Christine's story on BBC1

Christine's story went out on BBC 1 last night in the West Midlands. It is a very emotive subject and Christine felt the programme refelcted her story accurately.

Here's the link to watch it on iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nw2m4#synopsis

What do you think about the coverage?

Mothers with learning disabilities forced to have their children adopted

Hi

Christine Spooner, who works on the media project, is part of the InsideOut TV documentary on Monday, November 9 at 7.30pm, on BBC 1.

The programme looks at women with learning difficulties who are are forcedto give their babies up for adoption.

Christine tells her story.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nw2m4

It would be appreciated if you could forward this information on to people who would be interested in wathcing this.

Thanks

Street Aware

Is Coventry a safe place to be if you are different?

Come along to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Wednesday, October 21, 11 - 2pm

Or join the debate now

http://www.chattervine.blogspot.com/

www.twitter.com/grapevinemedia

Join the chat about being different

Hi


Grapvine's media team is asking people to take 5 minutes to think about why people with learning disabilities are treated badly by some members of the community.

This is called learning disability hate crime and it is when somebody is horrible and violent to you just beacuse you are different.

We want to hear from you.

Can you answer these questions?

What do you think is the best way to keep safe in Coventry?

Do people listen to you if you say you have experienced people being horrible or violent towards you?

Do you know how and where to report a hate crime?

Have you been to the police station and reported a hate crime?

Are you happy to talk about what you have had done to you?

Do you take someone with you to report hate crime?

Could you talk to a counsellor about it?

Looking forward to using the flip cameras at Street Aware

Grapvine's meedia media team really want to make Street Aware as accessible and powerful as possible so we are looking forward to using these flip cameras to record people's experiences.

The blog and event we are doing on October 21 will hopefully capture some of the views of people with learning disabilities in Coventry around the issue of hate crime.

Why are people with learning disabilities attacked verbally or physically because they are different?

Why Grapvine is doing Street Aware

Hi



I am Darren and I work with the media team at Grapevine. Sadly, we have been reminded recently of how learning disability hate crime can destroy lives. The Pilkington family case brings into focus exactly why we are setting up the Street Aware blog and event on Wednesday, October 21 at BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.

Here are a couple of links about the Pilkington case in Leicestershire.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/28/pilkington-inquest-ruling



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W0dUucm0Xw



The story of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francecca Hardwick is tragic.




What does this say about our society? What can we do to stop this in the future?

We want your views.

street aware

Who is bothered if people with learning disabilities are victims of crime?
Do you feel coventry is a safe place to be? Are you bothered? Got anything to say? Then grapevine's media team want to hear from you.
We are starting a blog called street aware to find out what people really think.
People will have the chance to put their views and stories on it using words, pictures,video and sound.
People with learning disabilities are invited to come along to the launch street aware on Wednesday, October 21st, at 11-2pm, at the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire's Open Centre, Priory Place.
Zoe

Using computers and their sites

Hi there, this time i am going to talk about using computers and their sites.

I have a laptop at home and i use it for facebook
bebo
emails
friends reunited
and most recently my space.

I went on friends reunited as i wanted to track down my school friends.


If you need to know more please blog back.

My Holiday in Greece

My Holiday in Greece

Hi my name is Zoë I have a learning disability and I went on holiday to Greece. My boyfriend came with me he also has a learning disability his name is Dale, We booked the whole of the holiday ourselves which include hotel flight, travel insurance etc. We had a brilliant time with no problems the weather was great and the people were friendly and helpful. It was also my birthday, so it just goes to show people with learning disability can go on holiday on their own

Zoë

My move to Coventry and how my life is now!

My name is Lynne Cooper and I have Downs Syndrome! I work for Grapevine, it is a charity that works with people with learning disabilities. I am a media project worker and I have been working at Grapevine for two years.

Here is my story!

I wanted to start a new life away from Motherwell in Scotland as my mum’s boyfriend would drink heavily and be aggressive. My sister lived here in Coventry so I decided to move here to begin my fresh start.

