I've started working with a group in Birmingham who are responding to
the city's plan to close all day centres for people with
disabilities/elderly people by (to put it fairly bluntly) taking one
over, reconfiguring the service to meet the needs of the people who use
it as best as possible though with an all-volunteer "staff" and also
using the space for lots of other community activist stuff
(disability-related and other). Our group includes some folks from the
local Disabled People's Direct Action Network as well as from a variety
of activist groups who had been meeting to start an autonomous social
centre--this is a combined effort with more than one purpose in mind,
but the city's plans have given us a particular direction.
We're looking for advice and allies, and wonder if anyone else has ever
created an "alternative" service-user-run day centre before in the UK
that we could talk to. Most of us on this list would agree that day
centres as they exist now tend to be patronising, disempowering,
segregationist and often just plain boring. The Council is using
"community integration" language to justify closing them, but their
alternatives are a) sit at home and watch telly alone or b) use your
munificent disability cheque to patronise the fine businesses in our
community by going shopping/sitting about in Starbucks/going to the
cinema alone (or perhaps with your PA or a family member). Little to no
thought has been given to the barriers of access, transport, income, or
acceptance so alternative a) is sadly the most likely choice. For those
who have attended day centres for many years, the thought of losing
regular contact with people who have become their friends is far more
daunting than the idea of losing access to an ample supply of puzzles
and paints...
The group has a wiki page at
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/birmingham_social_centre and are on MySpace
at http://www.myspace.com/freespacebrum.
Ideas and contacts would be VERY welcome!
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