Open Sesame starts in Dudley
March 30, 2010 in Dudley, Meetings by Alan from Working Parts
The first Open Sesame about “unlocking the mysteries on the internet, and starting a new community by disabled people” at the Retreat cafe was a busy affair, with a few more turning up than expected. We had a sandwich before we kicked off, provided by the wonderful Lunch on the Run, a local learning disability charity. We met Maggie, who takes care of the bookings and all in all, were made very welcome.
I met graphic artist Peter Chaplin whose task was to create an image for the profile page of the groups who have attended. Throughout the two hours Peter sketched, hurriedly, rather like a modern day Rolf Harris. He was inspired by the strengths and stumbling blocks of the groups. This included, Elin Hey, mental health user empowerment network, Vicky Dunn advocacy and learning disability network , Sam Allen, who is currently building up the Wolverhampton disability network and is a new group. We were pleased that local authority officer Fred Richings joined us, representing Dudley Disability Arts Forum.
We wrote down the name of the group or organisation we represented and their strengths and stumbling blocks. Ken Mcclymont joined us and presented Peter with the challenge of sketching three groups, including the Dudley Inclusive living partnership. Ken is a strong advocate for the importance of networks, and consortiums led by disabled people. He was someone who didn’t need convincing, about a Black Country Disability Network but was interested in the accessibility of the Working Parts website from a visually impaired perspective.
Together we looked at common issues, funding was said by everyone to be the single biggest stumbling block to increasing their capacity to deliver a service. However I felt that if we had time, we should spend time going through internal issues facing the groups, and how they can improve their service delivery for disabled people, rather than the oblique shadow of funding cuts.
