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CASBA 500 mile walk blog

5/31/2022

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During the month of May, at CASBA we have done a 500 miles challenge. 

We are doing this to raise money for our charity, so that people with learning disabilities can live independently and have their voices heard.

We have done some walks led by staff and volunteers. We started off on the 2nd May at Edgbaston reservoir led by Heather. We have also done walks from Sarehole Mill, Monyhull, Manor Farm, Northfield Park, and Cannon Hill Park.
Our parents group led by Tracy did the walk around Northfield Park, it was a great day but very hot.

​On 21st May it was our big walk, Kings Norton to Birmingham City Centre along the canal. This was a big achievement for everyone involved to walk the full route, over 6 miles altogether.

​Cannon Hill Park was our last walk of the month. Some of the group planned to walk around again, but the British weather put a stop to that. They came back to the café soaked, as the heavens had opened. We all sat down together and had a well-deserved hot drink.

​Our Cannon Hill Park was led by the chair of our Ambassadors Martyn.

Some people have done challenges with their families - for example, our Fundraising Officer, Joe, our Trustee Stella and our CEO Ginny. Overall, our challenge has raised £1,964 and we're now on the last day. 

There is still time to sponsor us, the walk challenge has been a big achievement for everyone involved. We all have different mobility levels, but we wanted to take part and raise funds, as we are all proud to work for CASBA. 

I would like to finish by saying thank you to everyone who has sponsored us, for everyone taking part on the walks, for sharing on social media. But also, a big thank you to Joe Peacock for organising the Fundraising event and leading the Tolkien walk. Also, to Sior, Becky, Tracy, Heather and our Ambassadors for giving their time to lead the walks, it wouldn’t have been possible without you.
www.justgiving.com/campaign/CASBA500miles

Jennifer Brown
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The curious case of household support grants

3/7/2022

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This is an easy read blog post about some of our recent work.

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​One of our advocates also volunteers at St Germaine’s church.
While she was there, she heard about Household support grants.
Each grant was worth £150.

She realised this would give really important help for our citizens.
She shared the information with other advocates at CASBA.
The advocates told the citizens they work with about it.

Only one person knew about it!
CASBA advocates immediately started filling in forms with citizens, so they could apply for these grants. 
Sometimes they did it over phone and sometimes face to face.

In total, our staff completed over 35 forms with our citizens.
It helped people who were in debt because of high fuel bills.
They could replace essential items like cookers and microwaves.
They were delighted to get this unexpected help.


Suddenly, a friend called one of our advocates to say the grants were closing the next day!
It was her day off, but she decided it was important to spend a couple of hours ringing people and making herself available in the evening to get forms filled in before the deadline.
Our citizens phoned each other so they were ready and knew what information was needed.
That was really good because it made it much quicker!


Not everyone who needed this help got an application in on time.

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​There was very little communication about when they opened or closed.
More support is needed for citizens struggling with cost of living increases.

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CASBA campaigned to stop the government taking away £20 a week from the most vulnerable citizens.
We will continue campaigning for a fairer system.
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p.s.
We have heard that the grant applications are now reopening, which is good, but we don't know for how long.
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Making training accessible

3/2/2022

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​Janet is a CASBA Ambassador.
She also volunteers for a housing association care home.


She talks to residents and helps them with refreshments.
The housing association asked her to do some training.


This training was online.



​The training required a lot of reading.
None of the materials were in easy read.
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Anne-Marie is a volunteer at CASBA.
She sat with Janet in the CASBA office to help her do the training.


Each training module was supposed to take 20 minutes.
They did two modules. This took three hours.


Anne-Marie helped Janet to understand what the materials said.
At the end, Janet took a test and passed with very high marks.


She has to complete 6 modules in total.
Anne Marie will support her to do these.
Janet will be able to continue her volunteer placement when she’s done them all.
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We think training should be more accessible, but we help our citizens to access courses when they are not.
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Attitudes (feelings need to change)

