We are pleased to announce the launch of the forthcoming publication:
'Peter and friends experience of covid-19: for people with intellectual or learning disabilities and/or autism'
will be held virtually on the 29th October 2020 starting at 1.30pm and ending at 5.00pm. The event is free for everyone but you will need to register for the conference on Eventbrite. We will let you all know when it goes live on Eventbrite and I will widely advertise the link on here, emails, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
This conference will not only focus on the trauma and challenges covid-19 has caused but we will be looking at the resilience and positive attitude people with learning disabilities have shown, what we all have learnt and changes we will make if it happened again. This will be a virtual and interactive half day event with a variety of presentations, quizzes, role plays and songs. We will hear stories from both from the UK and from across the world.Here's a run down of some of the programme:
Peter Cronin, self-advocate, representative for employment at Lewisham Speaking Up and lead editor of this book. Peter will be the compere for this event. His compassion for equality for all and supporting people with learning disabilities to have a platform to be heard shines through. He also has a a great sense of humour!
Sir Norman Lamb is a solicitor and was the Member of Parliament for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019. He has tirelessly throughout his career has been championing the human rights of people with learning disabilities, especially since events at Winterbourne View came into the public eye in 2012. He is now chair of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trus
Hayley Newman is the founder of Downs Side Up. Since the birth of her daughter Natty, she has been campaigning for a better world of understanding for people with Down syndrome and challenging ignorance and fear. Natty was the first UK model with a disability to feature in the national campaign 'Back to School'. Hayley's DownsSisdeUp.com is an award winning website.
Lloyd and Jim are a famous double act and both are famous in their own right! Lloyd works for national Mencap and has published a book full of jokes. Jim is an Independent Consultant Nurse and his CV is a proven record of fighting health in equalities. They will be discussing Lloyd's experience of having covid-19 and what helped him win the battle.
Throughout the event we will be holding a series of quizzes and asking people to vote on a selection of covid-19 related questions. Make sure someone who knows about computers or tablets will be with you and remember you need to register with Eventbrite. So start reading up on or discuss with a friend what the main points of covid-19 are.
This is Sunny - a well liked member of the Can You Understand It? team, which is Oxleas Editorial team for easy read information and Advocacy for All in Bexley. He is also rather comical and at this event he will be doing of his infamous role plays. He may even do some impressions!
We are proud to have Cardiff University Vox with us at this event. They are a cappella group of students with a passion for singing. Matthew one of the editors of this book is a member and we are sure their singing will help us look to the future with a positive attitude.
We are so pleased to have Almudena Mortorell with us. Almudena is President of A LA PAR Foundation. She a proven history of providing high quality services for people with intellectual disabilities and her research is widely published. Almudena will telling us how covid-19 has changed the daily lives of people with intellectual disabilities in Madrid, Spain.
Through this event you will see the other editors of this publication.
Prof. Eddie Chaplin of London South Bank University
Christine-Koulla Burker, Head of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities
Mathew Roberts, Postgraduate Occupational Therapy Student of Cardiff University
Steve Hardy, Practice Development Nurse at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
We very much hope will join us which has been a tearful, moving and more often optimistic journey. We will widely advertise this when published on Eventbrite.
This event and publication is a joint collaboration between the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, London South Bank University and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust. We would like to sincerely thank these three organisations for believing in us and allowing us the time to produce this publication.
Photo's used with kind courtesy of www.unsplash.com
