New Development Workers

Lucy Mason and Dzifa Afonu

We are new members of staff at the Alliance. We have been appointed as development workers. Currently we are in the early stages of a new and exciting project. The project aims to develop two youth led self sustaining inclusive youth forums - one will be in Lambeth and the other in Newham. Our hope is for this project to increase the engagement of young disabled people in their local areas, to promote inclusion and the social model of disability in the wider community.

In order for these forums to be successful we believe the young people need to be as well resourced as possible. Ensuring the success of the project will also involve developing the capacity of other disabled peoples' organisations, schools, and youth services including supporting them to better include the views and opinions of the young disabled people they work with. In addition we are looking at using a variety of methods to outreach to a diverse group of young people that will be well informed, trained and empowered to actively participate in promoting and campaigning on issues of inclusion in their local communities.

We also feel it is very important to help parents to be good allies to their young disabled people and to offer parents some support. We have both had a lot of experience at consulting with young people and have come to feel that the best way to do this is to make the consultation process dynamic, fun and inclusive. We are building strong links with Brixton Shed - a Lambeth based inclusive theatre group and HEYA - a training network, in order to use games, drama, music, poetry and film as part of our consultation process. It will be our job to ensure that the views of young people as expressed through these diverse mediums will be heard by the key stake holders.

We are feeling positive and enthusiastic about the project and we are looking forward to working with as many young people as we can. Please contact us if you are a young person or parent who would like to be involved:

Lucy Mason - lucy.mason@allfie.org.uk

and Dzifa Afonu - dzifa.afonu@allfie.org.uk

"We are going to set up groups for young people in Lambeth and Newham to have their say"

"We are going to make links with other groups"

"We will have fun"

"We will use games, drama, music, poetry and film"

"Get in touch if you want to join in"