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

Taken by Brian Aldrich Photography

On the 6^th 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:

http://aldatoxleas.blogspot.com/p/research-net.html

Kevin, Emma, Ron, David, Richard O, Richard F, Donna and Laura

Rachel, Amelia, Des and Annelise

Greenwich ALD Research Net