I lived with my sister for a year but things didn’t go to plan so I moved out of her house and moved in with a friend.

I was only supposed to stay for a couple of weeks but we got on so well that 10 years later we are still living in her house. We have a great friendship and we go out to the pub for meals and karaoke.

I love living in Coventry and I have been to catering college and done an NVQ to be a chef. I have a passion for singing and found out about Grapevine through meeting a friend called John who also liked doing karaoke.
I became a member of Grapevine for 4 years then I heard there was a job going as a media project worker so I had an interview and got the job. I job share with a girl called Zoë and it is a pleasure to work with her. I am chuffed that I have a paid job to go to as I haven’t had a job before. I have met some great people in Coventry who have helped me start a new life.

That’s all for now
Until next time

now we are the news

our bed push is now on central vision's news channel click here to watch the 2 minute clip http://tinyurl.com/l2vdcv
please tell us what you think.

solving problems

We wanted to post our radio interview on this website so you could all listen to it, but couldn't find out how to do it easily. We asked Stuart from www.wesharestuff.org if he could help. He gave us some ideas and explained that the reason it was difficult was to stop people adding music tracks they weren't supposed to use. Stuart suggested joining a hosting site and then making a link from this site. Then we had an idea...
We had the radio clip and we had some great photographs from the bed push, so why not put them together in moviemaker and then upload it as we do with other videos.
It worked a dream, please have a look at the posting below. What do you think?
Now Stuart suggested we link it back to our twitter site, ok Stu so how do we do that...
visit www.twitter.com/grapevinemedia

Learning Disability Week Bed Push Went really well

We met up outside the BBC Radio Station in Coventry to do our bed push in aid of people with learning disabilities having the rights to stay up/out late. We all wore Stay Up Late T-shirts which were sent to us by Heavy Load who started the campaign for Stay Up Late. The media coverage was Central vision, The BBC, Telegraph and Michelle Tennison who is a freelance photographer. We pushed the bed up through the City Centre and along the way we were getting people to sign our petition and giving out leaflets and badges we stopped by Lady Godiva statue and went round speaking to the public to get their support. We then made our way to the Coventry City Council House to meet up with councillors to hand in the report and the petitions we also gave them T-shirts. The report had 10 case studies of people with learning disabilities not being able stay up/out late. Dave Musson has put a story about heavy Load & us on the daily dust. http://bit.ly/WlU1N
Below is a link to our radio interview with Annie Othan BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Learning Disability Week football match was a great success

We met up at the Alan Higgs Centre to watch a football match between a team from Grapevine and Some ex Coventry City players. The match came about because the health buddies had started training session with Paul Reynolds, the disability coach Coventry city football club. It was then decided to have the match in Learning Disability Week some of us were cheerleaders. The team wore Big Lottery T-shirts as they are the ones who funded the Media and Health projects. We drew 6-6, every body enjoyed the match it was good fun. Photos by dave. www.davemussonphotography.com Here is a short video clip

more daily dust stories

We had a great week for learning disability stories in the media. The latest story on the Daily Dust is about our football match against a side representing Coventry City FC. to read it link here: http://bit.ly/46SLhl
We will be putting all the photos and videos online in the next couple of days.

learning disability media success stories

We had a great day yesterday, lots of support from the public; 2 live radio interviews, photographers & reporters following us, and Centralvision camera man following us. Give us the weekend to sort the pictures and they will be posted next week.

Our 3rd rights video is now available click here:http://tinyurl.com/mvhxlb this is our stay up late video please be careful if you have seizures there is a lot of flickering, we have asked for it to be toned down. Still it is a great video. THANKS TO HEAVY LOAD for letting us use their music and good luck at Glastonbury guys.

We have been working with a reporter who has done 4 learning disability stories for learning disability week you can see them at: http://bit.ly/lKmln
http://bit.ly/WlU1N http://bit.ly/gwZZq and http://bit.ly/10gUYu The daily dust website gets 35,000 reader each day and 1.5million a month so lits of people will hear about us- THANKS to DAVE MUSSON.

