Monday 25 May 2009

NOT ALL THE WORLD IS BLACK AND WHITE.

It is hard for people with disabilities to meet each other often to due to transport problems. I do think it's good for people with disabilities to mix with people without so they aren't too over protected by society. people with disabilities can be ignored by most people without disabilities. People tend to get the wrong end of the stick about people with disabilities they may say or do things that most non - disabled people can misunderstand because most people with disabilities may not be aware.

I think it's good that Lucy Baxter the Mother of Otto Baxter is not too over protected over him also disappointed that she is the opposite. I do think she needs to be careful. In this story I don't hear a lot or anything at all about Otto's chose of what he wants. Encouraging him to have sex with prostitutes because people with disabilities find it hard meet people to have relationships with people as it is. I don't believe his Mum should chose whether he goes with someone with or without. If two people fall in love it should not matter as long as they love one another. As for having a child, the support should be out there for him whether his partner has a disability or not. There will be times that the Mother will need a break so there should be support just for Otto at those points. Let's hope it does not happen but another possible is if Otto and a person without a disability has a child then say they slit up. Otto may need support if she sends him to count or she may be trying to claim more money off him than she should.

People with disabilities have suffered enough discrimination against our race as it without society giving us a worse name. This could cause a lot of people to cause crime toward people with disabilities. People with disabilities could find it even harder to gain friendships and relationships due to their disabilities.

However, it's all about the choice of the person a disability. Has Otto's Mother had this idea about him having sex with a prostitute without him having a chose? He could have a lot of stick off people without him understanding why. This could depend on what kind of disability he has, if does have a choice he may or may not understand what choice to make. If he doesn't understand what choice to make that's even more wrong of his Mother when she should know his needs. If he gets picked on he could be very upset and confused not been aware why he's getting picked on. If he does understand and he chooses to go along with his Mum's idea, there should be the right support out there in case people give him a hard time. Support should be offered for Otto on whatever choice he makes. It could be that his Mum could be controlling because Otto may not want to go along with her idea. He well need support if she's giving him a hard time at home.

There should be a balance of knowing the needs of people with disabilities but not holding their hands twenty - four seven.

Women with disabilities can be too over protected when it comes to sex which is understandable. It's good that there is protection out there to stop them from getting pregnant when they haven't got support but they should have support to have their rights to having equal lives to non - disabled parents. I can well understand people being over protected for the safety of the child and the parents. This all boils down to not enough funding to pay support workers to support people with disabilities to look after their children. A lot of non - disabled people don't realise what it would be like to be in the shoes of people with disabilities. If society controlled their rights they wouldn't like it either. If the right support is or would have been out there the parents of the people with disabilities would have been able to live their lives the same as parents who have adult children without disabilities knowing that their grandchild going to be looked after only with the right support.

Most people without disabilities won't go out with people with disabilities. I myself would not refuse to love a person for the reason they do or don't have a disability. If I fall in love with a person I love a person for a person. Most people I know, know I have a disability. The reason for a majority of people without disabilities not wanting relationships with people with disabilities is because they want partners who don't need support to look after their children. Most people without disabilities seem to look at people with disabilities as a lot of hard work. There seems to be a lot of guilt and shame put on people with disabilities because of their disabilities, when they didn't give themselves their disabilities. A lot of people don't understand unless it was to happen to them. I think people need educating. Not all the world is black and white at least it should not be. We are all human beings like all people most people should stop holding people's race against them.

Saturday 23 May 2009

Our reports on ' Access All Areas Now!'

EQUALITY STATEMENT.

'Access All Areas Now!' has vision for a society where all people with learning disabilities are valued equally, listened to and included. This can only happen if people with learning disabilities are given chances and choices with the right support.

We believe vision and mission can only be achieved if we make full use of the talents and resources of people with learning disabilities. We want to be a diverse business and enable other businesses, services and organisations to do the same. Where individual differences are recognised and valued and where discriminatory attitudes and practices are challenged.

