Author: The Duchess

I have a disabilities and I’m doing a Discovery Award

An article that I wrote

Greener shopping choices

I try to shop as green as I can,

Take your own shopping bags I include little cloth bags for loose fruit. I know at the moment that might not be as appealing. You do what you can and feel comfortable with.

When buying fruit and vegetables, shop local and shop seasonally Our own vegetables and fruit are a lot fresher and taster, try a blind taste test, is something fun to do while on lockdown. I’m also vegetarian, which is much cheaper than buying meat. If you cut back your meat consumption it’s always a start. You can replace meat with lentils or soya, you will find that you use herbs and seasoning a lot more. I don’t miss meat I have had about 3 bacon rolls in the last year and a half. It’s important to do what you feel comfortable with.

Do what you feel ok with.

Clothes are my thing, buy from charity shops or eBay so giving new life to clothes gives be me a buzz. Saving money and finding a bargain gives me a huge kick!

I also treat myself to shoes and where I can I recycle shoes or mend them.

It’s also important not to feel deprived with any life change.

Which will be published in Time a magazine for sustainablity

Carbon college

We did our introductions.

Then we had a discussion about

  • What are we sure about
  • We where certain that it’s happening
  • We are certain something needs to be done
  • That being part of a collective is a good thing
  • It’s depressing
  • We are certain that the government is not doing enough
  • It will be poorer countries that will suffer more
  • Wether individual actions make a difference
  • Or wether one action can make a difference
  • For example turning of one light is going to save the planet
  • one thing you’re not sure about
  • how long we’ve got

Thursday morning

Was bush craft we had an enjoyable morning making fire, toasting marshmallows popping corn, and drinking hot chocolate.

Below is me making fire

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0nZ4lxnZpCAmxRafOh4RyISXA#Lake_District_National_Park,_Dodd_Wood_&_Bassenthwaite_Lake

And some popcorn.

Thursday afternoon

Was zip wire fun

Had here is Diana gracefully decent

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0xutXzzCs1HGYjeVn0pqfaxPg#Lake_District_National_Park,_Dodd_Wood_&_Bassenthwaite_Lake

And my screaming decent

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0hRGiziHJYF5Vzjtqbcedx8VQ#Lake_District_National_Park,_Dodd_Wood_&_Bassenthwaite_Lake

Arrival at the Calvert Trust

We got shown to our rooms after our three and a half hour car journey from Edinburgh which was uneventful. But we did stop of in Moffat for our lunch.

Our rooms were basic but all we needed.

After tea we met with Rob and then we went for a walk.

A view from the mini bus!

The next day it was a two mile walk in glorious sunshine..

It was really wonderful to access the countryside, on such a nice day.

Our afternoon session was horse riding something that I thought I’d never attempt again!here is a video of me mounting.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0tmq1ayW4-BtYq4hBcNdHTHnA#Lake_District_National_Park

Me and fudge doing our thing

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0rR40Cycmeq-28h5JjQEJH66g#Lake_District_National_Park

After tea I took the opportunity to go for a dip in the pool.

Here’s the reply from councillor Steve Burgess Hi Caroline, Here’s an explanation about LDPE materials. Regards Steve —————– Steve Burgess Green Cllr Southside-Newington Ward Dear Councillor Burgess. I refer to the email trail below, and can advise that the waste management industry is typically reluctant to accept plastic bags as part of kerbside and household recycling due to the issues of the plastic causing equipment failures (it wraps round the sorting equipment) and causes contamination of other streams. Similarly the plastics industry prefers to collect it through the collection network operated by the major retailers which is cheaper and offers them better quality. Most large supermarkets operate banks for LDPE bags, wrappers, etc. These are now often labelled as “check locally” or “not at kerbside” using the industry wide On Pack Labelling Scheme, as in the example below. We have no plans to add this material to our own recycling services at present. I hope this helps. Yours sincerely Angus

Third lot of questions

This is an anonymous survey.

The purpose is to see how it’s going with neatebox welcome.

I’m independent from neatebox and doing this for voluntary as I am doing this as part of my discovery award silver. (Duke of Edinburgh’s award for old people)

I would also like to take this opportunity to thankyou very much

For your time

How many times is neatebox used in the week(approximately)?

Have you had people book on neatebox and then don’t turn up yes no?

How many?

How do you feel Neatebox has helped you deliver better customer service?

Examples please?

What impact has Welcome had on a day-to-day basis in your role?

How do you feel Welcome could improve to help you in your role, or to help your organisation? Is there anything that you’d improve on?

