Your Call annual report 2012 - Blackburn with Darwen Borough ...

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Adult social care Leah Booth who is part of the Peer Support Scheme COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERING Leah Booth is volunteering to help others through what she believes has been a ‘life changing’ difference to the way she receives care. The 21 year old who has spinal muscular atrophy uses a wheel chair and needs full time care. However, a few years ago she took up the direct payments scheme and she says it changed her life completely. “I was very unsure about it. Up until then my mum had done it all so I was very scared about what would happen. “I had questions like what if the people don’t turn up and how will it all work?” But eventually she came through the other side and says she now ‘feels like a different person’. Through direct payments she was able to choose and hire three personal assistants to take over her care instead of relying on her family. “Before my mum did all the care but you don’t always want to go out with your parents. They also found it hard to fit all around normal family activities. So I stayed in a lot and was a bit of a recluse. Now I can do what normal 21 year olds do – I can go on holidays, spend time with my friends, anything I want.” However, Leah said at time the process seems long winded and can be stressful. So when she was approached to join the Peer Support Scheme to advise other people who are new to direct payments she jumped at the chance. She is now one of four volunteers who all receive direct payments themselves.“I wished there had been someone else who’d been through it all when I started,” she added. The Peer Support Group will be part of the Your Support YourChoice service. The new service will be an active partnership of residents, charities, voluntary organisations carers and community groups who will work together on a range of initiatives that promote independence and preventative measures.
Jason Walker (Deputy Chair of the Friends of Roe Lee Park) front pictured with Tyson the dog joined by (left to right) Tracey Drew, Stuart Hammond (the Council’s Environmental Sustainability Manager), Maurice Ffelan, June Gallagher, Michelle Rutherford (Acting Neighbourhood Manager), Roe Lee Councillor Phil Riley and Siobhan Coyne.
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT
Page 3 and 4: William Cowell, nine, gets ready to
Page 5 and 6: Overview of the campaign L-R Jayne,
Page 7 and 8: Clean and green Members of the Hill
Page 9 and 10: Pulling together through Winter Abd
Page 11 and 12: Whalley Range Jubilee Celebration G
Page 13: Young people and Your Call Youth MP

Your Call annual report 2012 - Blackburn with Darwen Borough ...

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