We played the football match this morning and again we need a few days to sort out photographs and video clips.

Game on

Football Match

Hi everyone just to let you know Grapevine are having a 6 a side football match against ex Coventry City players and coaching staff on Friday 26th June 10:30am at the Alan Higgs Centre. The Grapevine team will be wearing shirts porvided by The Big Lottery Fund.

daily dust good news stories

We have a young journalist working with us and Mencap for learning disability week. So far he has got 2 stories on the online newspage please follow the links:
davemussonhttp://bit.ly/gwZZq

davemussonhttp://bit.ly/10gUYu

videos about rights

We have had the first of our rights videos posted on Central vision for learning disability week; hopefully we will have the other 2 by tomorrow. You can watch them by clicking on the following sites.
Christisne's story is at http://tinyurl.com/n2felf

Rishard's story is at http://tinyurl.com/mf72mm
Wewant to say a big thank you to Christine, Rishard, Mel and Nicolad for doing such a grand job.

As soon as we can we will have them on this site. Please have a look and tell us what you think.

WATS!

Our young person's project WATS (We are all the same) funded by Camelot Foundation had their end of year evaluation event at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry on Friday. There was music from Soulful Choir and lots of short videos showing lots about what the project has done.

For more photos visit this website: :__ http://tiny.cc/fq7Yf

Disability week and welsh visitors

Just an update on what the media team is doing on Thursday and on learning disability week, we are having some visitors from Wales on the 18th of June. During learning disabilty week which is next Monday the 22nd of June, we are doing a bed push on the 25th of June which we are pushing a bed from the BBC then walking to the council house and then back to Grapevine. Along the way giving leaflets out and talking to people about it too. The reason why we are doing this campaign is because people with learning disabilities have to go back home because of staff change over and the campaign is called staying up late which is run by a punk band called Heavy Load who are a band with people with learning disabilities and 2 volunteers. On the 26th of June we 're having a six aside football match against ex Coventry City players at a place called the Alan Higgs Centre and there are cheerleaders too. Please make sure you show your support and vote on this site.

training journalists

We went to Manchester to talk to a group of 16 journalist students, about the media and learning disability. We asked the students what they thought a learning disability might mean to them. We split into 2 groups then me and Lynne were interviewed by the students, it was really good to have the chance to get my point across and be listened too. I would go and do it again,

That is all for now
Zoë

Michael and Alan are snap happy

Michael Smith, and Alan Hobden, both won certificates in the photography section of the annual Nuneaton Festival of Arts, and collected them at a ceremony last Friday. Michael got a certificate for third place in the still life category, and Alan won third place in portrait as well as a merit in action.
Michael said, “I’m very excited at winning a certificate and hope I win one of the trophies next year”, while Alan added, “I can't believe it I didn’t expect to win”.
Their certificates were presented by Nuneaton’s Mayor, Councillor Gerald Smith, who also posed for photographs with Alan and Michael after the ceremony, and even gave them both a short ride around the block in his chauffeur-driven car – something Alan and Michael enjoyed almost as much as collecting their awards.

blogging with Birmingham People 1st

Today we visited Birmingham People 1st to help them set up a blog. We worked with Martyn, Christine Sue and Jonathan. We showed them this blog and then set one up for them. Alan took some photos. We liked the people and got on well. We had a bit of a laugh.Christine walked back to the station with us and this is a picture of Alan and Christine.

working with a press officer

Me, Denise, Alan and Christine had a meeting with Suman, she had come to talk to us about the press release that had been done for the none smoking day. Suman who is a worker as a Coventry NHS press officer. She looked at our press release and told us how she would change it slightly, so that the newspapers would be interested. Suman had come with some of the photos that MichelleTennison had taken and we were talking about how some were good and some not so good. Here are some of the photos that we all liked. Suman was also saying that she can offer one of the media group a placement with her team to see how a press office is run. Suman will be putting some of the photos into Health Matters, a magazine that Suman’s team do and send out to houses in Coventry.

