User Led Organisations Wokingham September 2010

The story so far: In May 2010 Clare Rebbeck started in post as the new User Led Organisations project worker.

The initiative to encourage User Led Organisations comes partly from the development by disabled people of Centres for Independent Living, it is widely recognised that ULO's have a vital role to play in the development of the current living agenda. User involvement has led to a greater empowerment of individuals and groups and increased participation in and contribution to wider society. It has made services more effective, relevant and appropriate for users and has resulted in significant and positive changes to service delivery. ULO's offer several benefits within a local community, local knowledge, expertise and value for money with volunteers and external funding opportunities.

The post is funded by Wokingham Borough Council for 15 months and Clare is employed by Support Horizons, based in Denmark Street.

The project is overseen by The Project Board who meet every 6 weeks. A full members list is available on request. To support groups the Support Worker's role is to map service delivery across Wokingham from a disability perspective, contact local organisations and explain the project and invite the groups to join. This is followed by an offer to support local organisations, free of charge, to develop their structure to enable the future delivery of services and encourage a user involvement approach on decision-making. Many of the organisations, it is recognised, are already achieving certain aspects of this and so the project aims to establish closer links between the commissioning team and support organisations to fill service gaps. The project is optional with each group defining their own aims, objectives and time-scales. Clare has met with 35 groups and over 30 strategic partners to explain the project. The launch event was held on July 15th at the Earley Crescent Centre and 19 groups attended. 22 groups so far have expressed an interest to have free support and build a plan for their organisation.

All groups who join will be able to access free support and will be asked to fill in a baseline assessment framework form, this is used as a measure and can guide organisations on their future pathway.

If you would like to know more about the project then you can contact Clare Rebbeck in the following ways:

By post:

Support Horizons,

3 The Courtyard,

Denmark Street,

Wokingham.

RG40 2AZ

By email:

E-mail: clare.rebbeck@userledorganisations.org.uk

By telephone:

Tel: 07501 228241