About I’m A Person Too!
Training for Positive Change
I’m a Person Too! is a national training programme run by people with learning disabilities which aims to improve the way public and private sector organisations communicate when working with people who have learning disabilities/autism. It has been developed on the basis of self-advocacy.
What is Self-Advocacy?
It is an approach to working with people with learning difficulties and disabilities that enables the individual to speak up for him- or her-self. Typically people with learning difficulties are being told what to so, what’s best for them, or sometimes not being told anything at all. And whilst this is done with the best of intentions, it means the individual is never listened to and at worst, their views and ideas are ignored completely. So self-advocacy aims to overcome this by giving each human being a voice.
I’m a Person Too was developed to find a way to help others LISTEN and LEARN from the individuals who have the learning disability. This way, two very important things happen:
- the individual with the learning disability can have control over what they want to do and say
- the professionals, carers and anyone who needs to interact learns how to communicate effectively.
Just imagine for a moment that you cannot communicate with the world around you. In your mind you know what you want to say and do, but no-one understands. Think of the danger and difficulties this can put you in. I’m a Person Too is the key that unlocks this barrier to effective communication, enabling each individual to have control over their lives, make decisions for themselves and have a voice to speak up.
The I’m a Person Too! training programme has been developed by three established self-advocacy charities across the country, located in London, Rotherham and Trowbridge. It has been piloted and delivered successfully across a number of different support services, including Teaching Hospitals, GPs surgeries, Emergency Services, Libraries and Job Centre Plus. In addition, it is supported by Sheffield Hallam University who provide impact assessment so that organisations can measure the effect of the training on their staff.
Now our training is available to any organisation that has staff who have a customer facing role. Imagine the benefits of having trained people who know how to communicate with anyone they come across – it could be a life saver!
If you want to know more, you can contact us using the form below.
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