Spring Working together to promote the rights and inclusion of People with learning difficulties in Wiltshire

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1 Spring 2015 Working together to promote the rights and inclusion of People with learning difficulties in Wiltshire

2 A word from the Editors Group Welcome to the Wiltshire People 1 st Spring Newsletter, the first issue for We have lots of things to share with you. Enjoy reading. Having a Healthy Life Dance Project 2014 In the autumn of last year we ran 3 Having a Healthy Life Dance sessions in the Studley Green community hall. We talked about how we can keep fit and healthy, what to eat, exercising and why getting out and about and meeting people is both fun and good for our health. Each session ended with an hour of line dancing to music, a great way to exercise. Simon, Wiltshire People First Joint Chair is a keen line dancer in his spare time. He said I enjoyed the sessions and felt fit and active afterwards. We produced leaflets on healthy eating and some easy read menu cards for people to take away and try out at home. We also gave out a short guide to local places to visit including leisure centres and clubs, that are free or don t cost too much, to help people get out and try something different. 2

3 The Big Meeting 2014 our annual general meeting On the 2 nd December 2014, Wiltshire People First held their Big Meeting at the Trowbridge Rugby Club. It was well attended - lots of people that we have worked with over the year came to support us as well as our regular members and friends from self-advocacy groups and the local colleges. Wiltshire Council, Health Watch Wiltshire and colleagues from the University of Bath were amongst the guests. The meeting began with a welcome from our joint Chair persons and the Director, followed by reports about the work we had done during the year. Our Year in Pictures - a DVD we made showed highlights of our year and celebrated the achievements of Wiltshire People First s members. The theme for the meeting was how technology can help improve disabled people s lives. Sarah Hiscock from Wiltshire Council told us what the council is doing to help everyone get online and have access to computers. Janey Hillier from the Independent Living Centre gave a short demonstration of aids and equipment that can assist disabled and older people to be independent at home. We then had a short session where people were asked to be creative and design things that could make a difference to their lives. We ended with a buffet lunch and a Christmas sing along. Everyone said they enjoyed the day. It was a great success! 3

4 Lacock Unlocked Project Wiltshire People 1 st were excited to be invited to take part in a project called Lacock Unlocked about the history of the Abbey and the village of Lacock. The project was run by the National Trust and the Wiltshire & Swindon History centre. Over 3 visits during October and November 2014, a small group of our members learnt how to use old and new cameras and to take really good photographs. In December, we were thrilled to have a special exhibition in the Big Barn at Lacock, where our photographs went on display for the public to see! The Wiltshire & Swindon History centre in Chippenham also put them on show, so lots of people got to see what we could do! It was really good and I enjoyed taking the photos. The people leading the day were really nice and friendly Chris I enjoyed looking around the Abbey and Museum as I had never been before I am really proud of my photos. Michael A big Thank You to Terry, Rachel and Jamie, for giving Wiltshire People 1 st members the opportunity to get involved and to the volunteers Ronnie and David, for all their help and support, it was great fun and we learnt a lot. The next page of our Newsletter shows some of the photos the members took and that were put on display. 4

5 Linda King Michael Butt Symon Targett Emma Myers David Martin Sandra Wells Niko Massouras Ann Brenner 5

6 Updates - Speaking Up and Young People s Groups in 2015 The Speaking Up Group and Young People s groups have been busy. Some of the topics we have talked about were the changes to bus passes, independent living and Direct Payments, finding information and getting good advice about Support and Making Choices. We also talked about exercise and keeping fit. Over the next few weeks in the run up to the general election in May, we are going to find out about voting, the different parties and what the candidates are going to do for disabled people! Skills For The Future Skills for the Future is a short training course we have been running over the last few weeks. It aims to help people with learning difficulties and autism, to develop their self-confidence and learn new skills so that they are better able to get paid or voluntary work. We have talked about our skills and matching these to jobs, learnt how to fill in an application form and write a CV. We had fun practicing being interviewed in role play exercises. Each workshop includes an hour of art activity to help with team building and making the most of our creative skills we didn t know we had so many budding artists amongst us! In the next newsletter we will tell you more about this and show you our art work. 6

