Two whole days of Speak Up and Make a Difference – would everyone be up for it?
I was looking forward to seeing how the group would feel with a bit more time to devote to the programme. The days passed so quickly it already feels like a blur – there were sessions on listening where people mirrored each other’s actions and then listened to each other speak, there was a session on my rights and being a citizen, there were games and there was laughter.
Catherine, our facilitator gave us a very inspiring and short talk about how she sees the Speak Up and Make a Difference experience – and this is what sticks in my mind most about the two days so I’ll write about that.
The Speak Up and Make a Differenxe experience
Catherine said it’s all about allowing people to engage wherever they are at, and that it’s an experience not a course. SUMAD is about trying to help people put the building blocks in place of being able to speak up – not just learning the words but about developing the self esteem and confidence to make people feel valued and that it’s ok to be who you are.
That means going with the flow – and letting the group find its' own dynamic. So even if it feels chaotic at times, or too slow, or too hard for some, it’s about trying to tune in and let everyone find their own bit of space where they can experience something that makes them learn through their own experience.
In other words about giving it a go and learning something from that.
Whilst this is so true to the spirit of the Speak Up and Make a Difference experience, I reflected that this is something we should all be able to learn from and can be true in every walk of life.
Sanchi
Session 1 blog
‘Speak up and make a difference’, or SUMAD for short, is Dimensions’ award winning self-development programme for people with learning disabilities. It runs over six months and the first workshop has just been held.
As a member of the project team, I was apprehensive – would people still want to be part of it? Would they remember what it was all about? How would they cope with nearly 50 people in the room, consisting of the project team, the supporters and the mentors?
What do all these people do?
The 18 participants are there to take part in the programme. The project team run and oversee it, the supporters are the staff who support and encourage the participants, enabling them to be present, whilst the mentors are the people who each work intensively with one person outside of the course, to make sure they get the most of out of it.
This was a getting to know you session – but generally there won’t be so many people on the normal workshops.
Mark, our games master, put everyone at ease and we were soon getting to know each other. What is your favourite activity at weekends? Tell me something no one else knows about you. And the hardest question – what would make SUMAD good for you? This led on to a talk about ground rules, and the group contributed their ideas –listen to each other, no swearing, don’t talk over each other, good food and lots of breaks. People seemed much more confident to talk since the selection days for the programme in August and much more willing to speak up in front of the group.
What would make SUMAD good for you?
At lunch, lots of the supporters were commenting on the positive change in some of the participants already. In the afternoon we split into two groups, participants and supporters. What would make SUMAD good for you? The supporters shared some lovely stories about the people they support and how pleased and excited the participants were to be selected for SUMAD. The possibilities for independence, for making new friends and for becoming more confident seemed high on lots of agendas, but the overriding sense was that everyone was just so excited to be on the speak up and make a difference programme.
Let’s hope the next session in a month’s time is as good.
Sanchi Murison
