Big Lottery Grant - Equal Say for Parents

Earlier this year, the Big Lottery Fund awarded us a grant of £250,000 over three years to run an advocacy project for parents who have learning disability, living in Glasgow and East Renfrewshire.  

Through some research we did with the Glasgow School of Social Work, we knew that many parents with learning disabilities find it difficult to get the help they need. It might be the information they are given is not accessible to them or they find it difficult to meet people who can give them help and support.

It seems that some people still believe that people with learning disabilities can never be good enough parents. This is not true, with the right support; many people with learning disabilities can make good parents. However it is not every parent who gets the right support at the right time. Sometimes, this means that child protection concerns are raised and social workers become involved. This can be very difficult for all parents, but perhaps more so for parents with learning disabilities, who face the stigma of their disability and a lack of accessible information. It can be difficult for parents with learning disabilities to understand and participate in the often complicated procedures that follow.

Through this project, we aim to support parents with learning disabilities to develop the skills and confidence they need to be properly involved in any decisions that are being made about the welfare of their child.

We have two new workers in this project, one who provides direct advocacy and supports parents with particular issues, such as their involvement in child protection procedures. The other worker recruits volunteer citizen advocates, who will get to know just one parent or family and through time, help them to tackle day to day problems and help them to become better connected to the supports available to them locally.

Annual General Meeting
Equal Say's 7th Annual General Meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn, 165 West Nile Street, Glasgow G1 2RL (Tel: 0141 352 8300) on Thursday 1st October 2009 at 7.00pm.

You are invited to come and join us.  As usual there will be food and entertainment from The Cowpat Kickers, and a chance to meet friends old and new.

If you wish to support Equal Say, one way to do that would be to become a member of Equal Say. Any individual can do this, apart from Equal Say staff. If you want to become a member of Equal Say, please contact us. If you are an advocate or advocacy partner, you are automatically a member of Equal Say. Members can vote at our Annual General Meeting.

EVENTS

Preparation Course for new advocates                                                                A participative course, run over 4 weeks for people who are interested in becoming citizen advocates.

The next course runs on 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd February 2010.
If you are interested in finding out more about becoming an advocate or attending one of our preparation courses, please contact us.

Training for Advocates                                                                                              All advocates are offered additional training according to their individual needs. A programme of training events for 2009 will be available shortly.

Social Events in 2009
We hold a number of social events throughout the year. Details of the next social event will be available soon.

For more details on any of these events please contact Amanda at the Glasgow Office.

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