Michelle's website is: http://www.tennisons.co.uk/

The photos show Maureen looking at the tar you get from smoking; the health buddies and Danny with Mohammed from the stop smoking team.

More from Alan the photographer

I helped Manjeet and Danny with a links event. I took some photos for them on the day and I also enjoyed myself. I helped Manjeet set out the food out on the tables.
I helped Michelle the professional photographer. I organised the group photo, so Michelle could take the picture. I had to move chairs around and Michelle gave me some tips on how to take the photos. Manjeet said she wanted the group photos so we had to get people sitting on chairs and people standing at the back. I told them to shout Grapevine to get them smiling.
I also helped to tidy up at the end of the day
By Alan.

Staying up late campaign

Heavy Load a punk rock band with have a single out called Stay up Late. They had noted that people were going home early from their concerts and this made them angry. We thought that it was happing in Coventry so Peter took photos of a D:vine night. The photos showed that early on the place was full, but after 9.00 it would empty. Some of the team have written a survey asking people if they stay up late. Some of the team are going out to day centres to get people to do the survey.
Please leave me a message with your E-mail if you want to do the survey, so that I can send to you.

you can find out more about Heavy Load on their website: http://www.myspace.com/heavyloaduk

Health buddy training

I helped Manjeet, Danny and Rob to run the health buddy training on how to help people to stop smoking, I helped to set up the activities’ I was Danny’s health buddy and I was supporting him to give up smoking, I needed to try and convince him to come to the NHS and see the stop smoking team. It was only a role play as Danny does not smoke. The day was really good and I found that the presentation was interesting, at the end we all got a Goody bag, with lots of information.
I enjoyed the day.

Zoë

Alan's photography blog

I first started taking photographs with Rob Adams, around Coventry. I took Lady Godiva, the cathedral, canal basin and all sorts. I decided to make a book from my photographs. If you look on this page you can see a video with me and Christine about my book.

I entered a photo competition and won a certificate from the Lord Mayor and we all had a cup of tea at the council house.

I joined the media team and took some more photos for a show at the Herbert Art Gallery. I was in the newspaper for that. We went to the opening party and had wine.

I am still taking photographs, I sometimes take pictures for the media team. I am entering another competition and I will tell you how I get on.

Edward's blog

I joined the media team in August 2008. I like going to the meetings and have made new friends. I like having the TV on and going through the freeview channels to find something that interests me. I like watching films.

I like to go out in the evening but it depends if there are enough staff to support this. I like to go to the pub for a pint or two. I go to Devine nightclub once a month. I prefer to chat to people in the bar, it's hard to talk to people on the dancefloor.

I am moving house soon. I will be living nearer to my sister. I went to have a look at a house this week and I like it. I am looking forward to moving, it will be in a better area.

I enjoy going to Grapevine Drop In Centre, there are some nice people there. I like coming to the press office to blog. I would like to work in the office all the time , I enjoy working with the staff.

I can be a loving mum if you give me a chance

Christine from the media team became a star in the local paper yesterday. She was in a story that told how her 2 babies had been taken away from her and her husband when they were only a few weeks old. The babies weren't stolen or kidnapped, they were taken by social services, because Christine and her husband were thought to be unable to look after the babies. The reason people thought this was becasue Christine and her husband both have learning disabilities.

Christine's story is very sad, but not that unusual. She decided that she wanted people to know and our media team have supported her to get the story told. If you want to read the full story click on the link.

http://snipurl.com/f2eg6

Values Into Action Conference- Friday 13th march 2009

Me, Ellen, Lynne and Faye went to London for a conference. It was run by VIA about how we can get good support from different people and how we need to ditch the jargon. It would be good if all information was made easier to read, no big words- so let's ditch the jargon!

We had some group discussions, one was about our thoughts and worries and the future of social care. The other one was about problems, possibilities and will it work. The group discussions worked really well as everyone had their say
Some one had done DVD about her life. Her name was Ellen Goody, it was about independent living scheme and how she liked living on her own, and who she employed as a support worker. The scheme had worked for her, but this might not be the same for everyone.

