A Course that will give its participants the knowledge and skills to plan better futures for disabled people and their families. Designed for parents who have disabled children over the age of 16 years and for disabled adults.

 

“We are all colleagues together in a very important mission. Ultimately our goal can be nothing less than total transformation of our culture. Only when the most vulnerable of us is valued and appreciated for his or her gifts will everyone be safe and supported to be a fulfilled person. Inclusion is in the journey, not in the goal. Each step of the journey is an important as the ultimate destination.”

Judith Snow


The Course consists of five two day sessions.

Sharing the Challenge is about building new alliances which will becomepowerful and make real differences to the future of disabled people. Working separately means that our voices are limited. When these voices are heard collectively, giving united messages of what disabled people, their families and the people who are paid to support them want and need, things will really begin to change for the better. There is a lot to be done. We can do it together.

The Course will be as inclusive as possible, with reasonable expenses paid and support provided when needed. This will be arranged on an individual basis. There will be approximately 20 participants, these will be disabled adults and parents of disabled adults. When we use the term disabled, we are including people with learning disabilities, people with sensory impairments and people with physical impairments.

Sharing the Challenge will provide information, training and skill building to participants so that they may gain the knowledge and confidence they need to campaign and advocate for a better future for disabled people in our society. A strong values base of inclusion and disability equality underpins the programme.


During this session we will explore the history of services for disabled people. Sharing some stories we will examine the impact of the way services and support are planned at present has on people's lives.

During this session we will spend time looking at how discrimination on the grounds of disability has resulted in people being excluded from the heart of their community, and begin to explore ways of planning for a better future – our wish list.
 

This session will concentrate on – what sort of help people need at home: how family support should be organised; how do we support people with disabilities to leave the family home and live in a place of their choice with the support they need, we will find out about the growth of the community living movement and hear about new ways of supporting people within the community.

We will hear about ways of supporting people to find work and earn a living, we will learn about the training and support that people need to do this. We will be finding out how people's benefits can be affected by earnings and about their legal rights within the workplace.
 

This session is about how to influence things locally. People will have a variety of things they want to change in their community, we will learn about how planning and policies happen, become familiar with how meeting work, agendas are agreed, how to work in true partnership with people who make decisions about the services people receive.
 

We will learn about how to influence Government and get policies adopted to improve things nationally. We will hear personal experience of influencing national policy. What's important to know about the legislative process? Strategies for political action.
 

We all think about and plan our lives in different ways. Some people have very clear ideas about what they want and how to achieve it; others take opportunities as they arise. We will spend the two days learning about person centred planning. Person centred planning is a way of helping peope who want to make some changes in their life. It provides creative alternatives to the traditional ways of planning. It is now acknowledged that people who use services, their families and those who love and support them are the experts. Person centred planning enables people to take control of their lives. Helping them to identify a desirable future, and developing a strategy to achieve it.
 
 
 
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