WHAT I HAVE FOUND OUT ABOUT THE BLACK COUNTRY.

An American consul Elihi Burritt in Birmingham 1862, once said or wrote about the Black country, Black by day and red by night. When we think about Elilhi having said that Black country saying may be he gave the Black Country it's name. How Strange an British American could have so much truth of describing the Black Country. This was because the Black country area had a 30ft coal seam in the 19th century, this came from West Bromwich, Oldbury, Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Bilston, Dudley, Tipton, Wednesfield, parts of Halesowen and Wedensbury.

MY FAMILY

My Family.

This is my family, Aunty Vicci standing next to me, my Nan Letty, Mum Jane and my sister Holly.

TRAVEL BUDDY SCHEME FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITES.

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! are now supported by Employment Pathways, even though Mencap started off supporting is. We are now Sole Traders instead of a Social Enter Prize. We are employed by Wolverhampton City Council. We hope to create the Travel Buddy service along with other services. we hope to train people who work in services around learning disability awareness before we have services of our own. ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! Sunday 11th April 2010 up date We are sorry that the business is a year late, it's slowly than we thought it was going to be. We should be having a new business plan, as soon as we do I will up date report as soon as I find out the new change of the business plan.

Andy Howard was with us for a while until he had a few home problems, he even found himself leaving our for about 3 to 6 mouth so he missed out on half of the training myself and Jess went through.He now need to catch up, he's now Self - Employed yet but he will slowly will be.
David Oakley was going to join us as Business partners but he had too many commitments at home.

There must be some people who haven't experienced traveling alone on the West Midlands Travel buses at all, they may have had no choice but to be picked from their own homes and back again. Parents, families and carers may worry about them traveling alone, we will be happy to support them to see that they will be learning independent travel training as well as hopefully putting mini buses on for safety. We will worry more about them traveling at night on the West Midlands Travel but if their choice is to do that, we will have to go a long with it. If we tell them to contact us and their families , carers and etc to see that they are safe. We will support people who are less independent. We Understand that Anti - social behavior is bad enough on it's own but if you don't know where you are going and you can't remember directions, it's even worse. We will do anything and everything we can to support their safety. We understand Anti - social behavior gives anyone grief but if someone can't take no for answer, some people with disabilities may be not be able to cope with it the same as main stream people. Having said that people with disabilities should have the same rights to life as non - disabled people, otherwise we feel useless. We are doing a training at the library this mouth, which will be on one of the reports on this website, we are hoping to do Health training session for Mencap's learning disability week in June and hopefully to doing a training session for people who work in Travel services due to not having a bus station for roughly two years.

We should also be encouraged them to make friendships, relationships through college, work, social events and etc. Give us rights to have what we want with right support! With your support we would like to support others like us to have most rights we have and you have. There are things that we haven't got in life because of the lack of past support. The things we have achieved have been just luck, which hasn't been easy because there was even less support when we were at school and when we left then there is now. We have either learned those things in our time or the very limited support what there there was just about out there. Like everyone we still have a lot to learn, some things it's too late for because the support wasn't out there when we were young enough to learn these things. It isn't all black and white because there are things it's never too late for. With the things we have learned, we would like to teach people with disabilities with better support than what we had. It would be lovely to see these people to be where we are today but going through less hard work than what we went though. Let us do the hard work, we're with you all the way guys!

In case anything happens to a person or people with learning disabilities you are caring for or may be a person with a disability yourself. West Midlands Police WPC Jan Johnson Vulnerable person's officer Wolverhampton , Crime Stoppers and Jan's EXT: IS 7871 6818. If you don't live in Wolverhampton you may be you will able to look for the same support else where. If you email me or and get in touch with Mencap we possibly may be able to help you find a contact in case anything happens to people with a disabilities. If you look at the Mencap website, may be you can find a report called DISABILITY HATE CRIME or type DISABILITY HATE CRIME in the search engine. Nine times out of ten if a crime is going happen, it happens when no one is around. When that happens to a lot of people can get disbelieved but even more so when things happen to people with disabilities . Please if you see anyone with a disability who is very upset over a crime, please support them if they ask you to, thank you or even help anyone who feels they need it. It's too much of a dangerous world but we all have to live our lives.

