Training part one

After finding 10 people to be in the team we began the training in August 2007. We are adapting a course written by Marion Jenner, who worked with Learning Disability Media. Marion has been a great help to us and continues to support what we are doing.
The first few weeks were about learning to work together and finding out what everyone could already do. We did some work on self-advocacy skills to give people the confidence to speak up. People put me to shame, they knew far more about TV than me. My homework was to watch more TV, especially the soaps- unfortunately the dog has eaten my homework!
None of the training sessions are about sitting still and listening to me talk. We have lots of activities and lots of fun. Sometimes we watch a film or TV programme and talk about how it shows people with learning disabilities. Over the next few weeks we will share our views on some of these and find out what you think.