Graduating from the Scope For Change Programme

Hey!

So the last six months have flown by and here we are, I have officially graduated from the Scope For Change Programme. The graduation itself was amazing! It was wonderful to see so many of my awesome friends again and to hear from some great guest speakers, especially Sam Renke who is absolute activism goals! However, today I thought I would focus on the programme itself and what I've taking away from it because I feel so grateful and blessed to have been given this opportunity to grow and work with so many fabulous people.

(Freya accepting her certificate for completing Scope For Change)

How to put Scope For Change into words? Inspiration, Friendship, Encouragement, Support; it's so difficult to sum up such a huge experience into such few words. To help I thought I would share with you the speech I gave at the Graduation on the 14th (such a lovely way to spend Valentines Day, it was wonderful!):

Hello, my name is Freya. I’m a twenty year old student studying Tibetan and World Philosophies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, who decided to apply for the Scope For Change programme on a whim, convinced that they wouldn’t make the cut. I have a hefty NHS file full of diagnoses, such as cerebral palsy, mild hearing loss, anxiety issues, trichotillomania and most recently Autism Spectrum Condition, a diagnose I received while participating in the programme. Disability and my identity as a disabled person has always been a big part of my life and so has activism. I have also worked within my university’s LGBTQIA+ Community and I am a non-binary drag king.

I said that my identity as a disabled person has always been important to me, and perhaps part of the reason for that is the very fact that many people have tried to strip me of that identity over the years. I have spent a lot of my life post splints and physiotherapy being told that “I’m fine” and being asked whether “I’m really disabled anymore.” The fact that for a large portion of my disabled and mentally ill experience most of my conditions have been invisible or undiagnosed has threatened my position within this community. It was this feeling that inspired the campaign that this programme has done so much to help me build. It was on the residential last year that I decided that I wanted my campaign 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. This was the start of #InvisiblyValid. Since than I’ve been committed to my blog ‘Able and Disabled’, worked on a zine I will be launching at my university and secured a meeting with my MP to discuss the social impact of current political decisions on the visibility of invisible disabilities.

I said at the beginning of this speech I was convinced that I wouldn’t make the programme. If there is one thing I’d like to thank Scope For Change for it’s the confidence it has given me as an activist. I have made some wonderful friends who truly inspire me, stretched myself in ways I would have never imagined and developed a campaign I am incredibly passionate about. I am so grateful for this experience that thank you couldn’t express it, but thank you.

Scope For Change came for me at such a perfect time for me in so many ways. It came at a time when I could never imagined being accepted for such a project, lacking confidence in my ability to succeed. It came at a time when my mental health was set to fluctuate, providing me with friendship and a way to build something and make progress which helped to fulfil me. It came at a time when I wanted to reestablish my place within the disabled community, angered by the social treatment of Invisible Disability. Perhaps most importantly it held my hand through my diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition, providing me with understanding and the opportunity to meet other awesome people on the spectrum who I now consider lifelong friends.

I am proud of my progress within the campaign but I am even more proud of my affiliation with such an amazing charity, which I can't wait to continue working with. I am also super excited to keep pushing #InvisiblyValid forward and see where we can go next.

(Freya with some other amazing graduates of the Scope For Change programme)

Look after yourself.

See you later Alligators!