The Rix Centre

The Rix Centre made a big impression this week at a Digital Inclusion conference organised by the UK’s leading Teaching and Learning research programme, Teaching Enhanced Learning (TEL). TEL is led by Prof. Jane Seale of the University of Plymouth and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Rix Centre Director Andy Minnion and Multimedia ‘Champion’ Juber Ahmed were invited to speak at the event to help examine how digital inclusion research is put into practice. The opening address posed the question ‘is digital inclusion a dream or reality?’ Our Rix representatives took this opportunity to showcase the work of the Rix Centre’s ‘Six Lives’ and ‘Personal Budgets’ projects and the Multimedia Advocacy approach that was used. Through examples of inclusive media practice they illustrated that digital inclusion certainly can become reality.

Rix 'Champion' Juber Ahmed at the TEL Conference

Andy described how the work of Juber and other Champions on these projects enabled a progressive model of inclusive public consultation that was structured and made possible through the use of new media. Alongside this Juber shared what he learned through the work – a combination of video production and interview skills and assistive communication approaches such as using Talking Mats and symbols to ensure people of all abilities can contribute.

Speaking on his experience at the conference Juber said “The delegates really liked our workshop; they said it was brilliant and requested more information and access to the website I produced.” Andy was similiary impressed with the response, “By the time we finished our talk people were already tweeting about our work!”

The event took place at Sheffield Hallam University on the 17^th January.  Click here to see Juber & the Champions video work for the Six Lives project, or here to view the website that Juber produced for the  ‘Personal Budgets’ project and presented to delegates at the conference.

In September 2011 the Rix Centre was excited to be in Lisbon, Portugal, sharing specialist knowledge and ‘hands on’ experience of prototype software with our partners the W2ID project. The project, funded through the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme, is being led by the Rix Centre and UEL and is being delivered in partnership with five organisations in Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Finland and Latvia. W2ID explores the range of new media tools available across Europe for people with intellectual disabilities to use to advance their citizenship and employment opportunities.

Young people with intellectual disabilities get involved making a Wiki in Lisbon

W2ID combines Click Start tools with a new set of training resources in a programme called ‘Klik In’ that will pilot across five European states in 2012. This project provides 80 UK learners and their teachers with free Multimedia Advocacy training. The project enables people with learning disabilities and their supporters in the UK to extend their skills and knowledge working with partners across Europe and will culminate in a web-based learning package that brings together people with disabilities from across the continent to benefit from Web technologies and training. Want to find out more? Visit the project website or download the project flyer.

The Rix Centre’s very own technical assistant Ajay Choksi, is officially the first student of Ellingham Employment Services to achieve an NVQ level 2 in Customer Service.

Ajay recieves his certificate from Cllr Geoff Walker and Chris Bailey of Ellingham Employment Services

In special recognition of this achievement Ajay was invited to the Council Chambers of Waltham Forest Town Hall where the Major of Waltham Forest, Cllr Geoff Walker presented Ajay with his NVQ certificate.The event held on 16^th November 2011 was organised to celebrate this landmark accomplishment for both Ajay and the Ellingham Employment Service team, who were all in attendance.

By completing his NVQ level 2 in customer service Ajay has gained many skills which are already being put to good use at the Rix Centre.  “I am very proud of myself for completing the course”, Ajay said.

Get it while it’s hot!  The latest issue of The Rix Centre newsletter is a special edition which looks back at five years of exciting and groundbreaking work with the Rix Centre’s ‘Living Lab’.  You can download a PDF of the newsletter HERE.

In August 2011 this new Rix Centre website replaced the old website.  We are still in the process of migrating our news articles to the new website, so stories and articles about the Rix Centre’s activity over recent months will be available in this section very soon. In the meantime we hope you enjoy exploring the new site.

In January 2011 Gosia Kwiatkowska, Rix Centre Manager and Principal Researcher, was interviewed by online social care magazine communitycare.co.uk for a special feature spotlighting the Multimedia Advocacy (MMA) approach developed by The Rix Centre. The story highlighted the benefits of The Rix Centre’s Multimedia Advocacy courses and talked about how they can empower learning disabled people to take ownership of their care and support.

Multimedia Advocacy featured in online magazine communitycare.co.uk

The article discusses how MMA uses widely available technologies and software to enable learning disabled users to create individual portfolios. This is done using photos and video about themselves, which explains their needs, their likes and dislikes and even personality.

