It ran from October 2009 until June 2011, HOWEVER, the work of the project continues to have impact and we are seeking funding to do further development work.

All the details of the project can be found at: www.givingusavoice.org.uk.

The project was run jointly by ARC’s BME Unit, BILD and Mencap. There were six project workers, two from each. ARC concentrated on supporting services and commissioners, BILD supported people with Learning Disabilities and Mencap supported family carers.

After preliminary work with each group we hosted 9 regional events at which people from all sectors could come together to discuss what was working and what was not working in services for people with Learning Disabilities from BME communities. We concentrated on four key topics – citizenship, health, work and housing.

We wrote down everything that people said. Over 1000 people contributed their thoughts. From these events we were able to draw up a National Charter for Inclusion stating 20 key points that would make a real difference in people’s lives.

The Charter can be found at: http://givingusavoice.org.uk/charter-for-inclusion/

We encourage people, organisations and support groups to sign up to the Charter. We would like those with power to sign up to the Charter.

We hope that families and people with Learning Disabilities will use the Charter to challenge for better services.

To support this work we also produced two further short guides:

• one for families on ‘Getting Involved’ in developing services
• one (still in production) on how to make complaints and use the law to ensure services are delivering all they should for people with Learning Disabilities from BME communities.

We would hope that everyone reading this looks at the ‘Giving Us A Voice’ website and encourages people to sign up to the Charter.

This project was funded from the Tackling Race Inequality Fund of the Department of Communities.

There are now two different videos that can be viewed on the Giving us a Voice project website.

The first ‘What is Giving us a Voice all about’ was filmed at the Giving us a Voice pilot event and explains what the project is about and the aim of creating a National Charter for Inclusion, to encourage people from Black, Minority and Ethnic communities to become more involved in the services their local community provides – but also to encourage service providers and Local Authorities not to exclude these groups.

View the video here…

The second is a presentation from the London Regional Meeting. Matthew West, from the Department for Communities and Local Government spoke of the government’s plans for the Big Society and tackling race inequality.

View the video here…

The Giving us a Voice project held several Regional meetings throughout England to gather views and discuss what the people wanted in the Charter for Inclusion, which has since been launched.

The Full Charter is now available to download:

National Charter 2011

Key Message: People with Learning Disabilities from BME communities and their families need to get information in a way that they understand and have support to use it well.

1. People with Learning Disabilities from BME communities are supported and encouraged to take part in society at all levels of public engagement (take part in important meetings).
2. Advocacy for BME communities is well planned and funded.
3. Support is offered that enables people with Learning Disabilities from BME communities to travel safely.
4. People with Learning Disabilities from BME communities are supported to live safely and happily, free from abuse and hate crime.

1. Health plans / passports are available to everyone with a Learning Disability (for all their medical care) that include reference / checks for specific conditions for that person¹s ethnic origin (where their family is from).
2. Health professionals are trained to work successfully with people with Learning Disabilities and understand their cultural needs.
3. Health checks, health screening and illness prevention (keeping people well) are available to everyone and take account of a person’s ethnic origin.
4. Health and wellbeing boards and any health planning groups include people with Learning Disabilities and their family carers from BME communities.

1. Paid work for people with Learning Disabilities from BME communities is the goal (what we are working towards).
2. The value of employment in terms of living happily e.g. friends, respect, use of time, etc, is recognised and people are helped to find opportunities in a culturally appropriate way (a way that fits with their background).
3. Links are made with employers and BME communities so they can work together to find opportunities for people with Learning Disabilities.
4. Families from BME communities are helped to understand all the training and employment opportunities that might be available.  This is part
   of good transition planning.

1. People with Learning Disabilities from BME communities are given support and choices in where they live.
2. Planning for housing takes time and people are supported from transition onwards.
3. Families are helped to remain involved and understand that independence does not mean managing alone.
4. People with Learning Disabilities from BME communities are supported to have a sense of belonging ­ a place they choose as home.

This would make an ideal resource for Connexions staff, youth workers, transition leads, school advisors and service providers who support young individuals, with learning disabilities from ethnic minorities, during transition from school.

The guide is designed to offer information regarding:

• The importance of knowing the numbers of young people involved
• The influence that these young people are exposed to
• Best practice in supporting these young people
• Where to find resources about transition, learning disability and ethnicity

Moving On Up: The Professionals’ Guide is available as:

	Guidance & Resources Booklet: Members and Non-Members £10
	Moving on Up Professionals Guide PDF: FREE

This was a large-scale project and resulted in a report available from ARC.

