Rosemary Trustam attended the centenary celebration of the work of Elfrida Rathbone at the House of Lords
A hundred years ago Elfrida Rathbone cycled across Camden carrying a rice pudding. She was bringing it to her cookery class to show the girls what a good one should look like.
This picture of Elfrida Rathbone was painted by Alexis Keir, CEO of Elfrida Rathbone Camden, who opened the centenary celebration of the life of this amazing woman at the House of Lords in November.
The event was attended by the staff and the people they support of the London charities which owe their existence to the woman whose centenary they were celebrating. Four charities – Rathbone Society Lambeth, Elfrida Rathbone Camden, Generate and the Elfrida Society – have this connection.
Opportunities
Their work sprang out of the kind of youth and community work that ‘generates opportunities’ for young people. They focused on those with learning disabilities struggling on the margins, often without formal supports, at risk of exploitation and isolation.
The connectivity created by these small local charities not only prevents people getting into trouble through relationships with trusted people, it helps them make their own contributions.
Generate’s original Thursday club run by volunteers became three for different ages and got people into work, funding their first paid staff. Three young people told me about their experiences today. Claudia goes to a club offering acting, this month presenting a drama and song celebrating the centenary. Stuart spends two days working in the charity shop and Nicola works in Generate’s reception.
The event was hosted by Baroness Hollins who spoke of how the work started by Elfrida Rathbone in 1916 has led to the vision, values and achievements we see today, contrary to the view of people with learning disabilities not having much to contribute. She commended the huge range of creative innovative work with people with learning disabilities, children and young people, families and parents with learning disabilities.
Kalid and Lucy from Elfrida Rathbone Camden spoke of the importance of offering a range of educational and creative opportunities irrespective of the extent of anyone’s disability. This inclusiveness and shared connections clearly unlock people’s self-belief as they spoke out with real confidence.
This confidence was evident when Beverley Dawkins, Generate’s current CEO, introduced Leon who had written a rap, one of their centenary songs, and performed it for us.
June and Paul were introduced by Tony Bamforth, CEO of the Elfrida Society in Islington which employs them. They said how wonderful it had been to meet so many ‘Elfrida people’.
Ahead of the game
Jo Clare, who came from an education background and worked at the Elfrida Society, is now CEO of Three Cs. She said: “Elfrida was always ahead of the game. As early as the mid-1980s, they trained literacy tutors like me in computer-assisted learning and people with learning difficulties were already benefiting from IT and audio visual software before most of us had computers. Elfrida was doing personalisation long before it became a word”.
Community Living magazine owes much to Elfrida too when it hosted the magazine from 2006 to 2011, ensuring its continued campaigning voice.
Julian Rathbone who was representing the Rathbone family spoke to me with evident warmth about the family feeling of this day.
For these four London charities the bonus of this centenary has been how it has helped them make space to reconnect and consider how as a network they can support each other whilst retaining their local focus.
