We were contacted by Steven Cockburn who is an Collective Advocacy Worker (Neurological Conditions) for CAPS Independent Advocacy. He outlined that they are looking for people with lived experience to take part in Neurological Conditions Collective Advocacy. Below are the details Steve provided. If you are interested, please contact him directly.
About the project
This is a Collective Advocacy project that will help people to express their views, wishes and lived experience. The project will help to improve social care services for people with neurological conditions and increase understanding and information about living with these conditions.
Being involved will also help people to increase their awareness and understanding of their rights and options. People who participate in Collective Advocacy at CAPS value the sense of community and purpose it creates and how it helps to reduce isolation. By getting involved, people will meet with others who have neurological conditions in East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian or City of Edinburgh, in-person or online, whichever suits them best.
What is Collective Advocacy?
Collective Advocacy is where groups of people with shared identities, experiences and challenges come together to have a stronger voice and bring about change. Participants share ideas on how to tackle common difficulties and take collective action. Collective Advocacy helps to address power imbalances and challenge stigma and discrimination. Collective Advocacy groups decide together what they wish to work on. In the past, groups have worked to: plan, and design workshops; deliver workshops to professionals, students and members of the public; attend planning and strategy meetings to add your voice in decision making platforms; create resources to raise awareness.
In this project, people that have neurological conditions will come together to bring about positive change. We will work collectively to ensure that decision makers on social care hear the voices of the people who access these services, and that they can take lived experience views into account when designing and implementing them. People are free to choose their own level of involvement and our Collective Advocacy workers, Angharad and Steve, will work with people to find the best location and time to suit the group.
- “I’ve gained more confidence, done things I thought I’d never be able to do”.
- “Meeting with government ministers and decision makers that are influential to power allows us to have our experiences, ideas and concerns shared directly from a lived experience perspective”.
What do we mean by neurological condition?
We know neurological conditions are varied and have many different presentations. To be involved in this project you should have a neurological condition; this includes all conditions affecting the central and peripheral nervous system for example multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, MND etc.
If interested, email: neuro@capsadvocacy.org or text or call Steve on 07929 751 911
