Sarah Playforth - Access Diversity Equality News

Projects and activities

Updated on 31st December 2011

News on projects and activities - do get in touch if you'd like to know more about any of them

Organisational Culture Change

I've developed, and am now delivering, a series of culture change workshops for all staff at a large residential and day care centre for disabled people to support them and their service users in creating a culture that provides services within a personalisation agenda.

Disability Consultants Group

I am supporting a group of disabled consultants and trainers to work cooperatively in providing a wide range of high quality services to organisations in all sectors, including research, access audits and service development for young disabled people and accessible event organisation.

Deaf Cultural Outreach Group (DeafCOG)

I'm a founder member and director for this new organisation which is a Community Interest Company. DeafCOG is a Deaf social enterprise providing access to user led services for D/deaf* people within a signing environment with access to all other communication methods as required. DeafCOG is user led from the outset by D/deaf people supporting D/deaf people in their preferred language or communication mode.

D/deaf* means Deaf people who see themselves as having a social and language identity and deaf people who see themselves as having a medical condition. It includes people who are hard of hearing, deafblind or deafened.
Read More at www.deafcog.co.uk

Accentuate - Our View

I am a member of the Our View group of five disabled people acting as expert advisors and ambassadors for Accentuate, a programme of 15 projects showcasing the talents of D/deaf and disabled people of all ages in the run up to the Londond 2012 Paralympic Games.

"Accentuate is an ambitious transformational programme of 15 projects. We are proud of the South East's heritage as the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement. Accentuate will now carry the baton to continue this journey ensuring disabled people have the potential to be the leaders of tomorrow, in whatever field they choose. Accentuate also strives to create a permanent change in the way disability is viewed by society." Recently Our view produced a distinctive publication, Sport and Art, which I edited.
Read More at www.accentuate-se.org

East Sussex County Council Adult Social Care Inclusion Advisory Group

I am member of this East Sussex County Council group, which was set up in 2009 and meets regularly, acting as a "forum of 'critical friends' who can work in partnership and focus on real experiences and practical solutions ... The members advise ASC managers on making services as accessible as possible to people on the basis of age, gender, including transgender, race and ethnicity, culture, disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief and other diversity issues."
Read More at www.eastsussex.gov.uk

See a Voice

One of my aims is to do all I can to improve access for D/deaf people to arts and culture. "See a Voice" is a joint project between STAGETEXT and VocalEyes and have developed an on line training tool for theatre staff to improve access for deaf people; I was interviewed as part of the project development and am featured in the training materials.

East Sussex Disability Association (ESDA)

ESDA is the local East Sussex Centre for Independent Living (CIL). CILs are local organisations, run and controlled by disabled people and are a vital part of the implementation of a new approach to supporting independent living. ESDA has been commissioned by East Sussex County Council Adult Social Care to:

Establish a local user-led coalition to unify and support local user-led community organisations
Provide user-led support to disabled people to plan for their care and support needs
Promote the benefits of community equipment
Display and demonstrate community equipment and provide advice and information about it
Provide training and support to community organisations in recommending simple aids to daily living
Provide disability equality training

ESDA is also linked with other CILs locally and nationally and are a founding member of the South East Network of Disabled People's Organisations (SENDPO); a member of the National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL) and of the Network of Networks, a group of 12 ULOs working with Central Government. ESDA's ULO Toolkit, developed to help organisations wishing to become user-led is being widely used all over the UK and will be updated and reissued in 2012.

User Led Organisations project

A Department of Health funded project to support and inform nine organisations in East Sussex to become user led. I was one of three consultants developing and delivered training sessions, consultancy support and guidance and an on line support pack to enable sustainability for the project. This pack is proving popular far beyond expectations and further work continues to increase the number of user led organizations and encourage mutual support.

Sussex Deaf History

This new site was officially launched on May 15th 2010 at the Deaf Cultural Day held at Hamilton Lodge School in Brighton. As a deaf woman with over 50 years personal and professional experience of the changes in how deaf people have been treated in UK society, I have contributed articles to this site and DeafCOG is featured here.
Read More at www.sussexdeafhistory.org.uk/

General

I have an alter ego who writes poetry and other stuff under a pseudonym - for more information, do get in touch.

Sarah Playforth Limited is often involved in research and other projects to find out what disabled people in and around Sussex think of a range of services and organisations and to support and encourage more disabled people to participate in shaping the way they receive services. Please do get in touch if you are a deaf or disabled person living in Sussex and are interested in being part of a growing number who influence the way in which organisations work.