Dear Friends and Supporters,
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023. I’d like to say hello as the new Director for Lewisham Speaking Up, although I hope most people know me, as I have been around for 7 years now!
This has been a challenging time for us, as we have lost some of our funding and moved to a new office at the Leemore Centre. However, I want to make it very clear that we aren’t going anywhere! Our job is to support people with learning disabilities to speak up for themselves and we will continue to do exactly that.
Read on for news about our next People’s Parliament and hear about some of the successes of our 1-2-1 advocacy service.
In March we said a fond farewell to our Chief Executive, Will Davies, who led Lewisham Speaking Up for many years. We would like to say a big thank you to Will and wish him luck in his new role as Chief Executive at Brighton & Hove Speak Out.
I would also like to say thank you to our staff and volunteers for their hard work in making the move to the new office a success.
Marsh Stitchman
Self-Advocacy Update
News from our People's Parliament
Ifeoma and Peter went to the Lewisham Council AGM at the end of March. They were there for the launch of the Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission report. Both Ifeoma and Peter have worked on the Commission to make sure that the voices of people with learning disabilities have been included. The report has a lot of suggestions on how the Council can work together with disabled people and make improvements.
Our People’s Parliament reps have been invited to City Hall. They will meet with Len Duvall, the London Assembly member for Lewisham and Greenwich and will attend Mayor’s Question Time with Sadiq Khan.
Thank you to our donors and the NHS South East London Integrated Care Board for helping to fund our People’s Parliament for the coming year!
Our next People’s Parliament will be on Friday April 21st
10.00 am – 3.00pm at the Civic Suite in Catford. We will be talking about employment.
Feel free to join us!
1-2-1 Advocacy
Our 1-2-1 advocates are still helping people sort out problems. Some examples of things we have helped people with have been to:
- Get a new wheelchair
- Get support from mental health services
- Get PIP benefits including back pay
- Open a bank account
- Deal with reporting crime
Shop Online and Donate!
Shopping online? To help us, why not shop via Easyfundraising? Just sign up and choose Lewisham Speaking Up as you charity of choice and shop online through easyfundraising.
We are very grateful for your continued donations to enable us to advocate for people with learning disabilities in the London borough of Lewisham.
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/lewisham-speaking-up-1109083
