Learning Disability Alliance Scotland

Hi folks

I have been quite busy over the past week or so workiing with Ian . It has been very enjoyable.

Tuesday 20th july . Ian and I presented the Campaign For Change training programe in Glasgow . I am feeling more confident with the notes now and really enjoying it. Ian told me later that the day went well.

Wednesday 28 July , Went with Ian to a meeting of the Getting it Right group in Glasgow . The group hope to orgainse a big conference early next year . It is likely to be held in Febuary or March next year in Perth or Stirling . The group looked at lots of things including venues , funding , dates, speakers , workshops  and possible audience .

The next meeting of the group will be in Edinburgh early in September .

I am off on hoilday now with my extended family to Austria and the Italian Lakes.

Cheers Martin

 29 July 2010

 Hi Folks

It has been a busy 5/6 weeks but I have enjoyed the work very much. Here are a few notes on what has been happening .

Tuesday 25th May

Had a practice session with Ian at the Enable offices in Glasgow . This was to help me deliver my training sessions  in Helenburgh on the 15 June, clearly.

Wenesday 2 June

Met  Ian in Edinburgh to go to a planning meeting. It is hoped to hold a national conference to look at how people with learning difficultes have been campaining across Scotland. This was the first of several meetings and was very interesting.

 Tuesday 15 june

Ian and I went to Helenburgh to meet up with the Ace group there . We gave a training session to the group and showed them how to campaingn for change. They told us they were fighting to keep a local special needs school open . I enjoyed doing the sessions very much indeed.

Tuesday 22 June

Had a catch up session with Ian at the Enable offices in Glasgow  . We also looked at ways how help could be given to the campaign in Helenburgh , fighting the closure of the local special needs school.

Tuesday 20 July

This is the date for my second training session . It will be held in Glasgow. I am looking foward to it very much.

Cheers Martin

 Hello folks,

I have  been quite busy over the past 5/6 weeks with several different tasks.

I have been working on the" Campaign for Change" training notes which Ian and I will be using in the summer.

We will be giving a training course to the Key Housing group in Glasgow and later to the Ace group in Helensburgh.On Tuesday 13th April I met up with Ian at the Enable offices in Glasgow . We carried out a number of  jobs including admin. tasks and practising for  the training sessions we will be doing in the summer.

On Tuesday 20th April  I meet up with Ian again at the St Stephen Renfield Centre in Glasgow for an Election Hustings meeting organised by the LDAS. All the main political parties were there and answered questions from the audience of people with learning difficulties , their carers and support staff. The meeting went well and was very interesting .

Ian told me that we will maybe have a meeting in May with the EK Working Ace group who are working on a new newletter.

The April meeting of the Best Value Review group was cancelled at short notices. No new date has been fixed yet.

I went to the Lanarkshire Ace monthly meeting in the Murray Owen centre last Tuesday evening.

The meeting was a" Have your say" session where local polticians told us why we should vote for them in the election.

Cheers Martin

 l

tuesday 9 feb

Ian and i met with the other members of the Ace working group at the Speak Out offices in EK. We talked about our next project which will be a newletter.

Tuesday 16 feb

Part of the work for the Newletter will be interviewing various people who work in the community.

Clare and i are a team and our first interview was with Andy Simm , Chairman of the  Day Services Consultation Group . The interview went well and I will report back to Ian at the next meeting. At the moment i am trying to arrange our next interview which will be with one of the support workers at Speak Out.

Wenesday 24 Feb

The next Ace meeting will be Wed 24 at the Murray Owen Centre in EK

p.s my sister is expecting a baby any day now i cant wait to be an uncle

      Cheers Martin

thursday 10 jan

bestvalue meeting in lindsay house ek 

The meeting was short due to a number of absences.

Scot McNeil of the council told us about the visit to the Rosehill Day Centre in Montrose.

The next meeting will be held in Larkhall or Carluke

Tuesday 19 January

I met up with Ian in EK Art Centre . My main job was to tell people / groups about our new brochure .

 I sent out information to local newpapers, local groups and to the Council.

I also found out some information for Ian about the meeting he will be going to.

Tuesday 26 january

Ace Meeting at the Murray Owen Centre

The mailn business was to talk by Duncan Turner of South Lanark Council about

 the Appopriate Adult Scheme which gives advice and help to people with learning difficulties when they are in trouble.

