Communication Nation - 3

2 hours ago

3 min read

Communication nation is a gig night organised by Bury People First. Bury People First is a local charity run by people with learning disabilities and autism. For the last 3 years we have organised a gig night with members of the group gradually taking on more responsibility. This is the third time we have organised a gig to raise money and awareness for the communication rights charter. Two local bands agreed to perform and celebrated our right to communicate. Heston-Machine, Duffy Graeme and Darren spent the afternoon setting up the stage, it’s a great deal of work and we appreciate the time and effort they put in to supporting us and our rights.

First up were the band Vaguely Sane with lead singer Claire belting out hits. Heston-Machine were our headline act, they performed a range of numbers including the Beastie Boys ‘right to party’. This song has particular resonance with members of Bury People First as the song specifically outlines people's rights to party, something which is often a challenge for people with learning disabilities.

The event was held at Walshaw Sports Club, who were incredibly supportive, we would highly recommend them as a venue. We managed to raise over £1000 towards our campaign.

Reflection and learning:

Following the event we consulted bury people first to ask what what went well Comments included the following:

· I liked the first band the singer was really good and the bar was good

· the music was great

· Rebecca's speech was great

· everybody was having fun

· I loved the signing I enjoyed showing people how to sign

· I thought it was great that Duffy lent us the equipment

· It was lovely that we made friends

· The Sports Club were great

· Graeme the drummer was amazing he played in both bands!

· I love the song we joined in with

We asked the group what they would change, group members told us:

· some people wanted to go home early this was stressful

· we needed more room it was really busy

· we could have been a bit more organised

· people were asking about the food people wanted food and kept asking about food

· we needed some fresh air it was a bit crowded I liked having a side room

· some people needed ear defenders, we should buy some

Heston Machine

Using the funds

Going forward we will use the funds to create training resources so support staff understand all the different ways people with learning disabilities can communicate - we are hoping staff will recognise and learn about using signing, symbols, objects and body language as well as speech. We are working with Brian Burke from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who is supporting us with our campaign. Our hope is to influence the inspectors who evaluate services so we can raise the standards of communication support.

Towards the end of the night members of the group were spotted plotting ... I mean planning with Duffy about working together in the future. We don’t have any details about what they were discussing but let’s just say … watch this space!!!