'At Access All Areas Now!' we believe that everyone should have equal chances in life, no matter what their ability, ethnicity, gender, beliefs or life experiences may be.

We want to make sure our services are there for everyone and that they are used by a wide range of businesses and organisations to enable them to give a more inclusive service to the local community.

We value difference and want to recruit a diverse workforce to increase the range of skills and talents in 'Access All Areas Now!' This will make us stronger as a business.


Testimony on behalf of Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, Principal Lecturer for practice and Innovation at the University of Wolverhampton.

I am writing to confirm that ' Access All Areas Now!' give a great learning resource in terms of helping people/future health and social care workers to understand some of the issues that surround learning disability and health and social care needs.

In December 2008, the team from ' Access All Areas Now!' spent three days at the School of Health. They gave a presentation on learning disability issues and worked with a number of health care students from different disciplines, their key roles were to act out particular health care conditions and scenarios to give students a chance to plan and where appropriate simulate their care.

The team were great, they followed all relevant instructions, were able to act out the play scenarios and quickly became a part of the team. The students and staff evaluated their work incredibly positively and we look forward to working with them in the future.


Testimony on behalf of Cliff Hawkins.

In my capacity as Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Wolverhampton City NHS PCT, working with adults with learning disabilities, I've had the privilege to work closely for the past three years or so with people aiming to set up ' Access All Areas Now!'

These people have shown great entrepreneurial ability in many ways. For eg; they have written, produced and performed plays getting across powerful messages to the general pubic about important to people with learning disabilities - such as good access to Health care. Also, they have been instrumental in working with Wolverhampton council set up a £150,000 project to re-launch Person-Centre planning in Wolverhampton.


Testimony on behalf of Veronica Jackson, Senior Lecturer for Learning Disabilities at the University of Wolverhampton.


Jess and Sara were part of a Self-advocacy group who speak up for people with learning disabilities. Jess and Sara participated in a role play demonstrating the difficulties of LD have in accessing primary care services. The play received by students and staff from all branches of nursing here at the University for Inter-professional week (health care professionals).

Jess and Sara demonstrated in presenting in front of a large group in the classroom and in the lecture theatre. I personally as a Senior Lecture would welcome them back to do further teaching sessions for our students here at University of Wolverhampton.


Behalf of Sara Gorman, Our Shout Mencap and 'Access All Areas Now!'

We would like to thank all people without disabilities who work with us for supporting in Our Shout and Access All Areas Now! Not only in our career would be possible without you all but we wouldn't of been able to run a business with your support. Our thanks goes out to Mencap, Employment Pathways and many more people who work for difference companies to support people with learning disabilities like us. I have been working in the field of learning disability for three years now. Before I started this work, I never had any joy accessing employment, apart from college and work placements I signed on for 13yrs.

Access All Areas Now! and Our Shout thank you all who have supported us with our work, we have really have enjoyed working with you and receiving your support to give us career we all have got today. All we ask for now is for Our Shout joins Access All Areas Now! if they all want to. Thanks to your training and support we feel positive enough to be more than a Self - Advocacy group in Our Shout but business men and women in 'Access All Areas' Now'! We would like to give other people with learning disabilities a chance to join a Self - Advocacy group like Our Shout or Our Shout, which will train others the same as we are today.

Saturday 9 May 2009

ABOUT OUR BUSINESS.

Access All Areas Now! PROFILE

sara Jane Gorman and my business partner Jessica Bromley, we are Learning disability awareness trainers. Me and Jessica are members of a Self - Advocacy group called Our Shout supported by Royal Mencap in Wolverhampton.We are both members of a Self - Advocacy group called Our Shout supported by Mencap, we speak up for the rights of people with disabilities. We were both born and we live in Wolverhampton West Midlands. We are experienced in the field of learning disabilities. We have create work presentations to professional locally and regionally. We will be soon managing ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! were supported by Mencap but we are supported by Employment Pathways in Wolverhampton. we will be all working as a team to create ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW!

Me and Jessica do our best to keep learning disability awareness on the agenda.


