Keep Yourself Safe

Key points

* The retain Yourself Safe Project looks at community safety for race with learning disabilities in Redbridge.

* 'Keeping safe' is the foundation for all community inclusion targets.

Why community safety?

The drive to come by people with a learning disability into ordinary community activities one as well as the other for pleasure and work is nothing fresh People's desire to do this is clearly press outed in the accessible version of the government's White Paper Valuing nation (Department of Health, 2001). This being for a like reason we must ask ourselves on what account so many people still sole go to clubs and services place up for people who have a learning disability?

Opportunities to explore on what account so many people do not make progress out as much as they would like have been limited. Living in Fear, a report compiled by dint of Mencap in 1999, did give race the chance to talk about their experiences on the outside in the community. Many family said they had been bullied upon a regular basis, called names, threatened or attacked. As a accrue of the report, tackling 'hate crime' against tribe with a learning disability became a lock opener issue across the country.

In Redbridge a conversation on bullying was organised through Redbridge Forum and listening to people's accounts of community life, a similar picture emerg to that of the Mencap report. A local agenda for change was place and one of the actions taken was to plant up the Keep Yourself Safe shoot forward The project was made possible by the agency of the Redbridge and Waltham Forest Learning Disability Partnership with funding from the Safer Communities Partnership.

The throw began in April 2004 and abundant of the first year was exhausted observing and listening, in various ways, to what race with a learning disability have squeeze outed about going out in the community - for example, making a CD taking part in photography sessions in the community and engaging in role-play and assemblage discussions.

Getting started

We began by means of advertising free training for family with a learning disability who wanted to learn facilitation skills: for example supporting other nation to join in with collections or to speak up for themselves upon a one-to-one basis in order to realize their messages across. We base a trainer who had worked with many different community members from different backgrounds. His message was -if you want to know what the community think, support a small cluster of willing community members to go on out and ask them. The day was true well attended. Participants tried on the outside different ways of supporting family to express their views.The courses people liked bestwere:

* Making a large map with dooms of pictures, drawings, photographs and words all about your community.

* Using pictures (Change Picture Bank), photographs and drawings to talk about things in groups

* Having avideo talksession.

Then, with a small team of compeer facilitators, we set out upon our project's journey. An Advisory rump was set up and a plan of action agreed.

What family said about their experiences

We invited race to join us for various occurrences and sessions and these have all been well attended. As with the Mencap findings greatest in quantity individuals shared their experiences and fears of 'hate crime' - for example, being picked upon at bus stops, having bags stolen, standard of value snatched, harassment from school children, being sexually assaulted. It is evident that the fear of what might happen and what tribe have already experienced out in the community is holding tribe back.

We found that family had very little information about keeping themselves safe. dooms of people felt vulnerable about being misled or conn through bogus callers and about race asking them directions/questions in cars. We ground an excellent video that helped with the bogus callers issue. Telesafe 2 is avideo resource pack upon safety produced by The Telesafe Association and Values Into Action. This gave family the opportunity to talk about ID cards, door chains and keeping safe when some you don't know knocks at your door. The video also overspreaded harassment on the street and upon buses.

Ongoing support

With the match facilitators, we held monthly Keeping Yourself Safe surgeries at sum of two units day-service based venues. We used this time to focus upon whatever came up as lock opener issues. We found photographs really useful during the clump discussions: they triggered lots of musing and talking points. The photographs were taken during our three-day photography sessions when family went out and photographed images they felt were safe or unsafe. individual of our 'locations' was a subway. This gave tribe the chance to talk as a collection about using subways while actually being in one

People were always earnest to look for solutions about by what means to keep safe and came up with practical ideas. single idea was to find without more about personal alarms, learn in what manner to use one and share this information end our monthly Keep Yourself Safe surgeries.

Gathering accessible information

From the beginning we struggl to find any local information about community safety that was easy to read and understand with equal reason we contacted our local crime prevention officer. He proffered to come and talk to us and give a demonstration of different personal alarms. We also invited staff from Victim Support Redbridge, as many nation knew little about what services they provided. No-one taking part in the Keeping Yourself Safe sessions had had any contact with Victim Support flat if they had been victims of crime. Victim Support Redbridge did however ask for training in disability awareness and were willing to lay open their service to include tribe with a learning disability, including providing accessible information.