Everyone thanked Ducan for a very good talk.

Cheers Martin

tuesday 15 dec

 Today Ian and I met with the ACE working group at the Speak Out offices to finish off the magazine that the Group have been working on for some time. We talked about how we could send the magazine to Newspapers like the East Kilbride News, East Kilbride Mail and the Herald and also to Social Work , Speak Out and the local Colleges and Day Centres. Ian asked  members if they wanted to be in one of the Newspapers and then he took pictures of Michael, Clare, Ross, James and Martin. When we had finished the work we broke up for the Christmas holidays.

I would like to wish everyone who knows me or has worked with me a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2010.

   Cheers Martin.

 t

tue dec 8

 Today we finshed the magazine of about A Day in the life of . 

I was choosing Pictures for Ian  to make Christmass card for ldas

and yesterday i went to lanark for a  Best Value Review

And the we went over the Minutes and the agenda

and the we talk about the topices we were dissucing at the meeting.

Tuesday November 3

Met up with Ian at the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride. Usually the whole Ace working group turn up but there were not enough photographs ready for the group to go though . So the plan was for Ian and i to meet up and carry on working on the magazine .On the day Clare and James turned up and helped us with the work.

Tuesday November 10

Ian and I met up with the whole Ace group at the Murray Owen centre. Part of the meeting was used to let Clare and Paul tell everyone about the magazine which will tell the story of daily lives of some of the Ace members. It was a very interesting meeting .

Tuesday Nov 17

Ian and I are going to the LDAS AGM in Glasgow. Looiking forward to meeting some of the people who are involved with the LDAS.

CHEERS MARTIN

friday 30 otober

Ace Working Group

The group met in the Speak Out Offices in East Kilbride on Tuesday 20th October.

We carried on working on the magazine which will tell the everyday story of some of the group members . I enjoyed the meeting very much . It was good working with my friends.

Best Value Review

The meeting was held on Thursday 22nd October in the Fairhill centre in Hamilton.

Some of the things that were talked about were plans for furture visits and also the work of the Care Commission.

Cheers Martin Murdoch

hi folks

here is the list of meetings I have been to or will be going to in October.

Tuesday October 6th: Meeting of the Ace working group in the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride . Ian , Michael , Clare and I

spent the morning taking photographs of places in the Village and the Town Centre that Michael visits often. This will be a part of a project dealing with the lives of some of the group members.

Wednesday October 7th: Meeting of Lanark .Ace at which NHS Lanarkshire gave a talk to the group .

Unfortuntely I was not well that evening and could not go to the meeting . I arranged for Patricia to give out copies of a report on Day Opportunities Review in South Lanarkshire to the group.

Tuesday October 20th : Meeting of the Ace working group in the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride.

Thursday October 22nd : Best Value review meeting in Fairhill Lifestyles,Hamilton.

Cheers Martin.

thursday 10 sept

Went to the Best Value meeting in the Murray Owen centre in East Kilbride. I enjoyed it very much.

They talked about what is happening in Perth and Kinross and also in North Lanarkshire .

I was asked to tell everbody what I do in my job .

Tuesday 15th Sept

Ian and I met the Ace working group in the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride.

Ian told the meeting about a seminar in Glasgow on the 30th Sept

about supported employment .

He said he would book a few places at the seminar and see if anyone in the working group was interested in going.

Cheers Martin.

tuesday 28th july

I interviewed Gary McIntyre about his job as chairman of Lanarkshire ACE. HE told me he did the job for 3years and now he is doing it for 2 more years. During the interview Gary told me why he had appied for the job and how he involved with fund raising , going to meeting and public speaking.

Tuesday 30th july

I went to the Best Value Review meeting in the county head offices in Hamilton. I went along with other members of Speak out and LanarkshireACE . At the meeting various working groups reported back to the main Consultative Group.

tuesday 4th August

Ian and I met in Speak Out offices in East Kilbride on Tuesday morning . We worked on putting together all the information for the Lanarkshire ACE News paper . We managed to finished it

CHEERS MARTIN

wed 1st july

. Ian and I met at SpeakOut offices in EK. We worked on the new Ace News.The news tells people about :

*Social Work review of day opportunities.