There wasn't a Travel Buddy Business schemes serves, when we were learning to travel independently. We had to learn the hard way with hardy any support at all but we got there in the end somehow. When I was learning to travel on buses, I was on my last school Penn fields Wolverhampton. I was living with my Nan. The school just sent me to travel out on the bus on a scheme helping out in an Old people's home. I never got there because I spent all day trying to find the place on my own, this happen every time the Deputy Headmaster sent me out there. My Gran was worried sick because there were most nights I didn't in until 7pm. From 9am I spent all day looking for where I was going but never got there. The staff from the Old people's home rang him up to say I didn't turn up. I told him I tried, he didn't believe me and he was very angry with me, so I was completely misunderstood. Lucky enough in those day Anti - Behaviour and Crime was very rare but today it's risky wondering around waisting time, even back then anything could have happened to me. I needed a Travel buddy but me, Jess and Andy will now see other people like I used to be will get their Travel buddies.

If you are really worried, we are hoping to provide either social workers, Key workers or even support workers to support their safety but also give them lead way to do their own thing. Some support may not be there to start off right way but hopefully it will one day. Not surprisingly so a lot of things come down to funding. We could have to do a lot of Fund racing, the government isn't always kind to us. We will keep trying until we get there, like we have had to with our own lives, to give them the best support people as possible, which no one knew about when we were learning. Everyone is learning everyday.

I used to get Ring and Ride when I was seeing my ex boyfriend almost every night of the week, even it got me home safe. it was a pain booking two days before hand. It took forever for them to find out whether they could get you a journey or not, it costs people a lot of money on their phones while they are waiting for their lifts to be booked.People with disabilities need a more accessible way of traveling. Ring and Ring doesn't work very well for a appointments or any events that start and finish certain times.


UP - DATING OF THE TRAVEL BUDDY REPORT. Sunday 11th April 2010. Last Sunday the bus station was closed for a new bus station to be done one, which will take about 18 mouths to 2 yrs. The only replacement of the bus station is Queen Street in Wolverhampton big it's not big enough to access all buses. May buses people have to catch on and off in the street. This is a bog change all people not just people with disabilities. Many people with with disabilities travel rather well on the buses but some don't. We all have different disabilities, we all learn at different speed. If you have always be guided by people it takes a lot to get ready for the big wide world alone. It's not just getting a bus but finding your way around.

There are plenty of school children and school leavers with disabilities that need to learn about the big wide world just like I did just over 20+ yrs ago. It's going be a long 2yrs until the bus station is done. In the mean time, as mostly people are getting out and off in the city and the streets, it needs to be more accessible for people who find more hard to get around. The next change will be in 2yrs time when the bus station is ready, I hope will be able to talk to someone from the Travel services about the changes to the bus station so it's as accessible as possible for people with disabilities to get about.

Now me and Jess have that we have set up Access All Area Now! we can get in touch with some Travel people to have some meetings with them to plan a training session. The Travel buddy service is one of the services we hope to have in the future but we are still finding our feet at the moment, it's still all very new to us. The aim is to support as many areas in the lives of people with learning disabilities as possible. This is why we are called ' ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! We want to train other services about disabilities first. We are not building our hopes but we will never say never. We can only see how successful we can be. We are hoping to meet up with people from Travel services in the West Midlands to find out how accessible the new bus station is going to be.

If you have any views or and stories to share on the subject of transport, travel training and learning disability. I'd be very happy to read your email whether you are a person with a disability, family member, friend or and carer.sarajgorman@gmail or Facebook sarajgorman@gmail.com

HEALTH, SAFETY, EDUCATION, TRAINING AND SUPPORT.

Health & Safety should be educated in the work placements, colleges, schools and etc. I will be talking to Our Shout about people with disabilities having educaion and training support with Health & Safety education, I think it should be the same for non - disabled people too. Our Shout would like people with disabilities to be healthy, safe and happy but also having the rights they want and need. It would be great to have that balance with your support thank. If have any point a views or can give any support on anything. Sarajgorman@google.com or on Facebook sarajgorman@gmail.com

HOME SUPPORT

I hope to be asking Our Shout if they would like a social worker at pond lane Health where we have a lot of our health meetings, if so I will give Our Shout's answer in the pond Lane meeting.

I would be interested to know how many people with disabilities get support in their homes, such as cooking, shopping and etc. I don't think it should depend on what disabilities people have, it should depend on levels of support people with disabilities want and need by their choice because people with disabilities should have the rights to live their lives how they want.
I was very disappointed to read in the report Tell It As It Is. I think this was the Mencap report, I was reading. People with learning disabilities, families and carers have complained about the charges they have to pay for home support because their benefits don't enough. I myself have just copied with family support since people with learning disabilities and their families have had to pay. I don't think it's right because people with disabilities shouldn't have the blame for having disabilities, we don't ask to be the way we are. No one asks to be born but no one asks to have a disability either.

