What is Voice 4 Kent ?
•An independent self advocacy organisation campaigning for peoples rights in Kent.
•We are people with a learning disability.
•We run our own organisation with paid support.
•We hope to have members from all over Kent.
•We have our own office in Maidstone that we rent.
How did Voice 4 Kent come about ?
We decided to put on a conference to find out what people wanted to do to achieve this. Lots of people came from different parts of Kent and decided that an independent advocacy group was needed.
We had lots of meetings and set up a management team, with support from Skillnet, to find out about funding so we could do this.
Voice 4 Kent applied for funding to BILD and KCC and we received funding for two years. We began by renting an office from Skillnet Group in Dover but now we have moved to our new offices in Maidstone.
We employ our own supporters to help us with paperwork and other things.
Future Plans.
We are going to be supporting others to set up their own local groups.
We are going to be taking part in research and training about Self Advocacy. We want to get more people involved i.e. from ethnic minority groups and residential homes. We are going to write newsletters and send information out about what we are doing.
Be prepared for some problems when setting up your own self advocacy group.
•People may decide to leave
•Disagreements within the group
•People not turning up for meetings
•People not turning up on time
•People not taking responsibility
•Peoples behaviour at meetings and in public
•Not respecting each other
But it is not all bad.
You get it sorted and you learn new skills. You can make new friends and help other people to speak up for themselves. We have found that we are more confident and we travel around and go to lots of meetings.
You learn patience and respect for others and how to work together as part of a team and also have a lot of fun
You have responsibilities to yourself and to others.
