New Year January and Half Way Though February Blog and Exciting Announcements

Happy New Year Readers. I hope your New Year was a good one. Mine was really good as I had some of my close friends over for new year and I spotted myself and my Friend Lindsay Kinloch on BBC Scotland Not Quite End of Year Show. It might have been at their back of the heads but at least it was something.

At the start of the work year, was a bit stressful as there was Rail Strikes which meant it took me ages to get in and out of the office which was not Ideal but I had to be in because I was recording a podcast from my Trip to Dublin for the IIMHL/IIDL 2022 Leadership Exchange. You can see the Spotify version for he podcast here - shorturl.at/pvJW5. We have also uploaded the podcast onto YouTube which you can access here - shorturl.at/cglyI.. A big Shout out To my line Manager for SCLD Andy Miller and my friend and Colleague Sandy Stark for agreeing and to help record the podcast. It was great podcast and we there was exciting plans mentioned in the podcast which I will mention later in the blog.

Also at the start of January, SCLD'S Scottish Learning Disability Week Get Involved Pack got launched. You can access the online version here - https://www.scld.org.uk/learning-disability-week/. On the webpage, there is a from if you want to order a physical pack. The physical packs are limited so grab them when you can and start planning Scottish Learning Disability Week.

Half way though January, I attended a Meeting about Suicide Prevention which is part of the Suicide Prevention Participation Network. This meeting was a very interesting meeting and I am exploring this more in my role in SCLD. I also attended my first meeting of the Young Friends of the earth Glasgow subgroup which I facilitated the 2nd session. It was a great meeting and look out for more information coming out soon about some events coming up across scotland.

At the end of January, I had a day of staff training on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: Cultural Competence. This was a very good session, but very long. The next Day, I had two exciting meetings. One of them was ran by Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) which was a Digishift Session on Multiplied: How Digital Transformation Can Deliver More Impact, Followed by the Rural mental Health Forum on Self Harm and NHS 24 Breathing Spaces. Both of these meetings were really exciting as its topics that I had not really known information about before.

At the end of January, I had another meeting of the Young Friends of the Earth Glasgow Subgroup which was only a check in meeting on actions from the last meeting but really exiting plans are coming and as soon as I can tell people, I will do that.

At the start of February, I done a 1 Hour Presentation to SCLD's and Inspiring Scotland Our Future Leaders Course. If you don't know what this is, you can have a look here - https://www.scld.org.uk/what-we-do/our-future-leaders/. The presentation was to the 1st session of Cohort 5 and was on emails and diary planning and the tools and tools I use on how Weeky plan my workload. The day of the OFL presentation, I attended the Cross Party Group On Changes Places Toilets online Via zoom. This meeting was a really good but stressful meeting as there was some major Tech issues on zoom that Night but it was a pleasure too hear Mike Adams OBE from the charity Purple discussing Purple Tuesday and the financial benefits to business and Marina Di Marco from Visit Scotland discussing their Inclusive Tourism Business Engagement Programme - a project to highlight accessible venues in six regions of Scotland working in partnership with AccessAble.

On Saturday 4th February, I spent an hour with DPN Project Search Youth Advisory Group. I done a presentation on my Project Search and my employment Journey with SCLD. Thank you so Much Claire and Harry from DFN Project SEARCH for the invite and I will be speaking to the advisory group again.

This week (W/C 6th Feb) has been one of the most business weeks of all time with back to back meetings with the British Institute for Learning Disabilities based out of Birmingham to SCLD's and SG Digital Transformation Project and internal SCLD's Meetings to Meeting VIAS's The Assembley on Friday but on Thursday I was Pleased to Welcome IIDL/IIMHL Colleagues to the SCLD's Office with a day of meetings. I got to meet with Colleagues and there are some excting plans coming up over the next 16-18 months.

A few other Announcements before I sign off this blog which are:

- that there is Still Space on the PBS Community of practice webinar on Children and Young People Webinar taking place on Wednday 22nd February 2-4pm Via zoom. To register click on the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kPutszhkQA-fKHw5Hvb6Hw

- Scottish Learning Disability Week is taking place between 1-7th May 2023. You can get your get involved pack here - https://www.scld.org.uk/learning-disability-week.

The final Big Announcement is that I have registered to do the Glasgow Kiltwalk for Enable Scotland. Once Enable Scotland Approves my registration and I have got my fundraing link in, I will be sharing this. I need to raise Minuman £100 and I know times are tight at the moment but a few pounds goes a long way in ENABLE Scotland. This will be the second Kiltwalk I have raised Funds of Enable Scotland but the funds goes a long way in Enable. I will be doing the Big Scroll which its 14 mIles and I will be doing Updates on the day on all of my Social media so keep an eye out on this.

I hope you have enjoyed this month and a half blog.