NEWS ARCHIVE
24/06/2008
Unique Futures in Dublin
On 23rd June Lucy Hurst-Brown and Steve Day travelled to Dublin at the invitation of the St John of God Charity to speak about new initiatives for providing support to people with learning disabilities, drawing on Brandon's Unique Futures Strategy. Lucy and Steve led a whole day seminar covering a wide range of material from Human Rights implications through to Individual Budgets and User Involvement. The invitation to visit Ireland came as a result of Lucy's speech at a London Conference at the beginning of this year (see News archive 14.1.08) where she received very positive feedback of her analysis into the way independent charities have the potential to enable people with learning disabilities to have real choice over their support options.
17/06/2008
Makaton Signing at Banwell School
Brandon Trust's Banwell Pottery has been developing links with our local school, Banwell Primary. The school asked if anyone could help teach Makaton signs that could be used in their Christmas concert, as a pupil with Downs syndrome in the reception class uses signs to communicate. One of our Potters, Jane Smith, volunteered as she has excellent Makaton skills. The concert went well so she was asked to go back on a regular basis to teach the class and the teachers signing. Jane now goes to the school every Friday morning for half an hour. The teacher says a word, Jane signs and the children copy. The sessions are a lot of fun, Jane really enjoys it and the children look forward to her visit.
The teachers believe it has increased communication within the class and playground as the children are keen to try out the new signs. We are very proud of the work Jane is doing at the school; she helps the children to see people with learning disabilities in a positive way.
13/05/2008
An Important Job at Brandon Trust
Brandon Trust is pleased to be advertising this new job – we hope that people with learning disabilities who have skills in communications will apply. We will be short-listing for this job in June and conducting the interviews in July. The reason we have such a long ‘lead in’ is to give applicants plenty of time to prepare. It is an important job because for a long time we have wanted to create the opportunity for someone with learning disabilities to be a paid employee; influencing, advising and representing the work of the organisation. At the moment this permanent job is just one day a week. This is both a small start but a great leap forward. We look forward to hearing from anyone who is interested.
Click here to view the advert.
