Well this week has been absolute madness!
We have events, events and more events coming up in the ARC schedule. I have (so far) advertised 19 new events on the ARC website and there are ten more LDQ Update days in East Midlands still to add.
The ARC Training Programme
We have organised a series of one-day training events on Dementia, Epilepsy, Handling Medication in Social Care Settings both regular and Train the Trainer, Talking About Money Train the Trainer and Mental Capacity Act DOLS regulations in various places throughout England. These events are running in May, June and July with limited places on each, they're basically essential training for people working with people with learning disabilities.
Moving in Planning Ahead
…. managing money can be challenging for everybody and especially for youngsters managing their money and planning living independently the first time can be difficult. We are all confronted with money issues and even understanding the meanings of some banking words seems to be difficult.
Our Training Manager Shirley Potter is at the moment busy in preparing a MOVING ON PLANNING AHEAD training course. This is part of a FSA funded project and the training takes people with learning disabilities and their supporters through information about living independently and what that really means including how they can and will pay for things, the support they can get and any benefits they can get. The first pilot sessions will be in May and I hope that with this training we can help people with learning disability planning for their future.
Lester Aldridge NEW LAW SERIES
The really exciting events that are happening in May but we'll get more dates later on are the Lester Aldridge Legal Seminars. These half-day events are for ARC members to pick the brains of the Employment Legal team from Lester Aldridge. The first of three of these series is on dealing with employment issues in a recession and they'll be held in Sheffield and Reading.
Find out about all these new events on the Events Section on the ARC website http://www.arcuk.org.uk
Friday 24 April 2009
Thursday 16 April 2009
April Update
Well, a lot has been happening over the past few weeks at home and at work so here’s an update on what I’ve been working on recently.
Leicester Moving on Up Fun Day
Tuesday 17th March saw myself, Bridget and Simon travelling to Leicester to help out on a Moving on Up Funday for kids with learning disabilities who may also be from an ethnic minority. The Moving on up fundays started out from the Moving on Up project which is an information website designed to help young people move through the transition to adulthood with a greater understanding of what they can do with their lives. The project also developed two training packs for young people and professionals.
Think about how difficult going through transition was when it happened to you. Friends went to different schools or colleges or got jobs, they made new relationships and it’s hard to cope with the changes that are happening to your body let alone worrying about where your BFF is going to be in a month’s time and whether you’ll even keep in touch. Now think about how hard it is for someone with a learning disability whose friends will probably also have learning disabilities and they may not have the same opportunities to get a job or study further. Couple that with a family that may not speak English or have a lot of connections within their local community and you get a very frightening time indeed.
The Moving on Up project is aimed at tackling some of these issues by making sure that young people with learning disabilities from BME communities know what options are available to them. The fundays are a way of learning whilst enjoying the company of kids from other schools, colleges and day centres and for their teachers to network with organisations in the area who may be of use to the kids when they move on. I loved helping out in Leicester. I used to be a supply drama teacher and I am used to secondary school aged kids being obnoxious and not bothering to join in so inevitably when someone running a workshop asks for a volunteer I’m thinking ‘uh oh’ and then I am always surprised and delighted that so many kids jump up. That’s the beauty of these people they always want to have a go.
Leicester was the last of a series of fundays, organised by Lesley, which were highly successful. The feedback we got was great – the kids had a great time, the information was useful, the workshops fun and interesting and the lunchtime entertainment fantastic. I enjoyed myself immensely and hope that if some of the kids see what opportunities are available and take hold with both hands then we’ll have done a good job.
The Moving on Up website
We are in the process of adding and improving the Moving on Up website which will be completed by 23 April 2009. So check it out and feel free to give feedback on the information there www.movingonup.info
Revamping the ARC website
The ARC website is undergoing a facelift and you should see some big improvements on the way information is laid out within the site. I’ve started by jazzing up the news pages. It came to my attention that the news pages are a bit plain (to say the least) and that we should take inspiration from the BBC news website with images, links and concise information. A lot of news crosses my desk every day and it’s nice to pull out some key stories for visitors to the site to look at and since there are so many developments at ARC it’s a great page to keep people up to date with that too. Visit our News page.
My next big task is to tackle the Training Section. We moved the ARC Training Consortium from Evesham last year and now that they have settled in it’s time we reflected some bigger changes on the website. The new-look Training section will be broken down into the various awards that you can study through ARC, will be easy to navigate and will contain links to all the standards you will need. We’re going to publish the changes (hopefully) in May as at the end of this year the landscape of qualifications are changing with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework – see Skills for Care Information here.
Finally before the end of May I should have completed a whole new section of the site – ARC Projects. We are involved in a lot of projects at ARC and these projects help change the lives of people with learning disabilities in a positive way. The ARC Projects section will feature ARC’s projects with links to partner organisations, publications and websites and provide information on what these projects have achieved. It is a very exciting time at ARC as we have just received funding for two new three-year projects!
