“What they really wanted was to have karaoke, have a dance, have a drink – they just wanted to have fun.”
Jen Farrell’s words on community and opportunity are a stark – welcome – contrast to those relating to the controversial welfare bill. Hannah Fearn met Farrell, manager of Banbury Community Support Service, to find out how the Cheers M’Dears pub fulfils a need to socialise.
The need for community and opportunity also drives Stay Up Late’s gig buddies. As Rohan Lowe explains, the buddies encourage music fans to attend events like festivals so “you get to see people with disabilities doing things they want to do”.
Performer and host Tilley Milburn tells us about gearing up for a busy summer season of shows, sessions and workshops.
Stay Up Late’s gig buddies encourage music fans to attend events like festivals so ‘you get to see people with disabilities doing things they want to do’
Visibility, representation and inclusion, as Milburn champions at cultural and community events, are vital, especially as the support that helps people get out and about is under threat.
Advocate to thrive
Mary O’Hara reports on the similarities between the right-wing US government’s welfare changes and proposals from the more left-wing administration here in the UK.
This all makes the relaunch of Good Lives, a national vision for learning disability policy, timely. Learning Disability England’s vision, originally launched in 2022, sets out in clear terms what people need not just to survive but thrive.
Determination and ambition are desperately needed, given it’s more than 20 years since the release of the white paper on learning disability, Valuing People.
Community, creativity, connection and opportunity are what most people would consider the foundations of a good life – and those with learning disabilities and their families are no different.
At the Banbury local, it’s what Farrell hints at when she explains the ethos behind the pub project: “If we can give one message that is do not concentrate on what someone cannot do – advocate for what that person can do.”