We all had a really good day out.
Zoe

Promoting the National Lottery

Our exhibition photographers were asked to help promote the National Lottery by being on the other side of the camera for once. Alan, Michael, Peter and Paul posed with a giant lottery ball in the new gallery at the Herbert in Coventry.So far the Coventry Telegraph has used the story. This photograph was taken by Michelle Tennison. (www.tennisons.co.uk)

Learning disability partnership board

I am a representative on a group called the Learning Disability Partnership Board. Other reps are the NHS, councillors, carers, parents etc, they talk about the help people with learning disabilities need and we have presentations from the visitors. I sometimes have to give feedback on how the media team are doing and what is coming up next for them. I do enjoy going to the meetings. This photo shows myself and another Grapevine worker named Dave McCann acting on stage. We did a comedy to show what a good partnership board looks like. This was something we did for the review of the partnership board. The review was to make things better for the partnership board.

blogging at curriers

Me, Denise and Rob went to Curriers Enterprise to talk to a group about how to blog. first of all we told them what blogging was and it can be fun, some of them did managed to leave a massage on the our blog. It was good as some of them had not done blogging before they all had a really good time doing it, and we are going again next week, so i will let you know how we get on, that is all for now. here are some of the curriers group doing some blogging.

from Zoe

Getting a job

Can you please help us? The government want to know what people with learning disabilities think about getting a job. We have have put some questions on our blog and would like you to answer them. If you have more to say about work then leave us a comment here. Thank you. Naomi will be taking your comments to BILD next week, who will send them to the government.

experiment posting a video clip

We thought it was about time we tried to post a short video clip of the media team. This was recorded in December when the team made their own TV show called Grapevine Today. This short clip shows Christine interviewing Alan about his photography book on Coventry.

Being an advocate

Grapevine runs an advocacy group called Citywide, a group for people with learning disabilities. I had been a member of citywide before I started working for Grapevine. Since I started work I sometimes help out. There was a 2 day training event at citywide and I went to do the training. It was great, I really got into that meeting, the meeting was about choice and control. This means that people with learning disabilities have the right to choose where to live or even have their own money. Control is where people with learning disabilities have their own money taken off them by their carers or parents. Or when the carers and parents are concerned that people with learning disabilities can’t live or even run a house and that is where they are wrong.

thanks to the team

I want to thank Zoe, Rob & Lynne for keeping the office running while I have been away. From what I hear they have all done a very good job. I hear that the training days have been fun and that Zoe has kept everyone in order.
I want to thank all the media team for coming each week all through the horrible weather. I thought of you all while I was in the warm resting my poor foot, drinking tea and listening to the radio. I even tried out daytime TV but it wasn't for me. I think I will leave the TV watching to the media team, you are all much better at it than me.
I will not be back at work full time for a few more weeks so Lynne, Zoe & Rob will just have to keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to watching the TV programme you made and hearing all your news.
Denise

Media team

Hey there Lynne here! Sorry I haven’t been blogging for a while but here I am now, here is my update on the media team and it’s going to be a short one this week. I have led 2 meetings by myself and with support, I led 1 that was called introducing the media that was week4 and in week8 I led the

meeting which was called Making a Newspaper and that was my observation and it was quite good.

Catch up

Hi Zoë here.!
I have been running the Media Team and it has been fun. I have really enjoyed it. But Denise has not been there because she is off with a broken foot hopefully she will be back soon. The grapevine Christmas party was really good and it was nice to see everyone. We had a great time. We are on week 13 already it has been good as Rob has been supporting me to do them, we have made a TV lifestyle program with the media team, interviews also Made our own news paper with them. We have quizzes everyone has a good time. It will be good when Denise get’s back as we have all miss her, it has been good experience for me I am very pleased with myself and rob should be really pleased with himself to.
That’s all for now
Zoë