2/25/2022

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​I am a mother with Cerebral Palsy, learning disability, hearing impairment and Lipoedema, who like a lot of parents with a disability has been told that they can’t look after their child.
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​Casualty on BBC One has been showing what life is like when you are constantly fighting all the time. You are not treated the same as everyone else they can’t see past the disability, see that you can do anything that a non-disabled person can.
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​I find it to heart-breaking to watch Casualty, it is like watching my life on the television. They have been showing episodes of a woman with Cerebral Palsy fighting to keep her baby, as she kept the pregnancy a secret because she already had one baby took away. The recent episode shared this Saturday 5th February 22, was the worst one when Paula went into labour, she was trying hard to show that she was a good mom, but no matter what she did social services still took her baby away. Paula didn’t even get 24 hours with her baby.
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​Why does life have to be like that? Why do we always have to have a label? Hopefully one day we can have a happier future and our new project Pregnancy to Parenthood can change the way people see us and see that we can be parents to our children even if we need support.
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​Since February 2021 Rosie Jones who is a comedian and actress has been playing Paula Kettering. Rosie herself has Cerebral Palsy and her character shows the difficulties.
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​Rosie said in the metro on her character: “Paula not perfect. She has flaws, she’s stubborn, the story is showing that disabled people can be three dimensional, well they are always 3 dimensional and I feel like playing Paula meant showing there are millions of disabled people who like her disability, they are underestimated and treated awfully by the services, the system and the government. This needs to change. I think it is important to know this is definitely something, that disabled moms have to go through we need to raise awareness about how there is still stigma with disabled mothers”.
Casualty also showing a character who is visually impaired that falls over while walking her guide dog to show how people have been affected by visual impairment. The character is struggling to come to terms with her lifelong companion who has been there to protect her having to retire and trying to deal with it on her own.
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​Everybody has in a way been affected with Covid 19. I feel as though we have been completely invisible throughout the pandemic, we were not a priority for the vaccines at first. As well as that all our care services stopped, as there was a heart-breaking story in the paper of a woman who killed her disabled son because she couldn’t cope anymore, without the support that was needed.
I think it is good that there is starting to more awareness on the TV about people with disabilities, mental health and actors with disabilities, but I still think we have a long way to go.
As said, hopefully with the Pregnancy to parenthood project we can all see a happier future. As I say, “The greatest disability of all is those who don’t treat or respect us the same as everyone else”.
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Jennifer Brown
Reference:
Metro.co.uk
Mother admits killing 10-year-old disabled son during lockdown | UK News | Sky News
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Helping the environment

11/17/2021

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​For many years we have been polluting the earth, did you know that in Birmingham sometimes the air pollution is that high it is illegal? We are polluting our rivers and seas by plastics and chemicals.
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​David Attenborough was on BBC news on location filming his new program, The Green Planet talking about the environment and going to the conference in Glasgow. “If we don’t act now, it will be too late.” 
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​I am getting worried about the damage that is being caused by global warming, but I can’t change my hobby. I can’t live with there being no steam trains in the world. No matter how much eco coal they use it is still polluting the air. Luckily, there aren’t as many steam trains as cars and lorries in our city, otherwise the air would be terrible. 
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​Big companies want us to look at our personal carbon footprints, but unless they stop polluting the atmosphere, we can’t save our planet, our wildlife, our plant life through small actions.
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​Buying more local food and checking where your food comes from, as well as growing your own fruit and veg can cut down your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air). Also, if you don’t buy things wrapped in plastic when we are shopping and take our own bags that will make a difference, as well as recycling. Many plastic items end up in the sea and can get caught around an animal’s neck, causing them to die.
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Reducing your electricity usage around the home will save you money as well as reducing your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air). You can do this by switching off electrical appliances, such as kettles and televisions, at the wall when they are not in use. Also, switching off the lights when you’re not in a room and using battery powered lights or solar lights to secure your home when your out, so as not to leave the electricity on.
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​Turning down the heating in the home, even by 0.5 degrees, does make a difference. If you own your home, there are schemes to help with the cost of getting a new eco boiler to cut down on gas use.
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Eating meat means there is less space for trees as we need to use a lot of land to grow food for the animals. Cutting down on meat that we eat is not only good for our health but also for our planet. Here is an easy vegetarian recipe, and it is cheap too. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/one-pot-mushroom-potato-curry
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​Together we can make changes to save our Earth. We can’t solve the environment problems on our own, but we can help to make a difference by taking clothes to charity shops or putting them in charity bags/banks at the supermarkets.
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​You could also choose support politicians who want to make a difference to the environment. This week there has been a conference in Glasgow where all the world leaders have come to discuss the environment people’s and we can be a voice to them of what needs to change.
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​In Birmingham on Saturday there was a march to voice our concerns of how much things to need change. You can ask your MP or councillor to makes changes to make Birmingham less polluted and protect our planet better.
Find your MP here
I hope the blog I have done will help you think of ways that you can help the planet and hopefully support you to have a voice.
Jennifer Brown
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CASBA is a registered charity (Charity Reg No: 701365) established in May 1988.
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