October 2001
October has been a good month for WAACIS and we are on the verge of some very exciting projects. We know that the service we provide is making an important contribution to the everyday lives of many disabled people and we are working hard to make this service available firstly in Greater London and later throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.Vital Statistics for October
We carried out 102 Tutorials and 10 Assessments making a total of 112 for the month. This is reasonably satisfactory. We have a lot of new students in the pipeline and hope very much to increase the figures substantially in the New Year.
New Recruitment
We are pleased to say that Christine Ritchie has joined WAACIS team, WAACIS has been growing from strength to strength which has inevitably lead to an increased work load, it had therefore become necessary to recruit another Administrator to help Avril with the running of the WAACIS office. We welcome Christine and hope that she enjoys working for WAACIS.
Tutor Recruitment
We have received a considerable number of applications through the website which are now being processed. We now need to consider taking on additional tutors to be able to provide a service for the expansion of the programme.
The most pleasing aspect of the current situation is that we now have 87 students actually receiving instruction. This is the highest number yet achieved. However, owing to illness, holiday, private appointments, computer breakdowns and other eventualities, we are not managing to achieve more that 25 tutorials per week. This is something that we have to learn to accept. Unfortunately, many disabled people suffer from a range of ailments which affects their general health and, therefore, delays the delivery of tuition.
This point very much reinforces the WAACIS philosophy that one to one tuition delivered at home is much the best way of introducing disabled people to the internet. If they enrol in fixed term college courses, very often they fall ill and are unable to complete the course. WAACIS has the flexibility to tailor the course to the needs of the individual.
OCTOBER DIARY
2nd October - An important meeting took place between Anthony Wigram and David Hart. The topic discussed was the formation of the WAACIS Volunteer Representative Committee. This is a very important step for us. We need to raise the profile of WAACIS and feel that our Graduate Students will be the best ambassadors for us.
Our idea is to establish a group of WAACIS graduates in every London Borough and their job will be to contact Local Councillors, Members of the Borough Social Services and other organisations and charities working with disabled people in their Borough so they can tell them about WAACIS and give their members an opportunity of taking the service.
This also has an important aspect so far as funding is concerned. Whilst, at the moment, we draw the majority of our funds from the generosity of charitable trusts and commercial companies, we do need to develop a more secure basis by receiving fees for services provided from Local Authorities and other Government bodies.
In this connection residents in any Borough have the advantage of direct access to their elected political representatives and to Social Service Departments and can therefore persuade them that they should lend their assistance developing WAACIS.
David Hart has agreed to become Chairman of the Volunteer Committee and the following WAACIS graduates have so far agreed to help:-
Doreen Nicholas, Johanna Cheetham, Keith Clancy
Wednesday 3rd October - Anthony Wigram and Martin Ball met with Alex Peacock of the Wymead Centre in Chingford, and Jacky Illes, of Waltham Forest Council. The Wymead Centre is changing from a centre based provision to a scheme working more in the community. They offered to refer students and also work with WAACIS in putting forward bids for funding with the Borough. Jackie Illes works for Walthan Forest and said that there are six PC’s at the centre and another ten are available for residents to loan from the council.
Monday 8th October – Anthony Wigram went to a presentation by the Friends of Young Deaf People (FYD) who held a reception at Great George Street. They have a very interesting programme and are in touch with many people who might become WAACIS students. We have initiated conversations with their Community Affairs Manager, Mark Perry and we hope that many introductions will flow from this source.
Monday 15th October – A large group of WAACIS representatives went with Nuala Davis of Ability Net in order to carry out an assessment of Henry Tunney who has had cerebral palsy from birth and manages to work a computer by using a special switch accessible with his right foot. This is the only means he has of controlled communication. We were comforted by Peter Theobald who is a film maker and is compiling a film about the WAACIS Project. Xenia Coventry who will become Henry’s tutor was also present. The lesson took about two and a half hours with Nuala crawling around the floor trying to fix switches on various parts of Henry’s wheelchair. The assessment proceeded very satisfactorily and Henry’s equipment will be ordered in the very near future. We hope he will be on line in a few weeks.
