Scope For Change Update: Residential and a Clear Direction
Hey All!
Hope you are all well! I now this post is coming to you a little early, with my weekly posts normally going on Wednesdays, but I thought I would give a little extra reading this week! I'm not entirely sure whether that is in fact a positive way of wording it but oh well, I have something really exciting to talk about today!
As regular readers will know in June I became involved in an awesome project called 'Scope For Change.' 'Scope For Change' is a six month programme aimed at training young adults to become disability campaigners and at helping them set up their initial campaigns. Following the Launch Event in June, this weekend was the Residential, a REALLY fun weekend of both activities and talks, both of which were designed to bring us even closer together as a group and help us further consider what we want our campaigns to be. I thought I would post today to tell you a little about my experience of the Residential and the kind of direction in which I see my campaign going.
Before I get into the serious business of how I see my campaign developing, I thought I would tell you just how much of an amazing time I had this weekend! Ultimately the purpose of this weekend was to provide us with some of the knowledge and support we need to create our campaigns, but that doesn't mean that we didn't some fun along the way. As the talks and sessions which were incredibly fascinating and informative, we also had a film night and pub quiz (both with links to campaigning), as well as plenty of time to chat and get to know each other better. I don't think I can even start to explain how comfortable and exciting it felt to be surrounded by a group of young people as equally passionate about disability campaigning for almost three days!
I personally found this particularly important and enjoyable following my ASC (Autism Spectrum Condition) diagnosis this time last week. While in many other circumstances a long trip to Loughborough and a weekend being surrounded by other people would probably increase how overwhelmed I have been feeling, being with so many people who don't doubt my experience and around whom I could entirely myself was actually a huge relief. I was able to talk about my diagnosis experience openly and I feel forced to apply the amount of effort which I normally do to appear 'normal' (whatever that means!). The experience of being diagnosed and having my experiences validated has been an odd one and a somewhat overwhelming one, giving me a lot to process. Being in a space where I could talk about that so openly and feel especially understood turned out to be far more vital than I had realised. I found it particularly helpful having a 1-1 member of staff who had already read my earlier blog post and was aware of the week's events, meaning I had someone to talk to about it from the moment I arrived and felt supported all the way through. Sure, an event like this is always going to have it's more intense moments but the fact that I could be my slightly odd self and take breaks when I needed to without fear of judgement REALLY helped!
The weekend's talks and sessions were SO incredibly inspiring and really helped me to have a better idea of where I wanted my campaign to go. We learnt about so many individual aspects of campaigning, from social media use to influence mapping to campaigner burnout to how parliament works. A couple of sessions I found particularly useful or empowering was 'Making change with your story and video' and 'How I campaign,' a talk given by guest speaker Bal Deol (if you want to see a truly amazing example of disability campaigning PLEASE look into her work against taxi overcharging!). All the sessions I attended were massively useful and informative but I found that these two in particular were crucial in planning my campaign going forward.
So what is my campaign? Over the weekend we talked about Mission Statements and at the moment mine is as follows:
I want to help create a world in which invisible disabilities are seen to be as valid as visible disabilities, both within and outside the disabled community.
Obviously this is an incredibly broad and ambitious goal but I believe I can do it! One reason why I believe I can invoke this change is that I have already started thinking about the barriers that stop this equality from fulfilment. Such barriers include the fact that the universal logo for disability is a wheelchair and the level of proof needed for disabled individuals to access DSA and other benefits (such as PIP). Another key thing I have considered is the conflict surrounding the extension of the blue badge, as this was the very thing that made me realise that my campaign needs to raise awareness within the disabled community as well.
I have also started the kind of people I need to influence. My campaign seems to be one of both attitude and policy, with attitude shaping policy and policy shaping attitude. It ultimately won't matter what we achieve within policy and schools, if when we leave the house we are surrounded by outdated symbols and headlines about disabled individuals 'abusing' the benefits system. It would seem that the true purpose of my campaign should be changing minds, but that a necessary step in this process is changing some of the policy that currently legitimises the invalidation of invisible disability. For this reason I need to be influencing journalists and teachers, but also ministers and charities. This is a huge war but one that can be broken down into battles.
So what next. As of right now my campaign name is #InvisiblyValid and it will be based right here. My next steps include improving my social media presence, working on a campaign video idea I had over the weekend and starting to contact those in power who can help me with information and support. This a huge task but I hope that you will be behind me!
I had an amazing weekend and I am excited for my future within this project! The campaign starts here!
See you later Alligators!
