Good Lives 2020 Self Advocates Workshop

Birmingham workshop 19th February 2020

By Gary Bourlet

We held our first self-advocacy workshop in Birmingham to start the work on Good Lives 2020. This was about bringing self-advocacy groups around the country together, not about new ideas, but about working together on how to put ideas into action. A lot of these have been talked about for at least 20 or 30 years, but a lot has been said and not been made happen.

It’s all a chance for these groups to network together as a lot of groups have been doing things separately. Each individual group would work on individual issues most important to them and network these with other groups, so its not about one group taking on everything.

We talked about some big areas that research has already told us is important:

Advocacy and Self-Advocacy
Housing
Money and Benefits
Paid Jobs
Health
Relationships
Rights
Sport and Leisure

People in the room added 2 more based on what they think or know is important to others

They added

Accessibility and Education and Learning

There were 6 tables which had about eight people around all adding their ideas to each issue and we want to know about their ideas and what are the next steps and who will do what?

Who else to meet with like social workers, Members of Parliament, councillors, Providers, parents etc, as Good Lives is about working together with others.

It was a good start to this important work and there was a lot of good networking going on as these photos show!

You can find out more about Good Lives and what we talked about on the day on our website HERE