Wednesday 17th October – The 4th Tutorial Seminar tool place at Porchester Terrace. The Minutes of this meeting are set out below.
Friday 19th October – This was a very important day for WAACIS. As you will know for some time we have been interviewing candidates to take the place of Martin Ball who is moving on to take another job as the Public Affairs Officer for MACA. Six candidates were interviewed and in the end we were delighted that Cliff Docherty, who is already a WAACIS tutor and who has run the WAACIS Deaf Awareness Course, has been selected. Cliff will take up his job on Friday 23rd November and with his long experience in the charitable field, combined with his knowledge of WAACIS, we are convinced he is going to do a first class job for us.
Monday 22nd October – David Hart has been working very hard in Lambeth and as reported in previous months has bought to fruition a most important scheme. On this day a meeting took place between David Hart, Don McBean who is the Strategic Partnership Manager of the London Central Learning and Skills Council which is the new name for the Adult Education Board. This scheme is exceedingly ambitious. Eventually we are hopeful that it will spread far beyond the present pilot arrangements. Under the pilot scheme computers have been provided by Energy Watch who are replacing their entire stock. These computers are only two or three years old and are generally Pentium 3’s with between 300-500 mhz. They are therefore entirely suitable for use by disabled people wanting to access the internet. To begin with we will be given 20 computers and these will be distributed to Lambeth residents who, at the moment, participate in the direct payment scheme. Training will then be given by WAACIS tutors. The funding will come through the Learning and Skills Council under Don McBean.
The eventual scope of the scheme is very significant. Energy Watch has a 1,000 computers available which would mean a huge development for the WAACIS team.
Very many congratulations once again to David Hart who has engineered this whole project.
Tuesday 23rd October – Meeting at the House of Commons with Michael Portillo. As you have often seen in this website, our main difficulty is contacting the disabled community. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no list of disabled people which is easily accessible and the Data Protection Act makes it difficult for Local Authorities to part with information. The purpose of talking to Michael Portillo was that he should write to the Minister, Jackie Smith, in order to convince her that a Government audit should take place of disability throughout the United Kingdom so that at least, as a starting point, somebody knows how many disabled people there are in each category, how old they are and what their disability is. Once this has been done this information should be made available to selected bodies wishing to provide services to the many people who could benefit their organisations.
The current situation is extremely regrettable. It is amazing how many disabled people do not obtain the help they are entitled to receive from many charities and Government bodies. This is not an inevitable situation. The creation of a list of the kind described is neither difficult nor expensive.
It remains to be seen who replies we receive from the Minister. Michael Portillo was extremely helpful and WAACIS is extremely grateful to him for his interest in our project.
Tuesday 23rd October – Anthony Wigram attended a reception held by Action for Blind People at the Cholmondeley Room in the House of Lords. This was a very well attended meeting. It outlined the work carried out by the charity and was both clear and impressive. As will be recalled from previous notes, WAACIS is entering into a partnership with Action for Blind People to participate in a major initiative connected with their SRB bid for training blind and partially sighted people throughout the Greater London area.
Thursday 25th October – WAACIS Trustees meeting. The Minutes of this meeting are set out below.
Friday 26th October – David Hart and Anthony Wigram attended the Annual General Meeting of GLAD (Greater London Action for Disabled). I am very pleased to report that David Hart was elected on to the GLAD Executive Committee. We met many people and hope to recruit many students through this connection.
Wednesday 31st October – An excellent meeting between David Hart, John Howlett and Anthony Wigram.
Fundraising for the Month
We received £7,000 from Cable and Wireless plc for which we are extremely grateful. In particular Cable and Wireless have shown great interest in the WAACIS project and the work we are doing. We are hopeful that we are going to be able to develop a long term partnership with them and gain substantially both from their support and experience in this field. Various other fundraising initiatives have been put in place including potential applications to the The John Ellerman Foundation and Baring Foundation.