We are based at the Science park in the City of Wolverhampton. Access All areas Now! is based at Albert road Wolverhampton.

We are experienced consultants in the field of learning disability.
We have delivered presentations to professions locally and regionally.

I have delivered learning disability awareness training at.

The school of nursing at the University of Wolverhampton.

Social work students at the University of Wolverhampton.

Health care students at the University of Wolverhampton.

Student Health staff at the University of Wolverhampton.

Student GPS at the University of Wolverhampton.


Staff and manager Paddie Quick from the Special needs library Wolverhampton at Centre library Wolverhampton.


Jessica is a keen model. Jessica has done modeling in 2 run shows in the region.
In March 2009, Jessica has traveled to Bulgaria to work with children with disabilities in an orphanage, as well as adults with disabilities in Day Centres where she worked she gave independence and gave new experiences and chances for people.


I am a keen writer,I went on a script and screen course March 2009, to better my writing but I am more of a poet and short story writer. Christmas 2009, I helped Mencap to set up a Disabled writer's group, our members are only just starting to grow. Back in June 2008, I wrote and co - produced an Employment play to raise awareness of the difficulties people with learning disabilities have accessing employment. I have been on a script and Screen course to improve my writing, which my writing has got better but I am very much a beginner in writing plays. I had been going to different colleges for many years but I had lack of support with my dyslexia for my plays to be written on time.

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! started about 18 mouths ago but we only got out building April 2010.


WHO ARE WE, WHAT ARE WE PLANNING TO DO?

Target groups and beneficiaries.

People with disabilities will be the main beneficiaries as employing delivering the services of ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW by building and creating the chances of work for people with disabilities.

Local businesses and organisations will give a range of practical soutions to help them to more responsive to the needs of people with learning disabilities. It will also enable employers to fulfil on the provision of health and social care for people with learning disabilities as employees and employers.

We have have recently done a three - mouth pilot with Wolverhampton City Council to give equality and diversity training to front - line health and social care staff.

We will give a two - hour session within training day that will be specific to learning disabilities. The Pilot will run from September to December 2009.




ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! has a vision for society where all people with a disability are valued the same as people without. People with disabilities will be listened to and included into society with the help of ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! This can only happen if people with disabilities are given the same choices and chances as all people.

We believe that our vision and mission can only be achieved if we make full use of the talents and resources people with disabilities have got. We want to diverse business, and enable and organisations to do the same. Where individual differences are recognised and valued and where discriminatory attitudes and training is challenged.

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! believe that all people should have the same chance in life, no matter the ability, ethnicity, gender, beliefs like all people. ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! we will accept people who have a keen interests to help and work with people with disabilities.

We want to make sure that our services are there for all and they are used by a big range of businesses and organisations to enable them to give more inclusive service to local people in the West Midlands. We hope that in the far future we will encourage ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! or businesses like us to be all round Britain.

WHERE WE HAVE GIVEN LEARNING DISABILITY AWARENESS TRAINING SO FAR.

The school of Nursing at the University of Wolverhampton Social work students at the University of Wolverhampton Health care professionals at New Cross Hospital Wolverhampton

Employment Pathways helped myself and Jess to set up our own business called' Access All areas Now!' we were a Social Enter prize now we are Sole Traders. Employment Pathways is a Work Scheme for people with disabilities.

The purpose of this business is for myself and Jessica will see that people with disabilities will get easy access to the right help than what we did to get by in life. We could well end up been based at Albert road Day centre in Wolverhampton. Even though we call ourselves ACCESS FOR ALL AREAS NOW! not everything will happen at once. It takes time and money to build a business. I think we will be starting off with 2 areas Travel Buddy and Link Nurses. We will be offering out training to people and places who wanted to be trained in Learning Disability Awareness. We will start off small and work our way up.

Myself and Jess have had disabilities all our lives that have affected us and slowed us down in difference ways, we have faced the bad barriers of having disabilities but through those barriers we have achieved some very good skills.Our experiences of having had disabilities have helped us to be about to set up and run our own business. Jessica and I want to work hard enough to see that people with disabilities are getting right help to what they want in their lives just like all people.