To date the Rix Centre has successfully trained 1500 professionals and service users. One of the success stories featured is Kath Field, a support worker from East Living in Chelmsford, Essex who took the 12 week training course with her resident Valerie and said, “I learned so much about Valerie and from that she has learnt to trust me… by putting aside one day a week that was just her and I”.  Click HERE to read the original article.

The Rix Centre is pleased to report that Click Start has stimulated the creation of four new job roles in West London for young people with learning disabilities. A team of young people, aged between 18 and 25, are now employed as website builders for Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability (HAFAD). Their role is to produce accessible transition information for Hammersmith & Fulham using the Rix Centre designed Click Start website package.

The HAFAD Team are raring to go!

HAFAD adopted the Click Start package earlier this year and began fund raising for an inclusive editorial team. In June they successfully secured funding to employ the three young web builders for a one year period, as well as one Team Coordinator to support them.

In the London Borough of Redbridge another diverse group, all graduates of the Centre’s Multimedia Advocacy course, have established themselves as the borough’s Click Start website builders. The ‘Woodbine Wiki Team’ based at Woodbine day service incorporate Click Start editorial duties into their weekly activities. The work has become a vehicle for their continuing self advocacy and skill development. They relish working together as a team and have acquired a real sense of shared responsibility and achievement as work colleagues.

Activities like these show how Click Start is starting to impact the learning disability community. Making information more accessible is only part of the story.

The Click Start project was originally funded by the LSC and delivered in partnership with Ellingham Employment Services. To find out more about Click Start please visit the Click Start website.

Maureen Piggot

The Rix Centre is delighted to welcome Maureen Piggot to it’s Board of Trustees. Maureen has been Director of Mencap’s activities in Northern Ireland since 1990. She has campaigned and successfully lobbied the government to introduce new legislation to protect the rights of people with learning disabilities. Maureen has experience of the public, voluntary and business sectors in South Africa, England, the United States and Northern Ireland. Maureen brings to The Rix Centre a lifetime of experience dedicated to improving the lives of people with learning disabilities.

Lord Rix, President of Mencap, joined with academics, professionals and people with learning disabilities to celebrate joint work carried out by The Rix Centre and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to improve the quality of primary healthcare for people with a learning disability in the borough.

Lord Rix spoke at the 'Getting it Right' event in June

The event was a public showcase of three project’s instigated by Tower Hamlets in response to the Government Ombudsman’s ‘Six Lives’ report, which had highlighted how the healthcare system is failing people with learning disabilities. Speakers, including senior staff from NHS Tower Hamlets and the Learning Disability Partnership Board, as well as Professor Angela Harden from UEL, praised the Centre’s innovative application of new media. This work has helped the borough grapple with the issues faced by people with a learning disability in accessing primary healthcare.

Juber Ahmed, a member of the ‘Six Lives’ inclusive video production team, was on hand to describe his experiences of using Multimedia Advocacy to help local people have their say about healthcare. Debra Eary demonstrated first hand the importance to her of the Centre’s multimedia approaches, which she uses to articulate her healthcare needs.

Closing the presentation Lord Rix stated ‘we have had a glimpse today of a Local Authority and a Primary Care Trust ‘Getting it Right! It is a measured, professional and imaginative response to a very real challenge.’ The event was held on 24th June 2010 as part of Mencap’s ‘Getting it Right’ Learning Disability Week campaign.

A diverse audience of professionals from the public, voluntary and private sectors enjoyed a stimulating Rix Centre conference day in April that considered the place of multimedia technologies in the fields of health, social care and education of people with intellectual disabilities. The event took place at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) and was hosted by the RSM’s Intellectual Disability Forum.

Patricia Charlesworth, Sarah Parsons, David Ellis and Andy Minnion engage with delegates during the panel discussion at the RSM.

Conference speakers addressed the practical challenge of how to integrate new media use into everyday practices. The message that surfaced was clear: simple technology can change lives for the intellectually disabled provided we challenge attitudes and train practitioners to support new methods of working.

Lord Rix opened the day which included contributions from Dr. Karen Bunning, leader of the Allied Health Professions Graduate Training programme at UEA, Kieron Sheehy, Senior Lecturer at the Open University’s Centre for Childhood and Pete Russell from the Community Lives Consortium in Swansea.

Pete Russell described how in his organisation staff use video to document their service users’ daily activities. “It’s a simple but very effective use of multimedia that improves the level of care people receive.”

Dr. Karen Bunning stressed that the training of educators, carers and support workers is vital if these technologies are to be used effectively within social care and education. “New media cannot function in a vacuum” said Karen “the role taken by significant others appears to be critical to the success of new media in the advocacy process.”

The day ended with a lively discussion between panel and audience.