Dear Friends and Supporters,
The long days of summer are here and we are super excited to host our first ever fashion show on July 9th at the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham. It’s part of our 20th anniversary celebrations for 2025 and promises to be a fun night, featuring models with learning disabilities and great music. There is still time to get a ticket, and we hope to see many of our friends and supporters there to help us raise money and raise the profile of people with learning disabilities in Lewisham. The theme of the recent national Learning Disability Week was ‘Do You See Me?’ and we can’t think of many better ways for that to happen than to have people strut their stuff on the catwalk!
On a more serious note, it can feel at times that the powers that be don’t always see people with learning disabilities. There is still much uncertainty around the government’s proposed changes to benefits, and we’ve been speaking with local MPs about people’s concerns. Cuts to local government services also continue, and it seems that our services are needed more than ever. At the same time, funding for charities like ours seems harder and harder to come by. We are looking at ways in which we can band together with other self-advocacy groups so that people with learning disabilities can use their own life experiences to change systems, speak their truth to power and look to end the huge inequalities that people face. Watch this space for more news in the coming months.
Our 1-2-1 advocacy services have been working hard to support people with various issues including supporting people to move home. This involves working across many agencies including Adult Social Care, social housing providers, DWP, and others. It can take many months, but it is very satisfying when someone finally moves into a new home. I helped someone move into an extra care scheme last week after 9 months of 1-2-1 advocacy support and it felt great. It does show how long it can take to support someone to go on that journey. You can read about another case below, that has also been going on for many months.
Self-Advocacy
• People's Parliament
On 6 June we held a People’s Parliament about mental health. We worked with SLAM, who told us about their mental health and learning disability team, and led 3 workshops for us:
- Mental health medication
- Suicidal thoughts
- Accessing mental health services
We also had a great presentation from My Life My Choice about their Don’t Lock Us Away campaign. They told us that the average amount of time someone with a learning disability stays in a mental health hospital is 5 years and 4 months. We all agreed that people should be in their own homes and get support in the community.
Art by Ifeoma Orjiekwe, Hannah James and Maria Bialowas
Our next People’s Parliament will be on Friday 19th September
from 10.30 – 3.00 at the Catford Civic Suite.
The theme is Transport.
Email Ellie at ellie.spirrett@lsup.org.uk
or phone 020 8692 1862
• Learning Disability Week
We had a busy learning disability week this June!
Lewisham Safer Neighbourhood Board
We went to the Lewisham Safer Neighbourhood Board to talk about last year’s People’s Parliament on Safer Streets. We talked about what matters to people with learning disabilities when they are out and about, and what people with learning disabilities need to be fully part of their communities. The board wants to work with us to make sure that people with learning disabilities are part of every conversation about safety in Lewisham.
We also went to visit our friends in Bromley at Advocacy For All’s monthly members meeting. We talked about our People’s Parliament on benefits and how we can work together to campaign for everyone to get the benefits they need. They told us about the creative things they are doing to campaign, like songs and interactive reports.
Learning Together
At the end of the week, we went to the Learning Together event by the Estia Centre. People with learning disabilities, NHS healthcare staff and social care staff all came together to talk about how people with learning disabilities can live better lives. We loved Scott Watkins’ speech about his journey as a self advocate. He said that we need to work together with other groups so that we are truly representing everyone with a learning disability. We think we do a great job of that because of our friend organisations in Lewisham and all around the country!
• Fashion Show
We’ve been preparing for our first ever fashion show!
We also went to see our friends at Entelechy’s Meet Me group who designed some t-shirts for us! Also, Heart n Soul let us borrow some t-shirts designed by their members.
The fashion show will be on Wednesday 9th July,
6pm-8pm at the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham.
Doors will open at 5:30pm. Get your ticket here.
We can’t wait to see you there!
• Welfare Reform
We have talked about the welfare reform a lot. We are worried about the effect it would have on all disabled people. We’ve talked about it in Big Group, Zoom Group, Women’s Group and Men’s Group.
The situation on benefits is changing fast and we are still waiting to see what the Government are going to do.
Our Zoom Group wrote a letter to the MPs in Lewisham about our concerns. We heard back from 2 MPs, Ellie Reeves and Vicky Foxcroft. Then Vicky met with us at Westminster and listened to what we had to say about the benefit cuts. We were so happy to see that she said she would not vote for the cuts, and she stepped down from her position as a whip because she doesn’t want to stand for these cuts. Vicky has said for a long time that she values what Lewisham Speaking Up has to say, and we think she showed that this is true!
We’ve also been sharing our report from the People’s Parliament on Money and Benefits. We held this Parliament before the welfare reform was announced, but we talked about why fair benefits are so important.
• Inclusion North Training
Our reps completed their training with Inclusion North about how to lead their community as self-advocates! We worked with Dawn and Maria, and brushed up on our skills in public speaking, teamwork and campaigning. We felt very proud to be trained by Dawn, who has been a strong self advocate for a long time!
1-2-1 Advocacy
Hi guys
I would like to share the story of another person’s housing application and his wish to move.
As many of us will know, moving is challenging, exhausting and can be a very emotive experience. Many of the people we work with could opt to move on various grounds, e.g. anti-social behaviour, poor housing conditions or simply feeling too isolated. Others are happy to remain where they live for many different reasons, like being close to local facilities or work; their home holds sentimental value to them; or their home is especially adapted to suit their medical needs.
This story however, is focused on a gentleman who has lived in the same home for a very long time and wanted to move for a number of reasons. As you know moving In Lewisham can be a major struggle and very difficult due to the shortage of housing.
He wanted an advocate to help him and we got together to fill in and submit a housing application including all the relevant evidence. Then we waited for it to be categorized and to receive his ‘banding’ level (this can take some time). When we received his banding which was not high priority, we were both unhappy and decided to appeal. This took even longer, and after frequent phone calls on his behalf followed up by emails, finally, we were awarded a higher band which felt like a success!
The person was still very determined to move and we worked very hard together. On many occasions we confronted a lot of difficulties, for example other agencies not responding to emails or phone calls. When they did respond, it was a case of ‘it’s not my department – try that one instead’. This went on for quite a while! When we did get the right department, it was a case of ‘I will refer you to this person’ and then that person would refer you to someone else! We were promised phone calls and home visits that never materialised and it continued that way for some time.
At one point, the person I was supporting felt very despondent and wanted to give up, but we kept persevering until someone began to take us seriously and started to work with us.
Eventually, we were given a list of possible housing options to view and we went to view one of these options. The person had already decided he wanted to move to an area that was close to his family. He also had a list of what he wanted, and the property we saw ticked most of the boxes. He was enthusiastic as it had all the facilities he wanted, plus being near to his family. I did encourage him to look at other properties so he could make an informed decision. However, it appeared that he had already made his choice. Currently we are waiting for some documents to be sorted out and once that is done it will be a case of ‘will he or won’t he’ accept the accommodation offer.
Join me next time to hear his decision!
Contact us
General email:
Phone:
020 8692 1862
