Week Commencing 18th November
Four meetings took place this week, by far the most exciting was when Chairman Anthony Wigram and Fundraiser Chris Frederick visited No. 10 Downing Street. Here"s Anthony"s report:"Patrick Diamond is a leading policy advisor at No. 10 Downing Street, on adult education and related matters. He was the lead speaker at the recent London Central Learning & Skills Council conference.
Patrick was contacted after the conference by myself and as a result U Can Do I.T. were invited to give him a presentation at Downing Street.
As we went into No. 10 Cherie Blair was coming out and gave us a cheery good morning. We were asked to leave our mobile phones on a splendid marble table in the hall. We were shown into a small waiting room, adjacent to which there was an disability-friendly accessible toilet. After a few minutes wait Patrick came out to greet us and ushered us into an enormous oval shaped conference (not the cabinet room though). We showed him our promotional film and this was followed by a lively discussion for half an hour.
We very much hope the government can be persuaded to realise that many disabled people are not able to access colleges or day centres because of transport problems and the need for special equipment so they can access computers. It is therefore essential that they have tuition in their own homes if they are going to be able to join the internet revolution. We left a copy of the film and some of our literature with Patrick and we hope that it will, through him, find a way to the people and committees where decisions are made.
Thank you Patrick for your encouragement and support."
After the excitement of No. 10 we had a meeting with Aspire, a national charity concerned with spinal cord injuries. They have a national training centre in Stanmore, north London, and one of their projects is an accessible internet cafe. They have also begun outreach work, providing computer access in day centres in the borough of Harrow. Agreement has been reached for Aspire to make referrals directly to U Can Do I.T of clients who have been unable to attend their day centres or who need some extra help at home. In return, U Can Do I.T. will be referring on applicants who do not have access to computers but who can visit an Aspire outreach centre.
The other meeting was with Westminster Youth Service who are helping us identify potential course students. We have a grant from Connexions to teach 20 children and young people aged 13 to 19, and so we are keen to attract as many applications from this age group as possible. One of the key things to come out of this meeting was that WYS are involved in the creation of AQA"s, which are nationally recognised measures of achievement in a variety of skills. WYS is an accrediting centre and we will be working with them towards having modules within syllabus recognised under this scheme.
Lastly, tutor Tracey Fawthrop very kindly agreed to attend the National Training Day of ATLA, the professional organisation of lipreading teachers. Tracey gave a presentation and then talked to the lipreading teachers about what we could offer. We have already begun receiving applications for tuition following this, so thank you Tracey.
This week"s key contacts:
Contact a Family in Lambeth, Wandsworth and Southwark will be circulating 200 flyers each to their members. Volunteer co-ordinator Doreen Nicholas will be attending the Lambeth branch AGM in early December to tell members about what we have to offer.
Various London groups affiliated to, or in contact with the National ME Centre have been approached and there have been discussions about sending out our information to their members. As a result we have already had three applications via the ME Centre.
