Alan and Michael are snap happy

Michael Smith, and Alan Hobden, both won certificates in the photography section of the annual Nuneaton Festival of Arts, and collected them at a ceremony last Friday. Michael got a certificate for third place in the still life category, and Alan won third place in portrait as well as a merit in action. This is the 1st time Alan or Micheal have entered a mainstream photography competition, although both exhibited work at the Herbert Art Gallery, in Covnetry, last Autumn, as part of a touring exhibition of contemporary photography from the Victoria and Albert.
Michael said, “I’m very excited at winning a certificate and hope I win one of the trophies next year”, while Alan added, “I can’t believe it, I didn’t expect to win”.
Their certificates were presented by Nuneaton’s Mayor, Councillor Gerald Smith, who also posed for photographs with Alan and Michael after the ceremony, and even gave them both a short ride around the block in his chauffeur-driven car – something Alan and Michael enjoyed almost as much as collecting their awards.

expanding the blogging

We have been so busy helping other groups to set up blog sites that we haven't been too good at updating this site. In the last couple of weeks we have worked with two other groups to show them how to blog and then set up their own blogs. Hopefully we will have more people with learning disabilities joining the fun.

Giving parents a chance

A while ago we mentioned that we were working on a campaign to investigate the problems faced by parents with learning disabilities and issues around not being given a chance to be parents. One of our team has had the sad experience of having both her children removed from her when they were babies. She has decided to be the face of our campaign and a 2 page feature appeared in the Coventry Telegraph yesterday. As well as the interview with Christine, there is an interview with 2 advocates who have supported a number of people through the courts, trying to keep their children. To keep the feature balanced there is a response from the Director of Coventry City Council Children services. to read this feature please follow the link. We would welcome your comments, or examples of practice in your area.
http://snipurl.com/f2eg6

Taking blogging a bit further

As part of the press office work we offer other groups support and help in getting their voices heard by the media. We have been talking to different groups in the West Midlands about how we can help them. One thing people seem interested in is learning how to blog and so we have begun to visit people and give them chance to see just how easy it can be.

Today we visited a group based at Curriers Enterprise in Coventry and worked with 6 people. Some had used the internet before, others had never used a computer before. By the end of the session everyone had checked out our chattervine.blogspot.com site and four people felt OK about leaving comments.

Over the next few weeks we will help the group look for other blogs that interest them and also set up a blog for people based at Curriers to share all their exciting news.

Over the next few weeks we will be visiting other groups but if your group would like to hear how the media team can support you please get in touch.

Picking up the bits

This blog and the media team have been put on hold for a couple of months because I have been laid up with a broken foot. Zoe, Lynne & Rob have done a fantastic job in keeping the media team training going but now we are ready to get down to some serious campaigning with the team.
We have decided that Heavy Load's Stay Up Late campaign is really important and so we are going to see what we can do at a local level to help. Tomorrow the team are going to watch the Heavy Load film and start to think about what is going on in Coventry and Warwickshire. I'm sure most of the team will have a story or 2 about their own experiences on not being able to stay up late. We are also interested in the new campaign by Leonard Cheshire called social care matters and will think about how we can help support this. Both campaigns fit together because the reason people can't stay up late is because they don't have access to good/flexible social care.
If you don't know about either of these national campaigns take a look at these 2 websites and watch the Heavy Load film on BBC IPlayer (it was originally shown on BBC3 Storyville 9th Feb.)
http://www.lcdisability.org/?lid=9069
http://www.mencap.org.uk/case.asp?id=8599
Our other big challenge is getting people to read and comment on our 2 blogsites so if you can help with promoting this please do.
www.chattervine.blogspot.com
Denise

accessing the internet

We are always interested to hear about projects that aim to make the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Recently we were told of a project that uses QR codes, but we hadn't a clue what they were. Here is a link to a short video that makes it a little clearer.
http://thebigtree.org/blog/?p=66

exhibiting our photographs

5 young people are displaying their photographs at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry alongside a Victoria & Albert Museum touring exhibition, from 16th September until 21st October.
None of the photographers had used a SLR camera before the project and only had one month to get their photographs taken. They then had to sort through the 100's of images to pick the best 30 to be exhibited. Once this was done we had to quickly learn how to mount and frame and curate, we had less than a week to do this.
On the 18th September the Herbert held a private viewing event, attended by lots of people as well as our photographers. The reception for our part of the show was very positive. We have set up a flickr website for those that can't physically visit the Herbert.
www.flickr.com/photos/something_that_i_never_really_see

