EVC May event: Regional Disability Network, Disability and Empowerment
Posted by Andrew Brightwell on 17th May 2010
Joanna Matthews of the Regional Disability Network
Joanna Matthews, is from the Council of Disabled People (CDP) and a project manager of the Regional Disability Network (RDN). She told us about its Disability and Empowerment project for the Every Voice Counts Partnership, which concentrated on empowering disabled people to have a voice.
The social model of disability.
She said that 20 per cent of W. Midlands population has an impairment. The network gathers evidence, raises awareness and campaigns for disabled people. It supports existing groups, looks to fill gaps in existing networks and links with regional bodies. She said that RDN subscribes to the social model of disability. It says that disability is the problem created by society and services providers. The built environment – buildings and venues – are often not accessible, she said. And the attitudes of people and of institutions are all problems, as is the inflexibility of organisations and individuals.
The project sought to enable 15 disabled people to become empowerment champions (the word champion was a little disputed)- so that they could:
- Influence
- Lobby
- Campaign
Joanna explained that RDN was a latecomer, with the contract only awarded in December, which presented some challenges.
RDN contacted up to 300 people to learn about he programme, its goal and the importance of having a voice, through marketing. The there was a learning programme:
Participants were given reading and online investigation to do, then RDN invited them to training days in four locations across the West Midlands.
The project aimed for 20 participants, but ended up working with 28 across its four locations, but got no participants in Walsall.
The training was in two parts and dealt with giving the disabled people the skills and awareness they would require to become empowered.
There were some very positive outcomes:-
- They managed to create a self-development course
- deliver to 42 disabled people
- organisation learning about marketing
- increased organisation knowledge – through working on the project
- greater understanding of NI4
But Joanna said the time factor was a big challenge, it also struggled to get good contact with the NI4 leads and the size of the West Midlands was also a big issue. This is particularly difficult for disabled people, Joanna said.
Joanna said that it would been great to have more time, and more time thinking about how to fit in with local authoritiy priorities. She also said a lighter touch in monitoring and evaluation would have been helpful.
But many things went really well:
- 28 participants in the main programme
- Additional programme 14 adults with learning difficulties
- Organisational learning
We interviewed Joanna back in March about how things were going and what the project has been able to achieve and learn. You can listen to our interview here:
[podcast]http://rawm.podnosh.com/files/2010/03/joanna-matthews-March-17.mp3[/podcast]