If you have any views on this subject, I'd be very happy to receive your email thank you. If you are a carer, family member, parents, friends, people with a disability or and etc, you are welcome to send me an email about anything you want whether it's worries or not. I can't promise I can help with everything but I can promise for sure that I will listen and respond back to you in the best way I can. I would be interested in any story you may want to tell if you want to for eg: may be if you have been charged too much money for Home Support. I am hoping we will be able to vote the government may be next year to put a stop to these charges, which as I have said had been in the Mencap report.
If you would like to email me about home support sarajgorman@google.com or sarajgorman@gmail.com. You can even email Mencap if you want, who may possibly know more than me on any subject. The email addresses could be the same but difference people deal with difference subjects.

COMMUNICATION TRAINING

I hope to talk to Our Shout about Communication training because I feel it's very important for non - disabled people who supports people with learning disabilities to be able to learn how to understand us in each and every way. Communication training needs to be given.

For example Mapa which is a form of communication learning to understand why most people with disabilities have behavior problems and how to calm these people down. Not even I haven't had any training in Mapa because it's very new. As I said in one of my stories, I used have very bad behavior problems myself as a child. My reasons were that I found my disability very hard to accept so I used get very angry when I couldn't do things and that I didn't feel equal to non - disabled people. Like I said again the very strong tablets I used to be on made me very bad tempered, moody and I felt left out of society. When I came off those tablets, I slowly started to calm. Those tablets also made me very hyperactive with no sleep at night so I was over tired. This is why we need to question, why do most people with disabilities have behavior problems? What goes through people's minds is any one's guess. Most people's behaviors problems may not be for the same reason as mine. What a boring world if we were all the same. Mind you some people have behavior problems without any tablets at all, others some or all tablets could be dangerous for them or some could be just on the wrong tablets. This is one of the reasons why people with disabilities need check ups at least once year. There's nothing worse than finding you don't get on with people through no fault of your own.

A lot of people call these problems challenging behavior, I don't like that word Challenging behavior because behavior problems isn't a challenging. Challenging means trying to do something new and good, which is a new experience. Leaning and doing something new can be very hard at first, that's why it can be challenging. As soon as you have learned whatever it is, you have a achieved it, which is a good thing. Having behavior problems is a bad thing. We mustn't confuse good and bad.

Mental capacity is also a new form of communication for people who find it hard to say what they want in life, whether they get their wishes or not. With those kind of people, we tend to think they haven't got a mind. How do we know that? When we come across those kind of people, how do we know what they do and don't know? How do we know and what they don't want? We must have a communication aid that helps us understand, whether there is one I don't know, do you? Even if that support is there I bet it cost loads of money. It's us who don't understand these people because they can't speak. I think we need to watch what we say because it's possible that they understand us better than we understand them. What we should know is that a lot of these people can communicate in other ways even if they put their hands up to say ( Stop)! Sign language for the deaf, Brail for the blind has been going on goodness knows how many years.

I feel with dyslexia we still have a long way to go to get full dyslexia support. I'm dyslexic myself. People have dyslexia tutors, which is better than it was but through my experience the government isn't allowing enough support. For eg: I couldn't get extra timing with my exams until I went to Dudley, Wolverhampton doesn't do that as far as I know. Old Hall street college doesn't anyway.

There are also a lot of support aids, is good but they costs a lot of money for eg speaking machines for people with speaking problems, coloured paper for people who are dyslexic, not a lot of us have enough money to pay for them. We could do with raising money for these things, otherwise how can we understand these people.

In fact funding seems to be the big problem for a lot of things that are stopping people with disabilities having rights to be equal others, most of the time government funding isn't enough.What makes me angry about the government they tend to spend it on the least important things. I am sure they have more money tucked away than they make out, they just don't want to spend it.

If you are interested in fund raising please have a look on the Mencap website. We are sure to have the right email address for you. If not please get in touch with our office at the Science Park in Wolverhampton Anne Humpherey - Jones 01902 - 824301, Lucy Dunstan 01902 -2824362 or email me to get in touch with them whatever is easier for you, thank you. I will get back to you if you want to tell you what they say.
If you can support us to support you in anyway please send me an email thank you. May be you will be interested in supporting people with disabilities as a career and job. Sarajgorman@googlemail.com or Facebook sarajgorman@gmail.com.