Online Information on Employment and Training Opportunities for Disabled People Disability Organisations - Manchester People First

Table of Contents

• Our Aims And Activities
• What is Self Advocacy?
• Training
• Our Independence - 1999 and Forward to the Millennium !
• Contact Details

Our Aims And Activities

Learning Disabilities

We are a large group of people with the label 'learning disability.' We run and manage our own organisation. Only learning disabled people can vote on our committee.

Independent Group

As an independent group we provide support to people with learning disabilities to speak up for themselves on many different issues.

Information Ease

We make sure all our information is easy to understand.

What People want

We tell services what people want by working together on big days to get the information from their consumers. We teach staff how to listen to support and listen to people.

Manchester People First

Manchester People First was set up in 1992 by a small group which has now grown to over 200 members.

Our Rights

We aim to teach people who do not have a learning disability about the rights and needs of people with a learning disability. We are invited to talk to Social study students at Manchester University. We have run workshops and training for Stockport Social Services, Oldham Social Services, Salford Health Authority, Mancunian Health Trust and Warrington Social Services and Health.

Conferences

Many of our committee and members have attended conferences and meetings all over the country, so that they can learn from other peoples experiences. We are very active with other North West People First groups.

Big Days

We have 'Big Days' where all our members are invited. They are helpful days with lots of information but also a lot of fun. We have workshops, games and quizzes. The workshops talk about Real Jobs, Transport, Relationships, Money, Home Life and many more issues.

Consumer Days

We run Consumer days about many topics such as Health issues, Housing, Shared Living, Independent Living, Living with Support, Education and Sex Education, advocacy.

News Letter

We produce a newsletter which goes to all our members every 3 months.

Social Group

Our Social Group goes on an activity at least once a month to the cinema, meals out, ten-pin bowling, pubs, night clubs, museums, picnics and much more.

What is Self Advocacy?

1. Speaking up for yourself

2. Standing up for your rights

rights are things that mean you should be treated fairly

having rights means being the boss of your own life

3. Making Choices

we need information that is easy to understand so we can make the right choices

4. Being Independent

this means doing things for yourself as much as you can, without other people always doing things for you

5. Taking Responsibility for Yourself

this means looking after yourself

don't always wait for other people to get things done for you

get things going yourself

Training

We have produced the following training materials:

'I'm a Person, not a Label (video)

£15.00 plus post & packing Statutory/Voluntary
£8.00 Learning Disabled individuals

'It's my life' (video)

£40.00 plus post & packing Statutory/Voluntary
£22.00 Learning Disabled individuals

'Our Plan For Planning' (booklet)

(in partnership with Liverpool People First)
£4.50 plus post & packing (50p)
Orders of over 10 copies = £3.00 plus P&P

'Promises, Promises' (Video, CD, Booklet)

(to be advised)

Training & Consultation

We also provide training, consultation and workshops for professional staff and service users.

Private Agencies £350 per day

Statutory Agencies £300 per day

Voluntary Agencies £150 per day

Our Independence - 1999 and Forward to the Millennium !

Funding

At the moment Voluntary Action Manchester is looking after the money we are given by Manchester Health Authority to run our organisation. We are taking over the control of our own money slowly this year. From April 1999 we will be totally independent and will be managing everything ourselves with support from outside the organisation. Our funding has not been set yet but we expect to have a 3 year contract with the Health Authority.

Staffing

We have no staff of our own at the moment. We have a worker who is employed by LD-MAP Self Advocacy Project who supports us to get work done. We are employing our first part time 'learning disabled' worker from October 1998. The LD-MAP worker will support that worker until December 1998. From January 1999 we will employ a full time personal assistant to support the 'learning disabled workers.' In April we will employ another part time 'learning disabled worker to share the work of the organisation.

Office Base

At the moment we are based in Piccadilly sharing the offices of VAM. We hope to move to new offices around September 1998. We need more space and a place where our members can come and spend some time enjoying coffee mornings with the committee workers. This provides the chance for people to talk about what is happening and what the committee need to think about when planning work of the project. people to talk

Contact Details

Manchester People First
Business Employment Venture Centre
Aked Close
Ardwick
Manchester M12 4AN
Tel: 0161 273 1221

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