Life as a young person with downs syndrome Louise O'farrell

The following was an article written by Louise O'Farrell and appeared in Coventry Telegraph 20/06/08 for part of learning disability week:

Having Down's syndrome is a hateful condition because I do not like my size, my weight or my looks.

Some people stare at me when I go out on my own. Sometime I get people asking me how old I am and when I tell them they don't believe me. I also find it hard to express my feelings and thoughts to other people when in turn they aren't prepared to listen to me. They nearly always speak over me which leaves me frustrated and angry that I can't get my views across.

I feel that I have a full life and have achieved a lot. My best achievement was getting a distinction in my history OCT Certificate Achievement Award. The certificate and prize were presented by HRH Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony in London.

I enjoy reading Harry Potter books and could tell you the story by heart. I go to the cinema sometimes; some of the films like Harry Potter are good, although there are some I'm not so fond of. I also like going out with friends around Coventry and going for pub, Indian and Chinese meals.

I attend the Grapevine drop in centre where I have joined the Healthy Living Team. They go to hospitals and do presentations on how to have a healthy lifestyle.

I also do DJing. I have done scratching, beating and cross fading and made a CD of different songs. I am part of D:Vine a group that runs monthly club nights at Taylor John's in the canal basin. I play pop music which makes people want to dance. My DJ name is DJ Wizard, because I put on wizard music.

I have been a dancer since I was eight years old. I have danced for my grade work and really enjoy it. Every year we put on a show and I like practising for the shows. This year I did a tap number to 'Puttin on the Ritz'. A ballet number for 'Nobody does it better' Goldfinger from James Bond and 'One' from a Chorus Line. It was a difficult dance to learn and at the end of the final performance my dance teacher congratulated me on how well I did. My sister Alice cried when she saw me doing the dress rehearsal because she had never seen me dance before. She was always in the performance dancing on the opposite side to me. She said I did it perfectly and kept in time with everyone.

I have lots of good friends and family who like to look after me and help me do things that I'm not so good at. I make everyone laugh when I say funny things. My laugh is always a happy laugh, which makes people want to smile.

Quick catch up

It has been very busy in the media office recently, we are getting ready for our first big PR campaign and have lots of things planned for the next few weeks. The team have also had a training day at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire and they are going to talk about that on their chattervine.blogspot.com site. I thought the BBC training day was very good we were given chance to look at using the internet, learnt about how to catch the attention of editors with our press releases- who would have thought it is common for an editor to get 500 emails a day! We also had a go in the radio studio doing interviews with each other- great practice for the ones we have planned for the next few weeks.

We have just held a photography competition for people with learning disabilities living in Coventry or Warwickshire and had over 90 entries, with many very good photographs sent to us- there is lots of talent out there. I'm just glad that I was only organising the competition not doing the judging! Still after a couple of hours on Monday our 4 judges finally chose the winners and we have launched a website with all the entries on it: www.flickr.com/photos/grapevinecomp2008

All the photos are going on public display from 16th-30th June in Coventry Council House and the Lord Mayor is presenting the trophies on Tuesday 17th, hopefully with our local press in force. The competition is just a small part of the things we have planned for Learning Disability week starting 15th June.

The team have designed some hanging expression walls which are going in public spaces in Coventry & Nuneaton. The idea is for people to come along and write comments about what learning disability means to them. The biggest wall is going in the BBC open centre in Coventry and we are hoping that as well as it being featured on the morning show of 16th June that the TV cameras might be around.

