A Recap of Scottish Learning Disability Week

As we approach the end of Scottish Learning Week, I thought I would write a blog to highlight my favorite things that have happened this week during Scottish Learning Disability Week. I have written this blog in my own views and in my own personal capacity.

What happened on Monday

Scottish Learning Disability Week was launched through all Scottish Commission for Learning Disability’s Social Media.

The Scottish Commission Launched their New Uno Mascot. This was made by The Mungo Foundation. This was made from Recycled material which linked to the theme of Learning Disability Week. To see the official announcement of this, you can check out SCLD’s Twitter here - https://twitter.com/SCLDNews/status/1262328400900952065. There were a few entries and they got posted on SCLD’s Instagram. All of the Entries were judged by Project Ability.

Leeanne Clark who is a writer and a Fellow of the RSA and a good friend of mine wrote a blog was part of Alliance Scotland Humans’ of Scotland Series and you can see the Blog here - https://www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/blog/humansofscotland/leeannes-story-life-during-covid-19/

To end Day 1 of LD Week SCLD hosted a Make and Take with their Facebook group. There were about 10 people that attended that make and take.

What happened on Tuesday

On Tuesday morning, I hosted a webinar on Learning Disability Awareness to the Scottish Government with the support of my CEO Charlie. We used Skype for Business for this. There were 73 people that turned up to the Webinar which was a really good number. There were a few technical difficulties with this but me being an ICT wizard I managed to solve this. At the end of this webinar, I was really tired, so I sat in my room for 10 mins and done a quick 10 mins meditation.

Also what happened that day was that Scottish Pen posted an article up about Learning disability week and you can read this here - https://scottishpen.org/scottish-pen-marks-learning-disability-week-in-scotland/.

On Tuesday, the chair of SCLD and CEO of Down Syndrome Scotland has written a thought-provoking and reflective letter to his son. It has important insights about the voices we need to hear from during #LDWeekScot2020 and #MHAW20. You can read the powerful and emotional letter here - https://www.scld.org.uk/a-letter-to-finlay/

What happened on Wednesday.

We come to Wednesday and it has been a busy week so far. I am really tired now but excited as there was a big announcement that came out today.

The big announcement that was Claire Haughey (MSP) and Minister for Mental Health launched the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) in Scotland. She also mentions in her video Scottish Learning Disability week and Mental Health Awareness week also. You can see the announcement here – https://vimeo.com/420314914

To find out more about PBS in Scotland, you can see this here - https://www.scld.org.uk/positive-behaviour-support-pbs/

Also that day, one of my friends Fiona Dawson published a Lockdown story. The story got recorded on Zoom and you can check out the story here - https://vimeo.com/418967121

What happened on Thursday.

As we are on Day 4 of LD week 2020, Its been a busy week for me as I am doing a variety of tasks and they are long tasks. On top of that, I am monitoring my works social media and sharing content to my personal social media also.

Today was Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) Day and Promoting a More Inclusive Society (PAMIS) 28th Birthday. This was a busy day on twitter as there was a lot of activity and a lot of sharing content. If you would like to have a look at some of the content you can here - https://twitter.com/PAMIS_Scotland.

Today was also a sad day as some of the Activities and the tweets were dedicated to the old founder and CEO of PAMIS Loretto Lamb who died 2015 of metastatic melanoma.

In the afternoon I attended the Second of SCLD’s Make and Take. There were a lot more people turned up to this one. I really enjoyed telling the people in the call how I made my empire biscuits that I made with my little sister Hollie on the 16th of May 2020.

What Happened on Friday.

We come to Friday and tonight SCLD was supposed to have their Annual Scottish Learning Disability Awards. This has now been postponed to later in the year.

To co-inside with the Theme of Learning disability week, SCLD has been working with Let’s notice Nature on producing some Easy Read Materials on Nature for them. You can find a link to all of the materials here - https://www.scld.org.uk/lets-notice-nature-together/

In the afternoon I attended the Final of SCLD’s Make and take for people with Learning Disabilities who are not on SCLD’s Stay in touch page. The people on the call got a challenge to make some muffins which we accepted. If you are someone with a learning disability and would like to keep in touch with SCLD you can join the SCLD stay in touch Facebook group here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/829489957518976/

Another best thing that happened on Friday is that I caught up with the Rural Youth Project and the attendees from the 2019 Ideas Festival. This was a really good catch up with the group I will do a separate blog post of things that are upcoming for that. I will also do a blog from my experience at the festival also.

Well done the whole SCLD team for pulling off such a busy/amazing/Important week. I hope you enjoy your weekend and see you all on Tuesday.

Thank you for reading my blog.