What Rachael, one of our Membership and Engagement leads, has been up to this week.
On Tuesday I travelled down to Bristol to connect with southern members and partners at the Big Connect, a More Than A Provider event.
More than a Provider is collaborative of support providers who support and are taking action toward to Social Care Future’s Vision.
It was great to see so many members there, including paid support rep Scott!
In a workshop with United Response and Dimensions we talked about the My Vote, My Voice campaign encouraging people with a learning disability to take part in elections.
We held a mock election, if only it was that easy to get a government to prioritise social care!
My second workshop of the day was with Beyond Limits, we heard from Lucy and Doreen about how real person-centred planning makes sure people live a good life.
Lucy shared her story alongside her sister about how she has spent the last 9 years building a good life after thirteen years in hospital. Lucy shared her life now includes nightclubbing till 4am, babysitting her nieces and nephews and working on the transforming care agenda.
The final workshop I went to was ran by OpenStoryTellers. Alex challenged us to think about how organisations need to be active allies to people with learning disabilities. Non-disabled allies need to be angry and challenging to ableist systems.
We need to keep asking ourselves’ what did we do/did the system do that allowed this to happen?’
The day was full of singing, dancing, art and challenging us all to action.
Paul spent the day creating this great graphic from the discussions:
If you are interested in connecting with Social Care Futures they have a number of peer support sessions coming up over the next several months, sign up to their newsletter for updates.
If I didn’t see you there this time, I hope to next time!