Community Building
What is community building?
We make links with local communities and build up strong local knowledge. This is so that people with a learning difficulty have an equal place as citizens within mainstream society and are not segregated. So far we have made links with: police, housing departments, local forums, community groups, schools, ethical companies, district partnership groups, public transport…
We are all equal and therefore work on projects together
What we have already done and what we are working on at the moment?
Work with London Underground Tube Training
The tube training project was a pilot scheme based on 2 workshops. People worked together in the morning to plan a journey in the afternoon. They asked questions, looked at all the possible routes and discussed how to deal with possible obstacles. After the workshops people felt more confident about using the Tube.
Work with Kent Police and ITV Fixers, DVD on Reporting hate crime
People from the Speaking Up Group invited Mick Cronin, Community Liaison Office East Kent, to come and discuss the problems with Hate Crime and how to report these crimes. At the end of the meeting Mick suggesting doing role plays so that people are not afraid to report the crime. After the role plays people thought it would be good to make a film and share the ideas with others. This has now been produced with the support from ITV Fixers. This DVD, on how to report Hate Crime will be used for training purposes.
Research work Southeastern Rail on new High Speed Rail
When Southeastern Rail was developing the new High Speed Train, people from the Speaking Up Group were invited to view the train and to give their ideas on accessibility.
Working with restaurants for easy read/understand menus
People found that it is always very difficult to understand the menu in restaurants. As a new restaurant was opening locally, People decided to talk with the owners to see if they would work with then to make their menu into easy read/understand.
People in the group did a draft menu with pictures which would be good not only for people with learning difficulty/disability but also for people with bad eye sight and where English is not the first language. The draft menu is now with the owners of the restaurant, they will get back to us.
