An Awesome Opportunity: Scope for Change
Hey All!
As mentioned in my blog post this time last week I was preparing for a day out that would be the first step of an amazing opportunity! The big news I had been keeping under wraps was in fact that I have been chosen to participate in this years 'Scope for Change' programme, a six month project that will give me the skills to be an even more capable and avid activist for the rights of disabled folks. The purpose of this programme is to provide me with the networks and techniques to be an influential campaigner. Many involved within the UK Disability community will be more than aware of the work and significance of Scope as a leading national charity, meaning that excited does very little to describe how I feel about the prospect of this mind-blowing opportunity!
My personal reasoning for participation in the programme, as a large proportion of my Facebook friends will know, is because I want to help create a world in which everyone finally understands that not all impairment is visible and no one tries to police or rob disabled folk of their right to identify as such. Invisible disability is disability. That is a sentiment I will back until the cows come home. All I want is to be the best advocate for our community as humanly possible! If there is one thing that I heard at the programme's launch event that truly reassured me was the emphasis placed upon the importance of lived experience, a crucial element I plan to keep at the centre of my campaigning as I fight for the recognition of disability without visibility. As you may have noticed from this very blog my favoured method of exposing the BS biases and prejudices that have become so intertwined with people's understandings of disability is telling my own stories of awkward confrontations and disapproving looks! It was absolutely delightful just to be sat in a room where my right to claim disability and to fight my corner was never questioned!
The programme's launch event was a more than promising start! We heard from some amazing speakers who work at the heart of Scope, people who are entirely aware of the forever increasing importance of campaigning, and crucially I had the chance to meet some of the other young people with whom I will working for the next 6 months, people who I hope will become my friends beyond the project. It was absolutely awesome to get to spend several hours getting to know and chatting with other young people with some shared experiences and inspiring ideas about how to change the world for disabled folks, most definitely for the better. Similarly exciting, we were given key information about what the future of the programme holds, including information about the upcoming residential.
What is abundantly clear is that all involved have a passionate interest in the improvement of everyday life and social inclusion for the disabled folk among us. We seem not to be a group with small ambitions. We were recommended by a speaker to be bold and that's what I aim to be in my advocacy! All I desire is for this world, including this country, to be an easier place in which for those with all kinds of visible and invisible disabilities to thrive. The experience of membership within society is only improved by the inclusion and understanding of those of us with disability, as with diversity and friendship comes a happier community. My hope, a hope I trust will be realised following the launch event, is that this programme will give me the necessary skills to better promote this dream as a potential reality to the wider world. Excited doesn't cut it!
See you later Alligators!
Freya x
PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/scope-launches-radical-new-five-year-strategy-for-change.html
As mentioned in my blog post this time last week I was preparing for a day out that would be the first step of an amazing opportunity! The big news I had been keeping under wraps was in fact that I have been chosen to participate in this years 'Scope for Change' programme, a six month project that will give me the skills to be an even more capable and avid activist for the rights of disabled folks. The purpose of this programme is to provide me with the networks and techniques to be an influential campaigner. Many involved within the UK Disability community will be more than aware of the work and significance of Scope as a leading national charity, meaning that excited does very little to describe how I feel about the prospect of this mind-blowing opportunity!
My personal reasoning for participation in the programme, as a large proportion of my Facebook friends will know, is because I want to help create a world in which everyone finally understands that not all impairment is visible and no one tries to police or rob disabled folk of their right to identify as such. Invisible disability is disability. That is a sentiment I will back until the cows come home. All I want is to be the best advocate for our community as humanly possible! If there is one thing that I heard at the programme's launch event that truly reassured me was the emphasis placed upon the importance of lived experience, a crucial element I plan to keep at the centre of my campaigning as I fight for the recognition of disability without visibility. As you may have noticed from this very blog my favoured method of exposing the BS biases and prejudices that have become so intertwined with people's understandings of disability is telling my own stories of awkward confrontations and disapproving looks! It was absolutely delightful just to be sat in a room where my right to claim disability and to fight my corner was never questioned!
The programme's launch event was a more than promising start! We heard from some amazing speakers who work at the heart of Scope, people who are entirely aware of the forever increasing importance of campaigning, and crucially I had the chance to meet some of the other young people with whom I will working for the next 6 months, people who I hope will become my friends beyond the project. It was absolutely awesome to get to spend several hours getting to know and chatting with other young people with some shared experiences and inspiring ideas about how to change the world for disabled folks, most definitely for the better. Similarly exciting, we were given key information about what the future of the programme holds, including information about the upcoming residential.
What is abundantly clear is that all involved have a passionate interest in the improvement of everyday life and social inclusion for the disabled folk among us. We seem not to be a group with small ambitions. We were recommended by a speaker to be bold and that's what I aim to be in my advocacy! All I desire is for this world, including this country, to be an easier place in which for those with all kinds of visible and invisible disabilities to thrive. The experience of membership within society is only improved by the inclusion and understanding of those of us with disability, as with diversity and friendship comes a happier community. My hope, a hope I trust will be realised following the launch event, is that this programme will give me the necessary skills to better promote this dream as a potential reality to the wider world. Excited doesn't cut it!
See you later Alligators!
Freya x
PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/scope-launches-radical-new-five-year-strategy-for-change.html
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