The BBC have really championed our cause and are giving us live interviews during the week covering a wide variety of stories. We also have a live interview on Hillz FM radio, a Coventry based community radio who are celebrating their live FM licence at the same time. They have offered Paul his own show during the 1st week of their FM month and perhaps he might get to do shows for the other 3 weeks.
As things happen we will keep this blog updated so please do visit often, and tell us what you think. Denise

Visit to the BBC Mailbox, Birmingham

Recently the team visited the BBC at the home in the Mailbox. We had a chance to do a weather forecast and a news reading. There were exhibitions about the history of the BBC and a chance to see into the production office. Unfortunately we didn't get to see anyone famous.
After we had done all this we took a long walk around Gas Street Canal Basin to Centenary Square. Everyone had a good time but there were lots of aching feet.

survey results

Thanks to everyone who took the time to take part in our survey. 53% of you thought that people with learning disabilities hardly got a mention in the media. So how do we change this?

press attention- just like busses

Isn't it funny how you try to get some attention from someone and just when you think no one is listening you find out that they are. Last week we managed to get 2 stories in the media. The first was an article about this very blogging project and appears in Learnign Disability Practice. the second was a story about our photography competition and appeared in our local paper the Coventry Telegraph.
We also had some more good news today, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire are willing to give us some live interview slots during learning disability week June 15th-22nd; which is great for our planned positive image campaign running from now until learning disability week.
Now how do we get to appear on TV? we had a practice run last week when the team visited BBC Birmingham at the MAilbox, where we got the chance to do weather forecasts and read the news. But it would be great for the team to do it for real- any ideas?

Uncover's 1st Birthday

It's really hard to believe that yesterday was our 1st anniversary, and what a difference a year makes. This time last year the project had recruited 2 staff (myself & Zoe) and were looking for a 3rd person to join the team. We didn't know much about the media and had very few local contacts. We were also faced with trying to find people who wanted to be on the media team, our target by the end of the project is to have worked with 35 people.

One year on we have 2 media teams, one based in Coventry and one in Nuneaton and we found a 3rd person to work with us in the office. We have also worked with some students based at Henley College, who are now our media minding group. They watch TV and tell us what they think of it. We will be looking to set up another team in Coventry during the summer and we have a big PR campaign running during June to cover Downs Syndrome Week and learning Disability Week.

So what have we done in the year?

2 of the team have been on the radio. Zoe has worked in the communications department of the city council and helped edit their bi-monthly magazine. The Coventry team have finished their training and are helping run the press office. We have starred in a video for the Big Lottery Fund website. Lynne has just done a placement with the BBC and Peter is doing a photography placement with Coventry University. We have set up 2 blog sites. The Nuneaton team have been asked to be in a feature for the Nuneaton Tribune. We have designed our own postcards and spoken at a number of events.

Not bad for our first year so HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY UNCOVER MEDIA TEAM.

Denise

photography competition

If you live in Coventry or Warwickshire and have a learning disability why not enter our photography competition? You can enter up to 3 pictures, they need to be at least 20cm x 25cm and can be in any of the following groups:My home town, my friends or family, my job, my life or wildlife.The closing date is 30th May and we will be having a public exhibition of all the pictures sent to us. If you are interested let us know and we can send you the enter form. Go on give it a go!

Does the media treat people with learning disabilities with respect?

we want to know what you think about how the media shows people with learning disabilities-

is it with respect?

do you see people with learning disabilities on TV or in the papers enough?

should there be more actors with learning disabilities in soaps and dramas?

is it OK for actors to(act) pretend to have learning disabilities like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman?

What do you think of the language used by the media?

If you have anything to say about this why not do our quick survey?