*What happens at the Murray Owen Day Centre

* A look at who else can help people with learning difficulties have a voice

Thur 2nd July

I went with Patricia Kearns to a Best Value review meeting in Cambuslang

* I met Scott McNeil (Operations Manager - Day Services) and Caroline Deerin at the meeting.

* At the meeting we looked at the range of day services that are availabile and the action plans that the council are looking at.

cheers martin

tuesday 9th june

On Tuesday 9th June ,Micheal ,Clare and I went to the Murray Owen Centre in East Kilbride to have a chat with Gerry Mckenna (the manager). We asked him 10 questions about the Centre and how it works. .Micheal wrote the answers down and I said I would type them up later. On Wednesday 10th ,I went down to the Speakout offices to type up the answers to our interview. I also wrote a letter to Scott McNeil at South Lanarkshire Council .His department are reviewing day opportunities at present. I asked him if ACE could become involved in the review.

Cheers Martin.

question down and write a letter to Scott McNeil

cheers martin

wed 3rd june 2009

MURRAY OWEN CENTRE EK . LAST WEEK I SPOKE AT THE LANARKSHIRE ACE MEETING

1, I READ OUT THE MINUTES OF THE STEERING GROUP MEETING OF MAY 19TH IN EK THEY WERE FINE

2 , I THEN TOLD EVERYONE ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE GOING ON IN SOUTH LANARKSHIRE WHICH PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES SHOULD KNOW ABOUT.

[A[ PEOPLE FIRST GROUP . (B) LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY GROUP (C) BEST VALUE REVIEWS.

3 I READ OUT A LETTER TO CAROLINE DERRING ASKING HER TO MEET WITH US TO TALK ABOUT BEST VALUE REVIEWS OF DAY CENTRES.

4 I TOLD THE MEETING THAT THE STEERING GROUP WILL BE MEETING THE MANAGER OF THE MURRAY OWEN CENTRE TO FINED OUT ABOUT WHAT SERVICES IT OFFERS

5 I TOLD THE MEETING ABOUT THE IDEA OF ACE HAVING A NEWSLETTER TO LET MORE PEOPLE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING. CHEERS MARTIN

tuesday 19th may

i chaired the meeting of the ACE group/LDAS. AT THE SPEAKOUT OFFICES IN EAST KILBRIDE.

AT THE MEETING WE TALKED ABOUT

1 A REPORT FROM PEOPLE FIRST

2 LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY GROUPS

3 BEST Value REVIEWS

4 IF IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR THE ACE GROUP TO HAVE A REGULAR NEWLETTER.

CHEERS MARTIN

tuesday 14/4/09

worked from the offices of Speak Out Advocacy.In the morning I prepared and posted out letters to 4 members of Unity Enterprise telling them about the meeting with MSP Pauline McNeil on Monday 27th April. In the afternoon I worked on the briefing report - preparing Easy Read briefing.

Regards,

Martin

Thursday 7/5/09

Hi, on Wednesday 28 th April, Ian, Ann and I went to the Scottish Parliament to talk to the Cross Party group. It was very good.On Thursday 7th May, Ian and I went to the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride to talk to members of the Ace group.We talked about the way that Social Work and the Community Support team work in East Kilbride. A lot of people were unhappy .Next Tuesday Ian and I are going to meet at the Speak Out offices in East Kilbride to discuss how to change things .Later on I am going to meet with members of the Ace group and tell them what Ian and I discussed on Tuesday .

CHEERS MARTIN

tuesday 7/4/09

on tuesday i met Ian and Ann in the East Kilbride offices of "Speak Out Advocacy".We have been working on a dvd newsletter for many weeks and I was filmed for part of the introduction to the dvd. Later on I tried to set up a meeting between members of Unity Enterprise and a Glasgow MSP,Pauline McNeil. After several phone calls I managed to arrange a meeting for the 27th April in Glasgow.

Martin.

31/3/09

On Tuesday me and Ann met up with Ian at the Key Housing offices in Glasgow at 10.00am. We started by talking about the More Jobs How conference which took place last Tuesday.At 11.00am we met James who came to talk to us about the Same As You report. I filmed James as he was giving us his report.