April Newsletter
The big event in April, was the second User Group Policy Forum meeting which was held at St Anne"s in Soho. This forum is designed to get feedback from recent graduates about the course and any changes that we shouldconsider making. It was well attended, and there was some lively debate on the nature of Disability, with useful contributions from Millie North, Kevin Fleish, and Margaret Brown. Doreen Nicholas gave a short presentation about
the role of volunteers, followed by Sam Troll (who is blind) about some of the volunteeing activities she has been doing. Minutes can be seen below.
Meanwhile we had some positive responses to the huge number of e-mails the volunteers sent to local Social Service departments - in particular Jacky Gruhn from Newham, and Michael Woods from Merton, both of whom were very active in promoting our organisation.
MINUTES OF MEETING AT USER FORUM
ON 21ST APRIL 2004
AT ST ANNE’S CHURCH COMMUNITY HALL
55 DEAN STREET, SOHO, LONDON, W1D 6AF
Those Present
Amelia North (AN), Barbara Rooney (BR), Catherine Todd (CT), Champa Sleep (CS), Margaret Brown (MB), Margaret Radloff (MR), Philip Troll (PT), Ruth Ingram (RI), Sameena Troll (ST), Victor Healey (VH), Yousuf Guuled (YG), Margaret Church (MC), Robin Moir (RM), Kevin Fleish (KF), Margaret Dunbar (MD).
U Can Do I.T. Team: Anthony Wigram (AW), Chris Garbett (CG), Katie Brennan (KB), Patricia Webb (PW), Doreen Nicholas (DN).
Carers/Guides: Christine Brown (CB) - carer of Margaret Radloff and Robin Moir, Linda Flaherty (LF) and Michelle Holbourna (MH) - carer of Victor Healey, David Sleep (DS) - husband of Champa Sleep.
Approximately 10:30am
CG began by welcoming and thanking everybody for attending. He introduced AW as the chairman, and explained the layout of the meeting and items to follow.
1. Certificate Presentation
CG called out graduates and AW presented them with their certificate. A photo was taken of AW with CS as she is the 500th graduate.
2. Congratulations - AW
AW congratulated all graduates for their achievements, and encouraged them to continue using the skills they have developed through U Can Do I.T.’s course. He asked that graduates help to promote the charity, and mentioned our record year, i.e. the 315 and 415 tutorials in February and March 2004.
3. Questionnaires - CG
CG commented that life continuously changes, and therefore U Can Do I.T. needs to change with it. It is vital that we have feedback and comments from graduates to enable the charity to grow and improve; therefore the questionnaire is an important form of analysis. CG outlined the questions in the questionnaire, and asked that the graduates completed one each.
The questionnaires were distributed and completed amongst graduates, with the help of the U Can Do I.T. team.
4. Feedback - CG
CG highlighted several of the points in the questionnaire and asked for feedback from the graduates.
i. Course Fees
CG asked whether the cost of the course should be re-addressed, and if the section on the application form regarding student income was appropriate/suitable.
AN queried whether Incapacity Benefit was taken into consideration under the application income question. CG replied that it was.
LF said she didn’t think that the income question was offensive, but that people who are means-tested should pay just £1 per session, and that everyone else should fund the course independently.
MB pointed out that you can’t always generalise about people’s income, as there are many of those whom share it amongst partners and family. CG then suggested that perhaps the application’s income question should also cover household income and outgoings. MB agreed that benefits should be separate to income.
ii. Social Services
CG asked if any of the graduates regularly emailed Social Services.
LF mentioned that herself and MH only contact Social Services as a last resort. She finds they don’t often have the time to deal with people, but suggested that maybe they could send out U Can Do I.T. leaflets with payments. CG said that this was a valid point, but agreed that Social Services are very over stretched and difficult to co-operate.
Approximately three people raised their hands to emailing, or having used to email, social services regularly.
iii. Course Content
CG asked if their were any topics that graduates thought should be implemented into the course content, in particular MS Word and Keyboard Skills.
Approximately 6 people raised their hands in agreement to MS Word and Keyboard Skills being added to the course content.
VH said he thought MS Access would also be a useful program to add.
CG suggested the idea of teaching students how to process online applications.
CT pointed out that learning how to manage files could be an important topic, and also mentioned the difficulty she had had with online application using her JAWS software. She explained that it made her computer freeze. PW said that this could be to do with PDF files.
5. Outreach - CG
CG mentioned the difficulty in reaching our three main target groups: the Visually Impaired, the Deaf of Hard of Hearing, and the Physically Disabled. He asked whether anyone felt that the message within our advertising needed to be changed.
RM said that the disabled community are often left out when it comes to being informed of services directed at them.
AN highlighted that ‘Disabled’ was a blanket word, and did not actually accommodate for every form of disability, and is not a good way of advertising. KF suggested using the phrase ‘people with all disabilities’, and PW put forward ‘people with all physical and sensory disabilities’. CG agreed these were both good ideas.
KF commented on the word ‘Disability’ as an umbrella again. He said that it is not always easy to identify with this word as many people judge disability via physical appearance. A lot of people may not realise that services such as U Can Do I.T. are available to them, due to the fact that they might not consider themselves disabled if they are still mobile…i.e. KF has arthritis, but this is not visually noticeable to others, and therefore may not be always be considered a disability.
MB agreed that it was hard to draw the line and establish a definition for disability.
CG agreed that these were all good points and handed over to DN.
6. Volunteering - DN
DN introduced herself as the Graduate Co-ordinator, and explained that the charity is currently only small and needs people to ‘spread the word’. She mentioned the development of a Volunteer Pack, which includes a CD and leaflets that can be distributed amongst organisations within the community. It has been devised to require the least amount of effort, and to make volunteering enjoyable. DN said that the volunteer team are always contactable via email, and that she calls her volunteers every 6 weeks for an update.
We need disabled people to realise the benefits of IT and the world that it opens up to the user. DN explained that volunteering does not take up much time, and that there is no pressure – it can be done at the individuals pace. She encouraged graduates to sign up at the end of the forum.
ST then stood up and introduced herself as a volunteer. She explained that she started the U Can Do I.T. course last year, and as a volunteer she has started writing to the E. London council, is in regular contact with Social Services, has written an article about the benefits the course has given herself and her family, and has sent tapes about the charity to libraries and community centres. ST commented on how U Can Do I.T. has opened up a new world to her. She is now able to communicate electronically with her sons, help them with their homework, and surf the web for relevant educational information. It has provided a lot of fun and enjoyment for her and her family.
ST is applauded.
7. End of Forum
CG thanks all graduates for attending and invites everyone to enjoy the lunch provided. Graduates discuss amongst themselves. The forum is brought to a close at approximately 12.30am.
End of minutes