TRAINING FROM ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW!

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! want to employ people with disabilities as well as people without. ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW will give people with disabilities help and advice for their talents to grow.

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW!
Students and Service providers will be learning off local Learning Disability organisations, businesses, services and companies; they will also learn off ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW! We will train in these services to help people with learning disabilities access easy services as possible.


The Learning Disability Awareness Training will run into 3 units.

Accessible information service

Audit service Learning Disability Awareness service.

LEARNING DISABILITY AWARENESS TRAINING.


STAFF WILL NEED TO LEARN ABOUT.

History of people with disabilities.
Staff will have to learn about the hard barriers people with disabilities had to face with their lives so they can learn to make things better in future.
There are still a lot of these hard barriers going on even now.
Staff will need to notice what people with disabilities are find hard, then either give or and find the right help for them.

Staff need to believe and notice when people with disabilities have talents. Staff will need to learn how to advice them where to people with disabilities can show their talents. Today we still have a long way to go until people with disabilities feel a part of society. Staff will need to team up with Jessica and I to see that things get better for people with disabilities everyday.

Staff must be more positive with people with disabilities then they will feel more positive about staff.

Not just staff but all people without disabilities should treat, accept and respect people disabilities equally to everyone else in society.

Staff must treat people with disabilities equally to everyone else.

Staff should use easy and clear pictures and words so people with disabilities under stand information. Staff should be nicer to people with disabilities and people with disabilities should be nicer to staff.

There should not be any discrimination against anyone whether they have a disability or not.
People with disabilities are not useless, with the right help people with disabilities will get by people who had a disabilities, you have to find the right help for yourself like all people with disabilities have to?
A lot of disabilities happen by accident, from birth and through no fault of peoples' own.

LEARNING DISABILITY AWARENESS TRAINING.

ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW!
Access All Areas Now! will officer bespoke training to local businesses and organisations which Learning Disability Awareness trainers will do. The course will give a positive under standing of our training, needs and aspiration of with a learning disability are trained to train services to be and give good services and the commercial and retail sector to better outcomes for people with disabilities who may be receiving services or who are potential workers. The training will search issues first hand and clearly demonstrate the talents people with disabilities have. Aim to break down the barriers of prejudice and stigma that people with disabilities have always faced.

ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION.

Our service will be there for other services if they want learning disability awareness training. We will do our best to help Service providers learning how make information for people with learning disabilities to read and in turn, other client groups. This could range from Service leaflets, help with consultation materials or policy documents.

People working in the field of learning disabilities will be trained by two people with disabilities. This service will be there for local businesses and organisations to help information become accessible with disabilities Jessica and myself who are Learning Disability Awareness trainers.

With the training of Access All Areas Now! people will be trained to make information more easy for people with disabilities to read and understand People with a disability and in turn, other client groups. This could range from service leaflets, help with consultation materials or policy documents.

INCLUSION AUDITS
These will mixture of formal and informal checks, creating independent advice on how to make a businesses and organisations more learning disability friendly. The audits will access a small set of standards across a range of criteria. For eg:


User involvement
Creating Policy Adapting resources and built environment Communication( both written and verbal)

Local organisations and businesses undertake and passing audit will receive an award acknowledging their positive approach and this will be given through the local media and networks built by ACCESS ALL AREAS NOW!

Those who don't achieve the award will be given advice how to better their training. Other well know approaches such as 'mystery shoppers' will be used to check for inclusive training and pratice whether organisations and businesses are meeting current legislation.

Thursday 7 May 2009

PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE


Our Drama play turned out very well on Friday 5th June 2009. We cut a few scenes out because we had only enough funding for 20 minutes.
Jessica dressed as the White lady with a white nightly, white paint on her face and make up.
Sam Hanchard played George the hotel manager, Tracey played his wife, myself Sara Gorman played the maid and Jamie Higgins was the chief. Jason played John who saw the devil and Greg Silvester played the devil on BrierleyHill. Colin Bresland, David Ball, Kelly Price, Gemma Hepwood and Tom Goode played all ghosts of Brierley Hill.

