Annie

Matthew

James

Teresa

11

Having a Voice in Bromley being together Hi everyone, We are the ‘being together’ focus group.

In our first meeting, we had to decide what our group was going to talk about and what ‘being together’ means for us.

We decided that our subjects include:

12



friendship: what it really means



how friendships can be made stronger



how some friends are actually not real friends



who do we tell our secrets to and who can we trust



how long does it take to get to know someone?



not seeing friends socially - what does that mean



being isolated and lonely

We need stronger friendships and more knowledge on things.

Friendships to me is about give and take.

I’d like to get more knowledge about people.

To get to know people a bit more.

What we could do is help to give advice on how to socialise and relate to people.

The group wrote a letter to the organisers of last years Adult Services Stakeholder Conference on loneliness.

Some of the group members who went wanted to know what the council is going to do to help Denise Mantell from Bromley Council got in touch with the councils action plan for 2017.

Denise wants the group to help get information about how best to stop social isolation for people with a learning disability.

13

Kent Artistic Spectrum Exhibition This April people from the Kent Peer Support Project put on an art exhibition.

The exhibition was called the Kent Artistic Spectrum.

Just illusion 3 by Rebekah Moore

It was shown at the County Hall in Maidstone.

People worked really hard to make the work and then put it up so it looked amazing.

We had a private view event with live music and poetry.

Lots of people came and had a good time.

Guardians by George de Witt-Cheney

14

Untitled by Florence Thomas

what visitors said about the exhibition Incredible & amazing, such a fantastic display of talent !

Fantastic !

Absolutely loved it.

Art brilliant and stories very powerful.

We rock!! So proud of everyone who worked on putting this together. The art was awesome ! (one of the artists) The sheer amount of talent in these rooms is beautiful.

You should all be very proud of yourselves.

A colourful and varied representation of the artistic talents of a much under-estimated, but extremely creative section of society. to find out more check out the website https://kent-artistic-spectrum.co.uk 15

speaking up together picnic 2017 This year we met in Crystal Palace Park.

The picnic got everyone together to have fun.

We shared a healthy picnic and we played games and did a quiz.

The team called “George’s Mob” won the quiz!!!

I enjoyed the picnic because I got to mix with my friends and I had fun. written by Polly

I enjoyed the picnic because it gave me a chance to chat to people.

I also played boules but I nearly knocked someone out written by Teresa

We were lucky with the weather but we needed to use sun block and we made sure we sat in the shade. written by Laura

16

Sadly the Young Advisers Bromley group is not running any more.

But Bromley Council have asked the Young Advisers to help them decide what they should do next to make sure they are listening to young people with disabilities The young people had a meeting to talk about Bromley Council’s ideas for how to listen to young people with disabilities.

They talked about what was good and bad about each idea.

It was hard work so they had some pizza to keep their brains on full power!

Questionnaires reach a lot of people but they are boring

I think a planning day would work because everyone has to work together

Some people cannot use a computer but an online question and answer session would be good.

People could send in their questions and a young person could be the interviewer like Jeremy Paxman!

17

The Young Advisers Havering group is getting bigger.

Tyler and Razwan have joined the group.

We are very happy to have them with us.

It means that more young people’s voices are being heard.

The Young Advisers shared what they are worried about as they become adults.

They put their hands up if they worried about something when Philippa read it out.

They kept their eyes closed so that it was a secret.

18

We finished our report on preparing for adulthood. We spoke to 31 young people. We asked them what they are looking forward to and what they are worried about when they become adults. Then the Young Advisers looked at their information and thought about what the Council could do to help.

Help train people at normal clubs to understand that some people need a bit of extra help

Help families and young people trust the police and social workers more or we won’t ask them for help

The Council could help parents learn how to give young people more independence and responsibility

Our fundraising for the CATS Conference is going well.

We have ÂŁ179 so far.

We have lots of plans for how to get more money.

You can help us at totalgiving.co.uk/mypage/yahtocats2018 19

Marjorie McClure School - The Dark Horses Finally, after weeks of planning, filming, producing and editing, our film was ready for its preview to staff and students.

The MMC Murders written and produced by The Dark Horses Starring: Katie, Georgina, Jaime, Lee, Malik, Keith, Sam, Travis

Working on this project we have learnt:

        

how to do activities in different ways teamwork to be more ‘grown up and independent’ it has made me more confident how to create a film acting next time I would choose a bigger part longer sessions getting others involved

We are proud of the whole group who took part and challenged themselves. written by Sarah

20

Drumbeat School awareness and our senses Taking notice of things can help us to appreciate what is around us everyday We practiced doing this using our 5 senses touch sight taste sound smell We noticed how the foods we tried felt, smelt, looked and tasted also how they sounded as we crunched or chewed them.

Being aware of our senses everyday can help  calm the mind  relieve stress  focus and concentrate

Glebe School Jules from Bromley & Lewisham Mind came in to talk about mindfulness to help reduce worry and anxiety at school.

We did some exercises to focus our ‘I thought about being on mind on one thing: holiday, it made me happy’  mindfully eating adoughnut!  noticing our breathing For more ways to relax your  remembering a favourite place or mind, visit www.headspace.com event 21

Speak Up Sutton We are really pleased to be supporting children and young people to speak up.

The new group will meet once a month.

Speak Up Sutton are looking forward to working together with the young people.

I hope we’ll get stronger and get more ideas with children and adults working together. We can give ideas to each other.

Derek

I hope we can help the young people and be peer supporters.

Lucy

We have a lot of work and planning to do!

Roger

We have a new supporter joining us.

Welcome to Juan Sanchez!

I am happy to be at Advocacy for All. I have worked as a disability support officer since 2012. I make sure the children are safe, I speak to them in a good way and I help them 1 to 1.

Juan 22

Speak Up Partnership April 2017 It was about 1 to 1 advocacy and self advocacy and the differences between them.

1 to 1 advocacy is when someone speaks up for another person who can’t speak up for themselves. They act on the person’s behalf.

They can’t make decisions for you. They ask you what you want to do about big important decisions and help you get your voice heard.

Self advocacy is about speaking up for yourself and for others and being as independent as you can. written by Philip

Beforehand, I hardly knew anything about advocacy. I learned an awful lot from Alan’s presentation. I could understand it.

Lucy We want to encourage more council people to come to the whole meeting.

We want to let them know that it’s very important that they come to these meetings to hear what people have to say.

All the decisions they make affect everyone that comes.

Alison We all got praised! I went bright red like a traffic light! If I get to say what I want without being interrupted, I am brilliant. This group is the A team. We are the top group.

Rory

23

and

party!

Speak Up Sutton are part of the national Stay Up Late campaign.

We had a disco on 21 May at Sutton United Football Club.

Residents from supported living homes came along with their carers.

Some home managers didn’t want to listen, they said people couldn’t come as they would be in bed!

It’s important for people to make their own decisions about when they want to go home.

Some people still got taken home early and we could tell they didn’t want to go.

We will keep on fighting for people’s rights to stay up late!

Big thank you to the amazing Club Soda DJ’s and our special guest, Tim Vine.

getting in touch Bromley Sparks

020 8300 9666 020 8315 2508

Easy Read Group

020 8315 2508

Sutton office

020 8669 0500

Kent office

01233 668518

Advocacy for All

find us on social media

/advocacy4all /advocacyforall @biggervoice /biggervoices 24