Thursday 22 November 2018

Research Net go to ‘Staying Safe, For People with Learning Disabilities’ Event


Taken by Brian Aldrich Photography

On the 6th November, Greenwich Learning Disability

Research Net attended and presented at the ‘Staying Safe,

For People with Learning Disabilities’ event at Charlton

House as part of safeguarding month. Research net are a

group of volunteers and staff who come together to create
 

projects to improve services and make things better for

people with Learning Disabilities.  We are a group of Oxleas

Volunteers; Kevin, Emma, Ron, David, Richard O, Richard F,

Donna and Laura. Staff members Rachel, Amelia, Des and

Annelise from Greenwich Community Learning Disability

Team also came to help. This event was the perfect

opportunity to launch the group’s most recent project – a

‘Keeping Safe, for People with Learning Disabilities’ leaflet. A

lot of people with Learning Disabilities feel unsafe in

Greenwich and this leaflet is designed to make them feel

safer.


We arrived early to make the most of the tea, coffee and
biscuits on offer and have a quick chat about our plan for the
day. We saw lots of familiar faces and it was great to catch
up with them.




Taken by Brian Aldrich Photography


We then heard about the Safe places scheme – which we
had included in our leaflet! This is a great scheme that
provides safe places in the community where people with
Learning Disabilities can go if they get into trouble or feel
unsafe, frightened or bullied.

It was then our turn to present. We all took it in turns to
explain what Research net is and what it is we do. I think we
all felt a bit nervous at the beginning but we all know our
group so well and the important work that we do that once we
started talking it actually went really well! It was great that
everyone in the group had the opportunity to say their bit as
well.



It was great to have an audience of such varied people –
from people with a range of Learning Disabilities to the Fire
Brigade to Trading Standards.
After a quick break (and more tea and coffee of course!) 
there were four workshops for the attendees to participate in.
The four workshops were:
  1. Fire Brigade and Police
  2. Research Net (us!)
  3. Trading Standards
  4. Safeguarding 



We had decided to split into two different groups so half of us
could run the workshops and the other half could participate
in the other workshops and then we would swap over so
everyone got to do a bit of everything!

In our workshops we had the opportunity to talk more about
our leaflet and answer any questions. We talked about how
we had prepared for our leaflet and thought about the
different worries people with Learning Disabilities have.
Some of the worries we talked about were: Mate/Hate crime,
keeping money safe, how to keep safe at home and in the
community and lots more. We told the group about how we
had interviewed a police officer and the head of safeguarding
for Greenwich, in order to get the answer to some of our
questions. We also talked about what we heard learnt
regarding which is the right number to ring in different
situations, should it be 999, 101 or 111? This can be
confusing for everyone so we explained what an emergency
and that you should always ring 999 if you’re not sure!

In the other workshops, the fire brigade gave us tips on how
to keep safe at home (everyone make sure you check your
fire alarm every 2 weeks!) and Trading Standards taught us
all about how to avoid being scammed (never give your bank
details to anyone!). We even got a sticker to put in our
window to stop unwanted people coming to our door. We
enjoyed these workshops as we could tell them things from
our perspective as well and the difficulties people with
Learning Disabilities may encounter.

At the end the audience were given the opportunity to
feedback and “Have Our Say”. We all said that we would like
to do an event like this again in the future so more people
with Learning Disabilities can feel safe and work together
better with people like the Police.

Everyone at Research Net had a great day and we were so
glad to be able to share our leaflet that we have worked so
hard on. We hope to showcase our leaflet at more events in
the future so watch this space!

Take a look at our website if you’d like to see more or if you’d
like a copy of our leaflet:

Kevin, Emma, Ron, David, Richard O, Richard F, Donna and Laura
Rachel, Amelia, Des and Annelise
Greenwich ALD Research Net












No comments:

Post a Comment

Lloyd visits Goldie Leigh!

Lloyd Page from Mencap visits Goldie Leigh! During March earlier this year Lloyd Page who works for National Mencap visited Goldie Le...