Would you recommend neatebox to people employed in similar roles? Yes no

or to similar organisations? Yes no

Have you told any customers about Neatebox, if they’re not already using it? How did they react?

Do you have any thing else you’d like to add

And Thankyou for your time.

Second lot of questions

This is an anonymous survey.

The purpose is to see how it’s going with neatebox welcome.

I’m independent from neatebox and doing this for voluntary as I am doing this as part of my discovery award silver. (Duke of Edinburgh’s award for old people)

I would also like to take this opportunity to thankyou very much for your time.

Have you used neatebox box?

How many times?(approximately)

I’m sure you gave top class service before Neatebox how has neatebox improved your ability to deliver even better (or enhanced) customer service?

What does that make you feel?

Is there anything that you’d improve on?

If you where to move jobs and where in a similar position would you recommend neatebox?

Volunteer

The first lot of questions

This is not a judgment on you it will be done anonymously your honesty can help us improve the app

How do you think you are round people with disabilities one word answers before and after Neatebox?

What do you think you’re customers would say about you

• Do you feel comfortable around people with a visual ?

◎ Yes very. impairment

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

Comments

• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who are deaf

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

•

• Do you know bsl

Yes No

What about deaf blind

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who are deaf and have a speech impediment

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

•

Do you feel comfortable around people with limited Mobility

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who use a wheelchair

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who use a communication device be it a bliss board or an electronic device

◎ Yes very.

◎ yes but a bit nervous

◎ no experience

◎ Neatebox helps

◎ Neatebox doesn’t help

Have you ever felt like you have said the wrong thing to a person with a disabilities, it’s ok I do it all the time.

All the time. Sometimes never

Do you find neatebox useful

Yes very

Yes

No

Not at all

Do you know about Neatebox ?

◎ Yes

◎ No

◎ Unsure

What has been your experience of Neatebox

Does having the extra information from the welcome app make it easier for you to approach People of disabilities

Is there any improvements that you would make to neatebox

Hi Caroline

I think that this set of questions is certainly softer than the last ones and you have obviously given it a lot of thought. I cant tell you how many times I have written and rewritten this sort of thing before I was happy with it.

Looking at it again I wonder if they need to be even more friendly and not quite so long since you are going to be asking them and not actually giving out a questionnaire.

So Question 1 might be

Do you know anyone with a disability? This might start off a conversation without making anyone feel uncomfortable and then

Were you worried about talking to someone experiencing a problem you knew nothing about?

Question 2

Has this changed since you started using Neatebox?

This would lead on to

Question 3

Has this made a difference to how you feel about meeting someone with a disability.

Which in turn

Question 4

Has having the App helped you to learn more about the different issues that people using it might have?

Question 5

Hav you enjoyed the experience of using the App and helping those using it have an accessible experience?

This would help you work out what disabilities people know about, if they found the App useful to look up if they needed to. ETc. And how they feel now.

Having though round it I think you would get a better response from something like this and create an atmosphere where people would talk to you freely since they wouldn’t feel embarrassed in any way. I dont know what the others think. I would then take both sets of questions to Gavin and talk them both through with him and get his opinion.

Hope that is all helpful. Good luck with it all

Are you getting more people with disabilities through the door?

Enough to make it worthwhile

Customers who use neatebox survey

Do you use neatebox?

Have you ever experienced poor customer service

Why have you not used neatebox

If you have what difference has it made

What I did yesterday

me and some of south east edinburgh greens

On the stall at edinburgh city council first climate change festival

This could be a climate catastrophe so what do edinburgh city council do they turn it into a festival!

Or I could just try and eat Cameron Rose a well known climate change denier

Recycling centre

My recycling centre me recycling paper

where I do my recycling me recycling plastics with 1 with in the recycling symbol s

And envelopes with the address obliterated

And cardboard

Which is all recycled in our green bins by EDINBURGH city council

And here’s the reply

We have committed to eliminating all single-use-plastic from Co-op branded packaging by 2023, and making the rest of our packaging ‘easy to recycle’. Read more ➡️ coop.uk/futureoffood ^Yasmin

Which I thought was fair

Survey

I’ve made up some questions

And I have put the questions out for consultation and I have revised them.