Freya x
PHOTOS: taken by myself and the team at Scope
Hope you are all well! I now this post is coming to you a little early, with my weekly posts normally going on Wednesdays, but I thought I would give a little extra reading this week! I'm not entirely sure whether that is in fact a positive way of wording it but oh well, I have something really exciting to talk about today!
As regular readers will know in June I became involved in an awesome project called 'Scope For Change.' 'Scope For Change' is a six month programme aimed at training young adults to become disability campaigners and at helping them set up their initial campaigns. Following the Launch Event in June, this weekend was the Residential, a REALLY fun weekend of both activities and talks, both of which were designed to bring us even closer together as a group and help us further consider what we want our campaigns to be. I thought I would post today to tell you a little about my experience of the Residential and the kind of direction in which I see my campaign going.
Before I get into the serious business of how I see my campaign developing, I thought I would tell you just how much of an amazing time I had this weekend! Ultimately the purpose of this weekend was to provide us with some of the knowledge and support we need to create our campaigns, but that doesn't mean that we didn't some fun along the way. As the talks and sessions which were incredibly fascinating and informative, we also had a film night and pub quiz (both with links to campaigning), as well as plenty of time to chat and get to know each other better. I don't think I can even start to explain how comfortable and exciting it felt to be surrounded by a group of young people as equally passionate about disability campaigning for almost three days!
I personally found this particularly important and enjoyable following my ASC (Autism Spectrum Condition) diagnosis this time last week. While in many other circumstances a long trip to Loughborough and a weekend being surrounded by other people would probably increase how overwhelmed I have been feeling, being with so many people who don't doubt my experience and around whom I could entirely myself was actually a huge relief. I was able to talk about my diagnosis experience openly and I feel forced to apply the amount of effort which I normally do to appear 'normal' (whatever that means!). The experience of being diagnosed and having my experiences validated has been an odd one and a somewhat overwhelming one, giving me a lot to process. Being in a space where I could talk about that so openly and feel especially understood turned out to be far more vital than I had realised. I found it particularly helpful having a 1-1 member of staff who had already read my earlier blog post and was aware of the week's events, meaning I had someone to talk to about it from the moment I arrived and felt supported all the way through. Sure, an event like this is always going to have it's more intense moments but the fact that I could be my slightly odd self and take breaks when I needed to without fear of judgement REALLY helped!
The weekend's talks and sessions were SO incredibly inspiring and really helped me to have a better idea of where I wanted my campaign to go. We learnt about so many individual aspects of campaigning, from social media use to influence mapping to campaigner burnout to how parliament works. A couple of sessions I found particularly useful or empowering was 'Making change with your story and video' and 'How I campaign,' a talk given by guest speaker Bal Deol (if you want to see a truly amazing example of disability campaigning PLEASE look into her work against taxi overcharging!). All the sessions I attended were massively useful and informative but I found that these two in particular were crucial in planning my campaign going forward.
So what is my campaign? Over the weekend we talked about Mission Statements and at the moment mine is as follows:
I want to help create a world in which invisible disabilities are seen to be as valid as visible disabilities, both within and outside the disabled community.
Obviously this is an incredibly broad and ambitious goal but I believe I can do it! One reason why I believe I can invoke this change is that I have already started thinking about the barriers that stop this equality from fulfilment. Such barriers include the fact that the universal logo for disability is a wheelchair and the level of proof needed for disabled individuals to access DSA and other benefits (such as PIP). Another key thing I have considered is the conflict surrounding the extension of the blue badge, as this was the very thing that made me realise that my campaign needs to raise awareness within the disabled community as well.
I have also started the kind of people I need to influence. My campaign seems to be one of both attitude and policy, with attitude shaping policy and policy shaping attitude. It ultimately won't matter what we achieve within policy and schools, if when we leave the house we are surrounded by outdated symbols and headlines about disabled individuals 'abusing' the benefits system. It would seem that the true purpose of my campaign should be changing minds, but that a necessary step in this process is changing some of the policy that currently legitimises the invalidation of invisible disability. For this reason I need to be influencing journalists and teachers, but also ministers and charities. This is a huge war but one that can be broken down into battles.
So what next. As of right now my campaign name is #InvisiblyValid and it will be based right here. My next steps include improving my social media presence, working on a campaign video idea I had over the weekend and starting to contact those in power who can help me with information and support. This a huge task but I hope that you will be behind me!
I had an amazing weekend and I am excited for my future within this project! The campaign starts here!
See you later Alligators!
Freya x
PHOTOS: taken by myself and the team at Scope
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