Second Issue of Changing Perspectives is finally published
The Communities issue of our member’s magazine has been published. We send the issue out by email to all our member subscribers. This issue took a while to complete as we wanted to include an interesting United Response article on Community Mapping. I had a great deal of fun writing about what I do at ARC for the ARC In Focus feature and I also interviewed a girl with mild learning disabilities who is highly involved in her local community. We are really pleased with the issue and so far feedback has been good. For more information on Changing Perspectives click here.
Time off for Easter
I have had a break over Easter as my Dad was in hospital with quite a serious problem. Thankfully everything is all right now and he is back at home. I think I might have unnerved him a little as I read the King’s Fund’s paper Seeing the Person in the Patient, an informative and interesting document, a short while ago so was worried about him being treated badly. He wasn’t expecting me to badger him with questions like ‘do you know who is in charge?’ and ‘don’t let them pass you around like a parcel!’ not what you want from your daughter when you’re sharing a ward with stroke victims who aren’t fully aware of where they are and like to shout out all night! Anyway I am back on track at work now so keep an eye out for more blog entries.
Leicester Moving on Up Fun Day
Tuesday 17th March saw myself, Bridget and Simon travelling to Leicester to help out on a Moving on Up Funday for kids with learning disabilities who may also be from an ethnic minority. The Moving on up fundays started out from the Moving on Up project which is an information website designed to help young people move through the transition to adulthood with a greater understanding of what they can do with their lives. The project also developed two training packs for young people and professionals.
Think about how difficult going through transition was when it happened to you. Friends went to different schools or colleges or got jobs, they made new relationships and it’s hard to cope with the changes that are happening to your body let alone worrying about where your BFF is going to be in a month’s time and whether you’ll even keep in touch. Now think about how hard it is for someone with a learning disability whose friends will probably also have learning disabilities and they may not have the same opportunities to get a job or study further. Couple that with a family that may not speak English or have a lot of connections within their local community and you get a very frightening time indeed.
The Moving on Up project is aimed at tackling some of these issues by making sure that young people with learning disabilities from BME communities know what options are available to them. The fundays are a way of learning whilst enjoying the company of kids from other schools, colleges and day centres and for their teachers to network with organisations in the area who may be of use to the kids when they move on. I loved helping out in Leicester. I used to be a supply drama teacher and I am used to secondary school aged kids being obnoxious and not bothering to join in so inevitably when someone running a workshop asks for a volunteer I’m thinking ‘uh oh’ and then I am always surprised and delighted that so many kids jump up. That’s the beauty of these people they always want to have a go.
Leicester was the last of a series of fundays, organised by Lesley, which were highly successful. The feedback we got was great – the kids had a great time, the information was useful, the workshops fun and interesting and the lunchtime entertainment fantastic. I enjoyed myself immensely and hope that if some of the kids see what opportunities are available and take hold with both hands then we’ll have done a good job.
The Moving on Up website
We are in the process of adding and improving the Moving on Up website which will be completed by 23 April 2009. So check it out and feel free to give feedback on the information there www.movingonup.info
Revamping the ARC website
The ARC website is undergoing a facelift and you should see some big improvements on the way information is laid out within the site. I’ve started by jazzing up the news pages. It came to my attention that the news pages are a bit plain (to say the least) and that we should take inspiration from the BBC news website with images, links and concise information. A lot of news crosses my desk every day and it’s nice to pull out some key stories for visitors to the site to look at and since there are so many developments at ARC it’s a great page to keep people up to date with that too. Visit our News page.
My next big task is to tackle the Training Section. We moved the ARC Training Consortium from Evesham last year and now that they have settled in it’s time we reflected some bigger changes on the website. The new-look Training section will be broken down into the various awards that you can study through ARC, will be easy to navigate and will contain links to all the standards you will need. We’re going to publish the changes (hopefully) in May as at the end of this year the landscape of qualifications are changing with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework – see Skills for Care Information here.
Finally before the end of May I should have completed a whole new section of the site – ARC Projects. We are involved in a lot of projects at ARC and these projects help change the lives of people with learning disabilities in a positive way. The ARC Projects section will feature ARC’s projects with links to partner organisations, publications and websites and provide information on what these projects have achieved. It is a very exciting time at ARC as we have just received funding for two new three-year projects!
Second Issue of Changing Perspectives is finally published
The Communities issue of our member’s magazine has been published. We send the issue out by email to all our member subscribers. This issue took a while to complete as we wanted to include an interesting United Response article on Community Mapping. I had a great deal of fun writing about what I do at ARC for the ARC In Focus feature and I also interviewed a girl with mild learning disabilities who is highly involved in her local community. We are really pleased with the issue and so far feedback has been good. For more information on Changing Perspectives click here.
Time off for Easter
I have had a break over Easter as my Dad was in hospital with quite a serious problem. Thankfully everything is all right now and he is back at home. I think I might have unnerved him a little as I read the King’s Fund’s paper Seeing the Person in the Patient, an informative and interesting document, a short while ago so was worried about him being treated badly. He wasn’t expecting me to badger him with questions like ‘do you know who is in charge?’ and ‘don’t let them pass you around like a parcel!’ not what you want from your daughter when you’re sharing a ward with stroke victims who aren’t fully aware of where they are and like to shout out all night! Anyway I am back on track at work now so keep an eye out for more blog entries.
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