These are Ann’s initial thoughts and my original questions

Good morning Caroline
These are my initial thoughts.
If you want results from which you can draw conclusions  you will need a few numbers so QUESTION 1 could be 
Have you come into contact with people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf etc.  Please tick as appropriate
You then have a percentage of the people taking the survey as to how many people might have experience of disability.
Then when you go on to your questions the “ are you comfortable with” gives you some idea of the base you are working with.   EG 1% of respondents knew someone who was deaf and 1% were comfortable with this disability so you can draw a conclusion.  Or 1% knew someone with a disability but no one was comfortable with this particular disability.
Simplicity is the key to a good questionnaire
In this case you need to ask a simple question 
Do you feel comfortable around people who are ….then the disability
Mostly if people are not comfortable they will not be confident so both words are not necessary.  If you give people two words they swither over that before they get to the question.
The questions with choices are great.  However I think the wording Explanations is confusing explanations of what?   The fact that they dont know or have no contact.   It doesn’t add anything and you cant explain what you dont know.
With the deaf question It might be easier to ask if the answer to feeling comfortable around people who are deaf is yes a second question could be “. Have you had any experience of British Sign Language”.?   I think the speech impediment question could be one on its own in order to get a proper result.
Although you are meeting all these people it is possible that they will just want you to leave the questionnaire so it is important to get it right on paper as well.
I hope these comments are helpful.   I had to draw up a paper on attitudes to mental health when I was giving talks in schools which I then gave as a report to a conference in Glasgow so I know it is a minefield and you do need to get the right questions so you can draw conclusions.   It took me many drafts and discussions with people to get it right.   Good luck and if you need anything else I will always help if I can.
Ann
On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 10:49, Caroline barr <cwbuk67@gmail.com> wrote:
No rush take easy
On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 10:46, Elizabeth Donnelly <eanndonnelly@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Caroline 
I will take a look and get back to you tomorrow having a rest day today.  Any luck with your phone?
Ann
On Fri, 10 May 2019 at 10:43, Caroline barr <cwbuk67@gmail.com> wrote:
• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who are blind 
Yes very.  yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
If you want 
• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people with a visual impairment?
◎ Yes very.  ◎ yes but a bit nervous ◎ I don’t know.         
◎  No.        
◎   I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who are deaf
• Do you know bsl
Yes very.  yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
What about deaf blind
• Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who are deaf and have a speech impediment
Yes very.  yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
Do you feel comfortable and confident around people with limited Mobility 
Yes very.  yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who use a wheelchair 
Yes very.  yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
Do you feel comfortable and confident around people who use a communication device be it a bliss board or an electronic device 
 Yes very. yes but a bit nervous I don’t know.          No.          I avoid            Contact
 
If the last three an explanation please 
Have you ever felt like you have said the wrong thing to a person with a disabilities, it’s ok I do it all the time.
All the time.        Sometimes            never
Do you know about Neatebox ?
◎ Yes 
◎ No
◎ Unsure 
What has been your experience of Neatebox 
Does having the extra information from the welcome app make it easier for you to approach   People of disabilities 
Is there any improvements that you would make

— 

Sent from Gmail Mobile

— 

Ann Donnelly

What Colin wrote about me

Yes I was recently invited to attend a celebration meal for one of our members (Caroline Barr) on the completion of her bronze level. Others invited were the assessors (some of whom were unable to attend 😞) for the activities she chose and some close friends. I presented her with her badge, certificate and Silver record book and wished her every success for the next step. A photo album of her Journey of Discovery was passed round and I was extremely impressed with her time aboard the Tenacious – a tall ship giving opportunities to disabled people and their carers. It was plain to see that she thoroughly enjoyed her trip and I was more than happy to see what the Discovery Award has meant for her. Well done Caroline!

In closing, I wish you all fun in your activities and hope that we can achieve what we set out to do.

Best wishes

Colin

Discovery Award

This is me!

img_2926

Bronze

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nicky, Sharon and Helen who also helped with my exercises. Huld my personal trainer for all his positive encouragement. Barnardo’s staff Derek and Liam who are fabulous. Alison who helped me with my blogging. All my friends who have been with me every step of the way.

A very big thankyou

Hobby

My hobby has been my blog. Which at the time was a bit of a pain. Looking back it has been a very good way of recording everything that I have done. I can definitely see progression which I m not sure would have been obvious if I hadn’t done the blog.

I have had a great year achieving all these different things. I have really enjoyed myself.

Bring on the silver!

Barnardo’s

I’ve done a total of 6.5 hrs. Got Derek to write up my book. It was a quiet day today. Taking the next couple of weeks off for holidays. And then I’ll be back.

I have enjoyed my time in Barnardo’s getting to know the regulars, the till, a bit about pricing and restocking the shelves. On the whole it’s been great. I did really enjoy working with Catlin our work experience person. I was sad to learn that she was not going to come back.  I think I’ll continue with Barnardo’s though.