We followed up the report by delivering cultural competency training to learning disability staff across Norfolk.

There is also a Services For All (English) Handbook and DVDs for families (in 5 languages) and a DVD for providers.

Although these products were published in 2001-2003 they are still very relevant and will be available soon from the ARC Shop.

The project will support people working in these organisations to access and benefit from high quality training.

We hope that training providers, qualification developers and awarding bodies will review their practice to ensure that training can be accessed by people from a range of ethnic backgrounds.

We have developed protocols for trainers, training developers and third sector organisations to ensure all are providing the best possible outcomes for Black Voluntary Organisations. It is well recognised that the main strength and value of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) lies in its support and delivery of services to BME communities.

The BME voluntary and community sector works to tackle disadvantage and discrimination and to empower communities. It advocates for community and BME individual need, providing the following:

• Support
• Advice
• Assisted signposting
• Information
• Improved quality of life
• Actively involving some of the most socially excluded people in the community.

However, many of the organisations within this sector also encounter inequalities regarding access to resources, information and training opportunities. With the glut of government initiatives aimed at increased community involvement from disadvantaged, marginalised and excluded communities, there has been a growing demand for training, learning, and capacity building to facilitate active participation from communities.

However, their lack of access to and availability of culturally appropriate training can impact on their capacity to work with training/infrastructure organisations (for some of these, training has limited relevance as it is not rooted in the values and principles or experiences of people with learning disabilities from BME communities).

Also, organisations in this sector have to work in a world that demands increasingly professional standards. The voluntary sector is being asked to conform to a myriad of council-imposed targets, league tables, inspectorates, rules and regulations.

With funding from Capacity Builders’ ‘Improving Reach 2008-11’ investment programme ARC has been working with BME VCS social care organisations including learning disabilities and training sector organisations to develop protocols to improve access to and knowledge of the training needs of the BME VCS social care sector.

The development of these protocols will ensure more small BME VCS social care organisations in England receive high-quality support services which are appropriate for them. The protocols will enable them to access nationally recognised training that takes account of their cultural needs, thereby ensuring such organisations are fully able to maximise their potential and increase their day to day focus on services that they deliver to BME people including those with learning disabilities.

Training for All latest information:

• By March 2011: 300 organisations will have agreed to the protocols
• By March 2011: 5 key identified training/infrastructure organisations will be altering policy and practice to better address needs of BME VCS social care sector.

Training for All is funded by The Cabinet Office – Change up Monies and Capacity Builders

What we mean by new migrants
Individuals who are not British citizens but permanently or temporarily resident in England since 1997; this includes asylum seekers, refugees, seasonal workers and travellers, from all ethnic groups from within and outside of the European Union.

There is a lack of information about the prevalence of learning disabilities in this group and the services they need.

The Here to Stay project seeks to address this problem.

We need your help to make this research a beneficial undertaking. If you are from a minority community or care for anyone with a learning disability or are a service provider, a researcher with information to share, or know of anyone who might help, we would like to hear from you.

Working with The University of Wolverhampton.

This project is funded by Big Lottery Fund, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.

For more information see the Here to Stay website.

The aims of the project were:

• to encourage the sharing of good practice
• to inform policy by collective response
• to provide information
• to provide opportunity for discussion
• to share training resources
• to keep people informed in order to make change happen

The project created a network to encourage the sharing of good practice, inform policy by gathering responses, providing information, the opportunity for discussion and to share training resources within BME communities.

So far the network has more than 1500 members and is growing all the time. It links members by newsletter and email.

The BME service manager at ARC sits on the National Advisory Group on Learning Disability and Ethnicity to represent the Network, this enables members to directly influence policy/strategy at the highest level.

We send out newsletters three times a year if funds allow and updates to network members by email.

In 2006 the original funding for this project ceased but ARC received funds from the Department of Health to maintain the network until March 2010. Currently the Network is being sustained by small charity grants.

The NLDEN website contains archive material from newsletters and has grown into a wide ranging resource covering good practice, publications, policy and information, latest news plus upcoming events.

It is hoped that the Network will continue to grow, gathering more members and therefore keeping people informed in order to make change happen.

It’s FREE to join the Network