THINGS NEED TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

I think employers should build a understanding with people with learning disabilities and Mental Health problems.

People with learning disabilities ourselves understand it's important to keep safe, which is where Health and Safety comes into it but with the right support in the work placement this should be possible.


As at least nine out of ten people with disabilities don't drive have to replete on transport for eg buses. Due to how bad the traffic is these been on time for work can't always be promise same applies to anyone who has to reply on pubic transport. Transport not been reliable can make people lose their jobs. We are trying to help with disabilities and Health problems to be equal to all people, this isn't making our job easy.

A lot of people with disabilities and Health problems are on tablets that may slow them down, this is what Health staff should look into. It's important that people should be aware of what's going on around them. In the terms of people with disabilities work Health should be keeping record to people's and calling them out more often for check ups. Employers need to take peoples'health on board mainly people with disabilities or and Health problems.

With the right support for interviews and in the work place work it should be possible for people with disabilities to be employed or even Self - employed if they want.


Employers are missing out on the creative talents most people with disabilities and Mental Health problems have got. They may be good at other things too, it's just going for they are good at what they enjoy.

Training and exams too.

I am Sara Jane Gorman a member of Our - Self Advocacy group supported by Mencap. This is our Travel Buddy Social Enterprise Proposal.

People with learning disabilities are encouraged to access community faclilities but this will be hard and more expensive for those who don't travel independently.

Isolation is a feeling that many people with learning disabilities face in the evenings and weekends. There's very little support for most people to get out and about, they never get the chance to learn how to travel independently.

A' Travel Buddy' will support people to travel on pubic transport to get them where they want and need to go. This will build peoples'confidenece up and potentially lead them to becoming an independent traveller in the future.

Due to how bad the traffic these days there can be hold ups to get people to places for certain time limits, that's not just a problem for people with learning disabilities but for everyone. This is another cause of why unemployment is so high when pubic transport makes people late for work.

To promote the Health and Well being of people with learning disabilities by increasing involvement in community based work and activities.

Intensively trained adults with learning disabilities to set up a city wide team of paid ' Travel Buddies'.


The proposed service will help to encourage social inclusion, promote independence, and give paid work chances.

Many people with disabilities do not like travelling on ' special buses to day centres and often spend a long time on the transport while other people are picked up.

Often people are travelling to day centres before going to college in the mornings. This means two journeys instead of one! They are not learning to be in dependant if they are picked up and from their homes.

Background In March 2008 us members of Our Shout Self Advocacy group decided to set up our own business. In the past we haven't had any positive experiences in the workplace and we want to create jobs ourselves for people with disabilities with the right support. After a time the Travel Buddy service didn't kick off so Mencap passed us on to Employment Pathways then we Changed to Access All Areas Now! Learning Disability Awareness Training serive, which is even now due to funding, the cutbacks for our support very slow. October 2010 Lucy our supporter of Our Shout left in October but we were thinking about making changes anyway as we now have very few members in Our Shout and we want to make our career grow. Both me and Jessica run Access All Areas Now! but Jessica is finding she has too much work with Mencap to own Access All Areas Now! so hopefully I will be running it myself with the right support. There again when I had a meeting with Our Shout I told them I didn't want to leave them out so asked them how they would like the idea of Our Shout and Access All Areas Now! linking together so we can train new members to be where we are today and give services learning disability awareness training. We hope day to create a services for topics of life for people with disabilities, that's the idea of Access All Areas Now! Travel Buddy we hope to be one of those topics.

Aims

The travel service will give proper paid jobs for people with learning disabilities.

The travel service will give one to one support to people with learning disabilities to get around on pubic transport so they can get around.

To support social inclusion for people with disabilities and help them become more confident and independent.

To give a unique service to Wolverhampton that supports people with disabilities and give people by people with disabilities. There are many examples in other areas of the country where this is working well.


Mencap put a bid for European funding back in 2008 and still counting to look for other funding chances in chance this is not a success. Update 8th November 2010.



The problems that our disabilities cause can affect our lives, which can make it very hard for employers to understand and accept,this can cause us discrimination.

People with disabilities should be allowed to educate and train staff and managers on the training, education and support we need in all areas of including Health, Safety and Security. I feel that's all we need as people with disabilities but with equal rights to get by in life.

If people with disabilities enjoy their job, if we have good people around us who are nice to us,People with disabilities need to train non - disabled people around disability awareness and train them to improve support for people with disabilities. We will look forward to getting out of bed in the mornings if we like the people we work with and if we enjoy our job same goes for the rest of the society.

Employers should create jobs for people disabilities or and support, train and educate us to set up our own businesses, if that's what we want, we want to feel equal to others. As you read in the Travel Buddy report Mencap are support us to hopefully getting our own business. I think people with disabilities are getting so Feb up with waiting for people to support them into work, it's slowly getting common for them to be having support for them set their own business to support people like themselves.

Some people with disabilities are creative, what about making small changes? For :eg I can write poetry, stories, draw and paint. Attitudes need to change for the better. You don't know what you are missing by turning down people like us down. I feel as if it's only Mencap and Employment Pathways who have had faith in me.

How many of you employ and pay people with disabilities and or Health problems?
What kind of jobs are out there for people with disabilities and how many of you support us and employ us?
Most of this report is what I wrote to introduce to the Employment play.

Up date this report Saturday 12th September 2009
A year and a half after Mencap's Employment play in June 2008, the government has launched a plan called Valuing Employment Now.

It talks about how to help as many people with disabilities as possible into work. The jobs should be for at least 16 hours a week. We shouldn't be trapped in this benefit trap we have a job to earn enough money to live our lives, that includes paying for our Health care just like other people. Benefits should be given to families and carers who look after people with disabilities who need a lot more care than what we do.

Government leaders say " We need more people with disabilities in jobs".

" We know that people with disabilities want to work and can do a good job that employers value.

" Employment is a fundamental part of life and only when people with disabilities have the same chances as all people."
This values us people with disabilities the same as all human beings.

This is going to be planned so that people with disabilities can work like all people but with the right support they want and need.

I am pleased to say it looks like without building any hopes that the government hopefully won't let us down that things are starting to look up even though if it's took over a year to get feed back from the Employment play I wrote last year June 2008. Thank you those who supported us.

November 2010 update.

All people over Britain are stuffer cutbacks for everything. When it comes to people with disabilities needing support for everyday skills for eg running a home, then there isn't the money to pay Social Care staff to support them. Families and carers aren't getting any younger so what does the future bring? These cutbacks affect every topic to do with peoples' lives which affects you whether you have disabilities and Health problems or not.

It is more dangerous for people with disabilities to look at the four walls 24 hours a day we need to work and go to college, we will just depressed otherwise. We need more to life than just keeping our lives and minds busy, we want a career just like you.

If you would like to email me on anything at all, I would be very interested here from from you if it's anything to do with learning disability, meaning family member, carer, parent or a person with a learning disability yourself. You make want to talk about the cutbacks or and learning disability rights. sarajgorman@googlemail.com