In this guest blog Alice, one of Disability Sheffield’s Advocacy Workers, shares her experience of a recent training course that she attended.
“I was delighted to take part in the ‘Active citizenship and political participation of young disabled people as a pathway towards Independent Living’ programme last week. The training was organised by the European Network on Independent Living in co-operation with the Council of Europe and took place in Strasbourg, France.
Sixteen participants from across Europe attended the week-long course and it was a great opportunity to hear about the work other disabled advocates and activists are doing in their countries.
Together we studied a wide range of topics including the history of the Independent Living movement, human rights education, the preconditions needed for self-advocacy and political participation, and tools to help young disabled people mobilise.
A key focus of the programme was the connection between Independent Living philosophy and broader political issues. Dr Angharad Beckett from the Centre for Disability Studies at Leeds University gave a great lecture titled ‘Person is political’ on the theory behind this. We explored how, as disabled people, our private and personal lives often have both public and political dimensions.
The training was a fantastic experience and I’m really looking forward to applying what I have learnt in my work here at Disability Sheffield.”
