Engaging the community through photography

The Bexley Learning Disability Psychology Team in collaboration with Respect in Bexley at Mencap have kicked off the New Year with an exciting community engagement project.

People with learning disabilities are often misunderstood and mistreated by the general public, which is further hindered by unhelpful dominant narratives in the media that do not accurately represent their lives. We wanted to showcase the multi-faceted everyday experiences of people with learning disabilities; their likes, hobbies, strengths and skills, and to engage the local community in understanding life from their perspective. We have done this through using the photo-voice approach, which is a method of sharing stories through photographs.

Our team met with the Respect in Bexley Group at Mencap to tell them about the project, trained them on how to take good photographs and provided opportunities for practising their skills. The group members selected the theme for their photographs “what I love and enjoy and what I am good at”. The resulting photographs form part of an exciting exhibition that will go on display at The Kitchen by Marco, a local café on Sidcup High Street. Through this project we hope to empower the group and engage the community in changing the discourse around what it means to have a learning disability.

 

Here is what the group had to say about the project:

“We are all members from a self-advocacy group called Respect in Bexley, we meet up to speak up for people with learning disabilities.

We were asked if we would like to take part in this new project by the Bexley Learning Disability Psychology Team, we all said yes as it is something we haven’t tried before.

The project was about taking photos of things that we enjoy and our photos will be put up in a café for everyone to see.

There is a serious message to the project about changing people’s attitudes to people with learning disabilities in the community.

We learnt new skills, how to take a good photo, how to zoom in, how to make sure our photos were in focus, how to get everything in the picture and how to take the best photo.

We feel proud of ourselves for meeting new people and learning new skills.

This is what our members said

A said “It was fun, interesting and new”

P said, “I really enjoyed taking the photos”

C said, “It was really helpful looking through the magazines to get ideas and using the camera on my phone”

S said,” The staff were very friendly, helpful and understanding and knew about people with learning disabilities”

E said, “It was good to take photos on my phone and choose my own photos”

J said, “I really liked taking my own photos”

M said, “It was good getting down, really close to take my photos”

J said, “I liked taking the photos”

N said, “It was interesting taking a photo of my favourite hobby”

We are really looking forward to seeing our photos up on the wall in the café

We would like to thank Maria, Nina and Miranda for all their help with our project”



We would be delighted if you could visit the exhibition, which will be on display throughout the month of February 2019 at The Kitchen by Marco, 57 High St, Sidcup, DA14 6ED. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Respect in Bexley Group at Mencap and valued their openness, enthusiasm and passion for advocating for people with learning disabilities and spreading awareness of their experiences. Our hope is that you too will be able to experience this through their photographs.

Written by members of Respect in Bexley at Mencap with support from Jane Menzies and Dr Maria Qureshi, Miranda Samuelson and Nina Walker from the Bexley Learning Disability Psychology Team.