It’s been a busy couple of months for The Unstoppables. We have been involved in lots of important conversations and sharing our lived experiences.
Some exciting work we’ve been a part of is the ‘Childhood to Adult Charter’ which is due to be launched soon – more details on this next edition.
In our October meeting we had Gemma from the Local Offer attend, we had some interesting discussions around various things regarding the Local Offer – short breaks and how we as young people find what is right for us was one.
One of our members said this:
“We get frustrated by the use of the term accessible. A venue saying they have ‘accessible parking’ doesn’t mean that the whole venue is accessible. Accessible is a very generic term. But if you put particular disabilities in (for example visual impairments which needs different accessibility to wheelchairs) then it will bring nothing up. It would really help if there was a ‘trip advisor’ for SEND.”
Another member said this:
“Often there isn’t enough on the venue’s webpage to see if its right for us so we have to go there and try it. Videos, audio descriptions and pictures would really help us to see beforehand if it will work for us.”
Members enjoyed a game of giant Jenga to learn what else is on the Local Offer that they might not have known was there! They especially loved that Sian lost when she knocked over the tower! 😊 In the afternoon we spent some time doing some narration recording for our upcoming animation for the charter.
We thought this month we would take some time to remind you what the Unstoppables do and how we operate. We’re on the lookout for new members, so if you like the sound of the group, get in touch, and join us for a meeting to see if you like it.
The Unstoppables is a forum of young people aged 13-25 from across Somerset. We all have a lived experience of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). We use our lived experiences to help the professionals and services in Somerset understand what young people with SEND need to be able to live a happy life.
We meet on the first Saturday of each month, excluding January.
This is The Unstoppables mission statement:
- We want to be unstoppable, not be stopped by the difficulties that we have.
- We want to be ambassadors for other young people and share our journeys to help professionals know what has worked for us.
- We want to learn and build on our skills to be able to do as much as we can ourselves.
- We want to make Somerset as accessible for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities as possible.
- We want to let other people know it’s about what we can do, and not about what we can’t do.
What does The Unstoppables meetings look like?
In our meetings we do a mixture of fun stuff, learning new information and skills, and work on projects together. We feel really comfortable in the group because we all understand what each other is going through and we support each other. Also, the meetings are flexible with the agenda and if members need a quick break or timeout, we do have icebreaker activities that we can put into place if we need to break up the workload. The group is a safe and confidential place to share our experiences and opinions. We respect and listen to each other opinions and ideas.
Our next meeting is Saturday the 2nd of November.
If you or someone you know would like to be a member of the Unstoppables then follow the link to our form Expression of Interest to join The Unstoppables (office.com) 😊
Similarly, If you or a young person you know wants more information about how they can join the Unstoppables, or be part of our work they/you can contact us via email (SENDParticipationTeam@somerset.gov.uk) or via phone/What’s App (07976 809 773).