News on Mates to Dates?

Learning Disability Awareness in Socialing.

I only found out about a mouth ago that Dates to Mates sadly came to an end due to a lack of funding through today's cutbacks. I know we didn't have a great of members anyway but with a deal of slow hard work I believe we would have got there. Most people without disabilies tend to think that it's as easy for people with to get about as much as people without. These cutbacks have caused a lot of problems for eg; Mencap have another social project called Cirlce of Friends cutting back too. Where people with disabilities are going to spend their evenings I don't know. Many people need support to get out and about whether it's day or night, the money seems to be cutting back to support them. Most people become very depressed if they can't get out to meet one another or even make new dates or and mates.For your views please email sarajgorman@googlemail.com Written Monday 20th December 2010

What we have learned about running Mates to Dates

We had our last event On Saturday 2nd May 2009. It went alright, very few people still turned up. I have heard that most people are paying but not turning up, I may have told you before in Mates to Dates reports that we do not do refunds sorry, which means we can not pay you your money back.
We are aware that help for transport still is not good enough. We are still working as hard as we can to get the Travel Buddy together. We are still waiting for a building to run our business. We think it could end up been at Albert road Wolverhampton mid to late summer. I know we promised April this year but it has taken longer than we excepted. We won't be just helping people with disabilities with traveling but other areas of our lives too. This is why we will be calling ourselves ACCESS FOR ALL AREAS NOW! Sorry to say that it could happen very slowly I guess for us to support areas at once very quickly. Running a business does not happen quickly as a lot of you may well know. It can take a lot of time and money as I have said in the ACCESS FOR ALL AREA NOW! report.

If you help people with disabilities in anyway, please help them to get out and about to enjoy themselves. Please don't be too over protected but just be there if they want you there. Please don't stop them doing what they want to do and give them their own choices in their lives with the right support.

We worry about drinking, nobody is saying that you can't drink, you are adults after all. Please be careful for not only for your safety but the safety of others. Sometimes when people drink far too much, they can say things that they don't mean. When you say how you feel about people on Mates to Dates you could say one thing on the night but not feel the same the next day. After you have had a date with each person, we will give a piece paper so you can tell us what you think about each person. On the piece of paper there are three pictures a man and woman loving one another that means dates, Two people putting hands on their shoulders that means mates and two people standing back to back meaning that they don't want to know one another. It's very important that you are truthful of how you feel about people. It's also very important that the people dating you tell the truth of how they feel about you. You will circle the picture to say how you feel about each person you have had a date with. If you have a match in a matter of days we will contract you but it could be a match as a date or a mate.


I am sorry that on my website I haven't really got the tools make it accessible but if you need any help in reading and under standing in what I am trying to say on my website, you are very welcome to email over anything at any time. Don't always except quick respond because I can be very busy! sarajgorman@googlemail.com

Sunday 3 May 2009

I will find a way to move on.

I will never move on as long as I stay with you.
Even though our relationship may have ended in friendship not hate but carrying on seeing one another like we have been is getting us nowhere.
I know you have nowhere to move on to but that's just your own fault.
I have been there every step of the way for you for 15 yrs now, how mad am I?
You have never seem to know what you wanted, how mad have I been to wasting my time on you?
Now I don't have anymore time to waste on a man who does not love me anymore, perhaps you never did.
Nothing seems to be changing between us but yes I'm changing I'm moving on to another life but I don't know where.
I hope the next man in my life will know what he wants and love me for me.
After having seen you for 15yrs, it will be hard and strange being without you but I will get through.
What's the point staying with you as it seems things are not moving forward for any of us?
You never seem to believe in yourself, you say you always fail when it comes to relationships, Why have I wasted 15 yrs with a person who does not believe in himself?
If you carry on saying negative things about yourself, you will go down with the negative things you do say about yourself.
You thought I was going to go down with you, how wrong are you?