7 Bath University Conversations We have been invited again to help train student social workers, so they have a better understanding of how to communicate with people with learning difficulties and to understand what is important to them. Thank you to all our members who are taking part in the conversations, the students really appreciate your help. News Flash!! New Project starting soon! Quality Checkers Wiltshire People 1 st will be working in partnership with Health Watch Wiltshire to run a pilot project to help train volunteers with learning difficulties to check out health and social care services. Health Watch Wiltshire have a team of specially trained volunteers who are authorised to visit places - Enter and View. We will be training a small group of people with learning difficulties to become Quality Checkers who will be able to help Health Watch with these visits. We are busy recruiting and will begin training in May. Look at our website and in the next newsletter for updates. If you are interested and want to know more please call the office. 7

8 Wiltshire Learning Disabilities Partnership Board The Learning Disabilities Partnership Board met on Wednesday Jan 2015 in county hall. Symon our joint chair person co chairs the meeting with Dugald Miller from the council. We heard about the new Care Act 2014 which comes into effect in April, had updates about the Winterborne View review group, Healthwatch Wiltshire and Safe Places. The next Board meeting is on Wednesday 22 nd April in Salisbury. We will put the notes of meetings on our website. News Round up from the Self Advocacy groups... Changes to Self-Advocacy from April 2015 Wiltshire People 1 st currently work across the county on big pieces of work such as consultations and specific projects, but its main area has been in the north and west of Wiltshire. As from April, Wiltshire People First will be the main self-advocacy organisation and cover the whole of Wiltshire, extending its membership to include east Wiltshire (covering the old Kennet area). Home Farm Trust(HfT) have said they will help Open Minds to meet as a social group. We will be providing support to SISAG, but they will remain a group in their own right and continue to work locally in Salisbury. SISAG can be contacted on The Council is committed to supporting user led organisations and recognises the importance of independent self-advocacy. We hope this new arrangement will make it easier for people who need our services, to contact us and get involved, be more cost effective and be an ideal opportunity to strengthen the voice of people with learning difficulties and autism in Wiltshire, at a time when lots of things are changing. 8

9 Open Minds Open Minds held their A.G.M in early January. Members were very disappointed by the sad news that Wiltshire Council will not continue to fund Open Minds as a self-advocacy group. Emma Pithers and Steph Peskett from Hft attended the meeting to reassure members that Hft was committed to continuing to support the group in another form (mainly for social activities) if that was what members wanted. Members all voted to continue the group. Meetings that are already booked will continue as planned, however there will be some changes, so please check this out with Laura or Steph. Over the next year Open Minds looks forward to welcoming representatives from Safe places, and Centre for Independent Living, to come and talk to us. Other events include a skittles evening, Makaton refresher training, and a trip to see the Air Ambulance, plus a summer B.B.Q. There will be workshops run on voting in the next election and how to use . For details of the dates and times of events please see our website: 9

10 Salisbury Independent Self Advocacy Group " SISAG met up twice during December and looked back at At the January meeting we planned the topics to work on in We will all be registering to vote in the May General Election and will put on a workshop with Mencap beforehand to remind us all about how voting and elections work. We hope to have the local candidates tell us what they would do for people with learning difficulties if they won the most votes and so got elected to Parliament as an MP. We will soon be helping at the Learning Difficulties 'Cheap and Free Activities' launch in Salisbury and hope to celebrate Learning Difficulties Week in June by having a day out doing confidence-building activities. Two of our members who were too ill to come to the Wiltshire People 1st Big Meeting are shown here in photos so you don't forget what they look like. They are both called Chris and hope to get to see you all again sometime in " Useful Contacts: Police (nonemergency) 101 Wiltshire Council Adult Care Your News and Ideas! If you have any news or ideas you would like to share with Wiltshire People 1 st members please get in touch with us on

11 Wiltshire People First Dates for Your Diary Speaking Up Groups am until pm at the Independent Living Centre, Semington 24 th March st April th May 2015 Young Person s Groups am until pm At the Independent Living Centre, Semington 25 th March th May rd June 2015 WPF Summer Event On Tuesday 23 rd June At Trowbridge Rugby Club 11

12 Contact Us! Wiltshire People 1st Independent Living Centre St. George s Road, Semington Wiltshire. BA14 6JQ Telephone: admin@wiltshirepeople1st.org.uk Website: This newsletter is written and produced by Wiltshire People 1 st. Images used in this newsletter are a mixture of photos of members and local places, other pictures are from the Photosymbols databank. Wiltshire People 1 st is supported by Wiltshire Council. Thank you. The Our Lives, Our History project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund 12