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Over a pale green background with Equal Lives' logo in the top right, are the navy-blue words 'Membership Update'. Stood underneath the text, on a dark blue floor, are four graphic Equal Lives characters (left to right); a fair-skinned, feminine-presenting, possibly older person, with a short, grey bob hairstyle, with their right hand raised signing ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ in BSL, an androgynous-presenting person with brown hair, fair to tanned skin, with no visible signs of disability and a closed-mouth smile on their face, a masculine-presenting, brown-skinned person. wearing a grey head wrap, and with a limb difference (their left arm ends at the elbow), and a dark-skinned, feminine-presenting person, with short, tight brunette curls, stood using a walking stick.

Membership Update
December 2021

Our Membership Officer Lisa attended her first meeting with the Norfolk All- Age Autism Partnership Board Employment working group. This is a new group and Lisa was very excited to be involved in shaping the work this group will be concentrating on. As always, Lisa would love to hear from any autistic members who have both positive and negative experiences of employment. You can email her at: Membership@Equallives.org.uk

 

We were delighted to arrange an event for one of our member groups, ‘The DRAGONs’, with BBC Radio Norfolk. We heard from Sophie Price at BBC Radio Norfolk who told us what it’s like to be interviewed on radio and we discussed some topics important to The Dragons. It was a fabulous evening and hopefully gave those who attended the confidence to speak on radio when we put the call out that Radio Norfolk are looking to interview/chat to someone about a particular topic. If this is something you think you might like to be involved in, please email membership for more details.  The DRAGONs (Disability Real Action Group of Norfolk) are a group of young people with disabilities that are looking to make sure that SEND opportunities, in Norfolk, are accessible and that young people are enjoying their services. You can find out more about them here: https://www.nansa.org.uk/d-r-a-g-o-n-s/

 

Lisa has also attended an Employment Event for the Great Yarmouth Area in which she met several organisations that support people into work. She found this was a great opportunity to learn more about provisions that can potentially support our members. Some of these organisations will feature in our e-bulletin over the coming months.  She also attended an event to learn more about the WEA, who offer a wide range of adult courses. Lisa’s prime objective was to find out if the courses and support available were inclusive for disabled people. She was happy to hear the approach to teaching was learner led and they worked closely with their students, so barriers were removed and needs met. They encourage students to give them a call prior to booking a course or if they would like more information, to have a chat about the support needed. To find out about courses near you and the support on offer look at their website: https://www.wea.org.uk/eastern/about-us

 

We reached out to our membership to ask them would they like to contribute to the making of a video by the Norfolk Library Service, for people’s thoughts on what they would like to see or know before they visit the library. We had a great response to this and were able to share your feedback with the library service. Thank you to all that responded.

 

Our colleagues at Suffolk Independent Living (SIL) run a payroll service for many people who employ a Personal Assistant. Earlier this year they put out a survey to gain an insight on what type of training employers and PA’s would be interested in. This information was then used to apply for funding from Skills For Care and following a successful application SIL were able to offer training sessions ‘in house’ on emergency first aid at work, moving and handling and safeguarding. You can read the blog here: https://www.equallives.org.uk/post/employer-and-pa-training-opportunities

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Our CEO Ben Reed, Development Manager Kimberly Myhill and one of our wonderful volunteers Hannah Murgatroyd, visited the University of East Anglia (UEA) to talk to students studying Journalism about disability. This was a fantastic opportunity for us and it was a very successful event. You can read the whole story on our blog page: https://www.equallives.org.uk/post/influencing-future-journalism

 

As always, we would love to hear from members who are interested in participating more in meetings we attend. If you would like a non-committal chat with Lisa our Membership Officer about becoming involved, please email us at: Membership@Equallives.org.uk

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