Blogs Archives - WECIL - Supporting Independent Living

Sharing Self-Advocacy Experiences and the Good Lives Framework: By Gary Bourlet

Blogs, Community, Voice and Activism / WECIL Admin

Following a visit to our People’s Voice and Know Your Rights group, Gary Bourlet from Learning Disability England posted this blog. The blog is reproduced in full below, but the original article can be found on the Learning Disability England Page. Gary Bourlet is a Membership and Engagement Lead at Learning Disability England and was…

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Reflection on FoSB with Kyrby Brown

Blogs, Disability.Inc. / Justine Viot

Last Thursday, Kyrby Brown, Access Coordinator at WECIL, spoke at Future Leap’s Festival of Sustainable Business Conference, participating in the panel discussion “Leading Change: Brand Activism, Communications, and Business. Kyrby discussed the role of businesses in supporting Disabled people’s rights and how for sustainability to be truly sustainable, we need to include everyone on the…

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Letter from Bristol Disability Equality Commission to Secretary of State on EDI

Blogs, Voice and Activism / WECIL Admin

Recently the UK Government distributed £500 million to local authorities to go towards the national chronic underfunding of social care. Whilst any funds to go some way to easing the pressures councils face in funding social care are to be welcomed, the distribution of the Social Care Grant came with a caveat that worried many…

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The Headaches of Hiring Help

Blogs, Direct Payments / WECIL Admin

The piece below comes from Wheels to Wander, a blog by Kyrby Brown who works as WECIL’s Access Coordinator within our Disability.Inc. team. In it, Kirby shares her personal learning around the challenges of hiring Personal Assistants. With thanks to Kirby, we thought this advice may be of interest to people who use our Independent Living Payments…

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5 Accessible Activities to do this Christmas Holiday

Blogs / Issy Cheung

The Christmas holidays are nearly here, a time for many families to celebrate, get together with friends and family and enjoy the festivities.Every parent wants their child to have a fun, relaxing holiday. But, worrying about finding accessible Christmas activities that everyone can join in with shouldn’t add to the stress of last-minute Christmas shopping….

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Trustee Statement to Members on Bristol draft Fair and Affordable Care Policy

Blogs, Voice and Activism / WECIL Admin

12th December 2023 You may be aware that Bristol City Council is currently consulting on what they are calling a ‘Fair and Affordable Care Policy’ . You can have your say on https://www.ask.bristol.gov.uk/fair-and-affordable-care-policy-consultation by completing a survey by the end of January, and if you need the survey in an alternative format or translated, please…

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Disabled Women Take Action: Sign up to the Community Toilet Scheme!

Blogs, Community, Voice and Activism / Justine Viot

Disabled Women Take Action is a partnership project from WECIL and Bristol Women’s Voice (BWV), who are proudly coming together to campaign for the importance of the Community Toilet Scheme in Bristol. The scheme, set up by Bristol City Council in 2019, aims to increase access to bathrooms across the city after many public toilets…

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The Importance of Authentic Representation of Disability in the Media

Blogs, Children & Young People / Justine Viot

We all often turn to TV, books, films and the media for entertainment, inspiration, learning and as a point of reference, particularly as a young person learning to navigate the world. But what if we then found we weren’t able to relate to these characters, and people like us weren’t represented accurately or authentically? This…

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Empowering Communities: Meet Maya Knowles, Our Community Navigator for Disabled Minority Groups in Bristol

Blogs, Direct Payments / Justine Viot

My Name is Maya Knowles, I have worked in Health and Social Care over Eighteen years. I joined WECIL recently. My role is Community Navigator for Somali, Refugees and Asylum seeker communities based in Bristol. WECIL is an organisation led by Disabled people. My aim is to help Disabled people from communities, particularly Black and…

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5 ways to support your family’s mental health this half term

Blogs, Children & Young People / Issy Cheung

The school holidays can be a challenging time for families, with a new routine and different support system to term time. For Disabled children and young people, these changes can mean that their behaviour tends to change as well, and it can be difficult to balance childcare and other responsibilities. But, know that if you…

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