Media Placements

As part of the Uncover Media Project we aim to put all the people involved on to a placement with something that is media based. We don't try to find placements that result in jobs, the idea is to give the team a chance to experience some aspect of the media that we can't offer.
Zoe had a 6 day placement with the communication team working for Coventry City Council. She learnt how they manage press cuttings, which has helped our team manage our cuttings. She also got involved in editing the Citivision newsletter, which goes out to all households in the city. Zoe was also featured in the issue she helped edit.
Peter is currently doing a placement with the photographer at Coventry University. He shadows the photography picking up tips to help improve his skills. He has taken photographs of the flight simulator and been involved in recapturing images that were taken of Coventry 40 years ago. Hopefully he will be doing some studio portraits so that he can then update the Grapevine staff photographs.
Lynne is looking forward to a 2 week placement with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire starting early in March. Rosie is hoping to repeat the placement that Zoe had.
For later this year some of the team will spend some time at the National Press Office for the charity Mencap and Suryabala would like to spend time with the Asian Network, so we have to talk to the BBC.
One final bit of good news is that Dee-anne is starting work next week, sadly though this means she is leaving the team.

Spastic King

Just before Christmas Channel 4 (Nov 22nd) showed a short film called The Spastic King, made by IWC Media; directed by Peter Mackie Burns and starring With Andrew Stafford as Toby - a man with learning disabilities fearful of being evicted from the family home after the death of his mother.
Our group watched this and found it both insulting and confusing. The programme was listed as showing the struggles faced by the character Toby after his mother dies. However, our group were insulted by the use of the term spastic, as Toby self-titles himself throughout the programme. The team know that people can call themselves whatever they want but using spastic seems to undo lots of good work in using terms that people are happy with, this programme seems to say it's ok to call someone a spastic, and teh team don't think it is. The team felt that the character was shown to be a horrible man and that anyone who doesn't know about learning disability watching would get a bad idea about people with learning disabilities. We know that some people think that people with learning disabilities are loving and always nice or shouldn't be interested in sex, and this programme challenged that, which was a good. As part of our project we hope to show that these ideas are stereotypes and that people with learning disabilities are just as diverse as other people but we felt that the Spastic King only sent out negative images and the way the people around Toby talked about him was patronising, he wasn't a nice man but no one was honest enough to say that.
The team didn't like the way Toby was shown to live in a fantasy world, they thought people would think that people with learning disabilities are all like him. Our main problem with the programme was that it was unbalanced and we are glad that it was on very late so that not many people are likely to have watched it.
These are the views of people with learning disabilities who work on the Uncover Media Project.

Training part 2

Over the last few weeks we have looked at TV and newspapers. We have compared how different channels show news stories and then checked to see how newspapers tell the same stories. We looked at some of the things in people's lives, how we could make a story out of what we found out, and perhaps very importantly how we could get a journalist to show an interest.

We had a giggle when looking at newspapers, we asked people to turn the page and say what caught their eye first. Poor Peter and Rob had the Sun in front of them and we all knew what was coming! Still it was a very interesting exercise, try it sometime: turn the page and note what catches your eye. This helped to illustrate why journalists and advertisers like to get their stories on pages 1, 3, 5 or 7. The eye will naturally scan the right side of a paper as the pages are turned. This is why key stories, photos or ads are usually found here...unless of course you have the Sun in front of you.

We wanted to see what it was like to be journalists or an editor. Everyone was given a subject to research, using old papers. Rosie was voted editor and Peter was chosen as the picture editor. The aim was to put together our own paper, within a deadline, using cuttings from the old papers. Everyone got stuck in, we all felt the pressures that editors must feel, so maybe we might cut them a bit of slack next time we have a story for the local press.

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.

About us

The Uncover media project was launched in April 2007, by Grapevine, a charity that works with people who have learning disabilities. There is one full time project coordinator and two part time project workers. At the moment we are supporting a team of 11 volunteers to learn all about the media.
Early in the project we had a design day with people from different media organisations to help us plan how the project would look if it works. The team members are all going to do work experience placements with our design partners.
So far two of the team have been on the radio and we have made a short video for The Big Lottery Fund, here is the link: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/englandvideos
One of the team has just done a 2 week placement with the communications department of the city council and helped put together the bi-monthly magazine that goes out to all households in Coventry. Another member will be starting a placement working with photographers at Coventry University.
This week we are visiting a group in Sheffield to talk about blogging, because we have decided that blogging is a good way for us to get our message across. We are interested to hear from other people and what they think of the way the media shows people with learning disabilities.