Upcoming Events

Here are some of the upcoming events I'll be attending during the following two months. More will be added when they are arranged!

Thursday, April 10th:

Envision Steering Group meeting, training day and campaigns workshop at Judd Street in London. I'll also be providing some sketches and ideas of 'thank you' cards to the RNIB team, who have kindly asked me to design cards for their patrons of the charity.

Monday, April 28th:

Teleconference with the Envision Steering Group discussing the recent training day in London and how we have taken forward the actions from the previous meeting at Judd Street.

Tuesday, April 29th:

Focus Day at Henshaws showing an array of magnifiers and other available aids. Meal with the Arts & Crafts group at Rivington Barn in the afternoon.

Thursday, May 8th:
Visit to the Manchester Art Gallery with the Henshaws Art Galleries & Museums group, for an audio described talk and tour of "Art for All: Thomas Horsfall's gift to Manchester" I will then be making a blog post for the Henshaws blog regarding the group and tour.

Monday, May 19th:

Conference with the Greater Manchester Police Crime Commissioner, Tony Lloyd, to discuss the reporting process of crime, as well as gathering suggestions and feedback on how the process can be more accessible to visually impaired and blind people. Also advising on how to keep safe and prevent oneself from becoming a victim of crime in the local area.

Tuesday, May 27th:
The start of Skillstep -a 12 week training course, provided by Henshaws Society for Blind People, and supported by the Big Lottery Fund. It is a practical course and beneficial for those who are seeking employment or voluntary work, or for those wanting to go into further education. Skillstep also delivers the perfect opportunity to boost confidence and independence, and expand social circles.

Saturday, May 31st to Sunday, June 1st
The Spirit of Salford Weekender, providing two days of celebrations featuring everything that makes the city special. A variety of events will be taking place at the Salford Civic Centre.

Tuesday, June 10th:
Teleconference with the Envision steering group discussing the Campaigners' Convention in Birmingham on Sunday, the workshops we will be attending individually and distributing notes across the network to expand our knowledge of key skills and implementation during our own coffee shop campaign work.

Saturday, June 14th to Sunday, June 15th:

Visit to the RNIB Campaigners' Convention in Birmingham, meeting with other local campaigners and exchanging hints, tips and ideas for effective campaigning. Agenda includes; campaign experience sessions led by volunteer campaigners sharing their knowledge and challenges of past campaign work, campaign skills workshops covering everything from media skills to lobbying and story-telling, plenary sessions, guest speakers and campaigner Q&A's.

Monday, June 30th:
Networking Day at Henshaws. Talks from staff regarding their services, future aims, financing, and many other interesting bits of information. A chance for other visually impaired people to give their feedback, suggestions and opinions

You can view my previous events by clicking here!

Visit to the Police and Crime Commissioner Office in Swinton

Yesterday afternoon, I attended a meeting with the engagement team at the office of Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, located in Swinton, with my RNIB regional campaigns officer - to discuss hate-crime against visually impaired and blind people in the North West.

Using my own experiences of being a victim of hate-crime, I gave a presentation illustrating my incident and the huge impact it had on my life; diminishing my confidence and independence. I'd conducted a survey at Henshaws Society for Blind People at the Manchester centre in December, to gather evidence on this issue and received lots of feedback from the service users, including their individual cases of being a victim of crime and how they found the reporting process.

After going into detail about some of the individual cases - such as someone having their cane stolen, another being badly beaten because his cane was a visible clue that he was more vulnerable, a guide dog user having to deal with someone repeatedly throwing nails in his driveway which could damage his dog's paws, and another respondent reporting that he had his home broken into as the young residents of his area knew he was elderly and blind - I proposed how the team could help with the issue.

My propositions included awareness training within the police force, which could include simulation, to gain experience and insight into what it's like to be a visually impaired person out and about in the community. Training could include how to support a VI / blind victim. Talks and demonstrations about how to keep safe would also be beneficial, especially at community centres, to highlight the vulnerability of those who are sight- impaired in the local area, and a meeting and demonstration at Henshaws would also be most welcome, giving support and advice to the service users. They could look into the crime-reporting process and whether it's accessible enough, including large print and / or braille formats for information and forms.

The engagement team were really lovely and listened to everything I had to say. They were very supportive and enthusiastic to get involved - and I think I've definitely given them something to think about! Hopefully I will hear from them very soon and perhaps be able to get involved with any events or meetings in the near future.

A big thank you to Uzma, Gaynor, Jenna, Hannah and Rick for giving me their time yesterday, for arranging the meeting and for agreeing to see me!

I received some nice tweets from the PCC twitter account, which you can read below:

@Glittered Glad you enjoyed the meeting, important issues being discussed!
— GMPCC (@GMPCC) March 13, 2014

@GMPCC Thank you for reading! The engagement team really were lovely and supportive. I can't wait to hopefully work with them in the future!
— Kimberley Burrows (@Glittered) March 13, 2014