G's Blog (9)
Gina and Siraaj Dudley help MPs put together the employment White Paper and meet with Job Coaches
Then in the afternoon, we met with two Job Coaches in Dudley called Kay Cartwright and Judith Rumble to tell them about this Parliament. A Job Coach is there to help people with a disability to find a job. We told them about what the Parliament is and who we already met, who we are going to meet and what we have done. We explained the 3 outcomes. One of which was about Job Carving. The Job coaches told us about how they supported people to find a job. They also told us a couple of success stories when they have helped people. As Job carving is one of the targets, the Job Coaches told us about how one of the people they support has being doing a job as a PA in Andrea-Pope Smith's office through Job carving.
They agreed to come to the first People's Parliament meeting to talk about Job carving on the 30th July 2012.
As being a part of the Scrutiny Panel, I will "youth proof "and examine UK Government policies. I will be advising UK Government Ministers on young people's needs and the impact of Government policies on young people. I will meet with the Government at least three times a year and I will also get an insight into Parliament.
On the 1st of July, I will be going down to London to meet with the other people who will join me on the panel and I will also get trained up. Then on the 2nd July, I will be meeting up with the Government for the first time with the rest of the panel.
The BYC do loads of other work with young people and so do the UKYP.
To find out more about the BYC and its other work. Please visit http://www.byc.org.uk/
To find out more about the UKYP and its other work. Please visit http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/
Gina & Siraaj meet with Darren & Daniel to recruit more MP’s for People’s Parliament in Dudley!
We then explain that in between the big Parliament, there are MP meeting to which the MP's are kept inform with the progress of work done by the professionals. Afterwards, we explained that there would be Select Committees led by MP's who have chosen to specialise in a certain area.
So please watch this space!
I then talked about the leadership training that Siraaj Nadat and I will deliver as leads of the project to prepare them for Parliament. I talked about my experience as a paid leader and what it has helped me to achieve throughout my time with Changing Our Lives.
Then in the afternoon, I went to the Council House in Dudley to talk to CEO of Dudley Council called John Polychronakis, we were joined by Andrea Pope-Smith, Director for Adults. I told John about the Parliament and all the hard work that Siraaj and I are doing to set up Dudley Peoples Parliament. We talked about how and what I did during Takeover day in November 2011 (in which I took over Jan Britton's job who is the CEO of Sandwell Council).
John agreed to support the work of Dudley People's Parliament by attending the Parliament meetings, extend our network of partners, meet with MP's and support their training through shadowing opportunities to develop their knowledge about how the council works and volunteer for 'Take Over Day' on 23rd November this year with one of our young Dudley MP's!
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/takeover_day
To find out more of the development of this Dudley's People's Parliament...please watch this space!!
We then explained that in between the big Parliaments, there are MP meetings where the MPs do lots of work. Afterwards, we explained that are Select Committees led by MPs leading the work.
If you would any more info on the development of this Parliament......Please watch this space!
On Wednesday 18th April, Siraaj and I firstly met Judy Allcock who has found out about the Parliament and was interested in being an MP. When we arrived, we told Judy a bit about the work Changing Our Lives does and then we told her about what the actual Parliament itself was about. We said the Parliament was like the Parliament in Westminster in London. The only difference itself was that the MPs will be adults with a learning disability and that the Parliament would be on employment.
We told Judy about that were 3 outcomes that we wanted to achieve which were :
- Accessible recruitment process when applying for jobs in the Council
- To get 5 people into paid employment full time for 16 hours or more
- Job Carving
We then told Judy our experience with Changing Our Lives and why we got involved. I said that I started 2 years ago with my work placement and how I was really quiet and wouldn't talk to anyone but then I talked about Takeover Day and Whole of Life. Siraaj talked about his national work and how he sits on the national health advisory board.
Then after we were done meeting Judy, we went to do 2 sessions at Dudley College and we gave a presentation with a bit a of background information on Changing Our Lives, People's Parliament and again the 3 outcomes. At the end of the sessions, we had 6 people interested being MPs.
So watch this space!!!
Gina and Siraaj meet Chris Sims to work on People's Parliament Project
On the 2nd April, Siraaj and I met with Chris Sims (who works for the Mencap Employment Service based in Wolverhampton but works in Wolverhampton and Walsall.) Chris Sims role in the Employment Service is to help people with a disability to find a job.
Welcome to the first entry in G’s fantastic new blog!!!
I’m Gina Patel, I work for Changing Our Lives and this is my first ever entry!
I got involved with Changing Our Lives originally in July 2010 when I approached them to do my work experience placement while I was in year 10 at School and have never left!