Andrew's Summer 2010 Blog

Hello, my name is Andrew and I am a member and part time employee here at Swansea People First.

We have been extra busy over the past few months where I have been co-trainer on our 'Leadership Skills Course in Fforestfach Day Centre.

We have held 'Question Time' sessions with local Assembly Members in the run up to the General Election in May raising awareness of the issues and rights of my peers and helping them to make an informed choice of who to vote for.

They all listened to us very carefully and with the support of Swansea People First we got our points across to them.

You can see pictures from these sessions HERE with Dr Dai Lloyd AM (Plaid Cymru), Peter Black (Lib Dems), Andrew Davies (Labour) and Nick Bourne (Conservative)

I am also still working 3 hours a week in the People First office helping out Daniel the administrator and have now been doing it for 120 weeks!

I am loving the responsibility and opportunity to learn new things and be part of a working environment like anybody else.

We have all worked together to organise the Annual Health Fair at which I took part in the Fashion Show and manned our information stand giving out leaflets and resources to people.

It was a great day and I am proud to have been involved. I look forward to next year!

Andrew Evans

Swansea People First Member

Victoria's Easter Blog

Hello, my name is Victoria and I am a member here at Swansea People First

I have been involved in lots of things recently including taking part in the ‘Leadership Skills' course in Fforestfach and a visit to Llanelli for tor the Learning Disability Implementation Advisory Group (LDIAG) in March with Lynn Coleman.

I really enjoyed myself and met some old friends

Professor David Felce told us about the Action Plan for our services

which he has sent to the Welsh Assembly but they have said No to many of the things we wanted.

(you can see our proposed action plan HERE

and find out more about the LDIAG at

http://www.ldiag.org.uk/)

In our own group discussion I said that it felt good to be independent in my own house and someone else that it had given them self confidence and self belief. We would not want to lose this.

Myself and Lucy gave feedback to the whole group we gave 3 main points that we know we need to fight for. At the end I asked Prof Felce what will become of the Day Services and our choices if we no longer had an Annual Review or Care Plan.

He did not know but said it is worth fighting for. We all agreed with him.

I learned a lot from the day and hope to represent Swansea People First again like this in the future.

Victoria x

Swansea People First Member

Mark Owens - Co Chair's Annual Report

It's been another great year for the Peer Health Advocacy Project and I would like to thank everyone again for all the help and support we have received.

We have met many new friends and made links with lots of organisations who we have worked together to improve the health and services for people with learning disabilities in Swansea.

I would like to dedicate this report to my Mother who sadly passed away recently. She was a great supporter of our work here at Swansea People First and I will make her proud by continuing to do my best for the Project and my peers.

We have lots of things planned for the coming year where we will reinforce our motto of
'Good Health For All!'



Mark Owens - CO CHAIRPERSON
Swansea People First
Peer Health Advocacy Project

Christmas Update with Linda Evans

Hello! My name is Linda Evans and I am a member here at Swansea People First. We have done a lot of things in the last couple of months and I am proud to have been a part of them.

Myself, Project Coordinator Lynn Coleman, Learning Disability Nurse Kim Walker and Aleanna Ledger from the Community Support Team went to Singleton Hospital to talk about training student nurses on how to deal with patients with learning disabilities.

In January we will be spending time in the staff canteen to chat and issue leaflets to develop awareness.

I also attended the 'Breast Awareness' Training Course that Swansea People First ran in November. It was the first time I found out how to check myself and because of this my interest in the course grew.




Through this course I became involved in training and talking the public on 'Breast Awareness' and learning to check yourself.




Recently I went to Newport for the Learning Disability Wales Conference 'Feel Good, Stay Well' to do a presentation and demonstration using a step counter to see how many steps I was taking each day.




We also looked at the effects of alcohol on the body organs.


I very much enjoyed this and hope to be involved in further courses in the future.



From all of us at Swansea People First, have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Linda x

Hello! My name is Andrew Evans and I am a member of Swansea People First, an organisation of and for adults with learning disabilities that runs an advocacy project about Health and Well-Being in Swansea.

Welcome to our new blog about what we have been up to and what myself and other adults with a learning disability think about how we are treated and how we think we can make things better.

We have been very busy the last few months at and I have been working hard as Project Support Worker.

I really enjoyed doing 'The Leadership Course' with Mark and Glayne from All Wales People First. The best part was going up to the Welsh Assembly Senedd with Daniel (the Project Administrator) to spend a day with Dr Dai Lloyd AM.

My favourite bit of the year though has to be the Annual Health Fair on July 3rd 2009 at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. I Especially liked the fashion show in which I modelled clothes from Bon Marche and Peacocks. It was a great day.






I am also going to be a co-trainer on the Leadership Course which 9 service users from Fforestfach Work Development Project will be doing with Lynn from Swansea People First and Pam (Tutor from Gorseinon College).


I am Looking forward to it :)

Speak to you again soon!

Andrew