Mobile IT Opens Doors

HENSHAWS Society for Blind People is the first charity in the country to develop an IT service with a difference; they transport new mobile technology out to visually impaired people across a range of venues in Merseyside and Manchester.

Since the inception of the IT and Mobile IT course, Henshaws has helped over 700 visually impaired people living with sight loss to get to grips with IT.  As well as providing the latest access technology in all their venues, Henshaws offers mobile internet training across the North West, including the Wirral and Sefton areas. 

Users benefit from learning a range of skills, from the basics of IT, access technology and word processing skills as well as completing an Entry Level and Level 1 "Accessing IT" course accredited by the Open College Network - which over 100 visually impaired adults have completed since April 2010.

Through accessing IT training, visually impaired people not only acquire IT skills but also meet other people and benefit from the social aspect of being part of a group.  As a result of the course the users can feel less isolated, more confident in their abilities and gain new skills and knowledge.  Some service users use the skills they acquire to help them stay in touch with their friends and families more and some use them to seek employment.

Barbara Hulme from Southport has been visually impaired for nearly all of her adult life and has managed to keep up with most things, but using a computer has been the most challenging and life changing step she’s taken.  Before signing up to Henshaws’ IT training she tried listening to recorded tuition tapes, but found this to be a lonely learning process, riddled with frustration and mistakes.  Listening to sighted people talking of the wonders of the internet made Barbara feel marginalized and out of touch with her surroundings, as well as envious of their unlimited access to knowledge.  Barbara stated that:- "It is like having the lamp in Aladdin's Cave and not being able to get that genie to jump out and ask me what I wished for.  Henshaws did it for me.  The wonderful and patient teachers showed me where I had been going wrong with basic word processing.  I am a person who yearns for as much independence as possible and my life has changed in so many ways as a result of this course.  Don't get me wrong; it has taken endless practice, lots of damn and blasts! But, with my determination and the teacher's encouragement those doors have opened.  They showed me the lamp in Aladdin's Cave, and how to get that genie to appear."

Another happy student, Robert Morrison, who has successfully completed the course at the age of 86 said of it:- "My whole life I have done manual work so when I started this course I was a bag of nerves.  I honestly thought I was never going to be able to understand computers but somehow I managed to control my emotion and carry on with the lessons.  Now whenever I learn something new I feel I have achieved something.  I can’t thank Henshaws enough for what they have done for me."

If you think you could benefit from Henshaws’ IT and Mobile IT courses or know anyone that could use the skills taught on the courses then please contact Neil Kynaston on:- 0151 708 7055 for more information and to find out which other areas the courses are available.

3 year theatre project with the homeless community made possible through significant lottery grant

COLLECTIVE Encounters are pleased to announce the creative work they have been undertaking with the homeless community on Merseyside can now be sustained and developed due to large grant from the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities programme.  For the last three years the company has been working in partnership with Liverpool’s Whitechapel Centre, Liverpool City Council and other homeless support organisations to use theatre as a way of boosting the confidence, developing skills, widening the horizons of people who have been touched by homelessness through workshops and performances.  Some of the highlights of the work to date include a residency in London with the National Theatre and the new opera Songs for Silenced Voices being performed in empty shops in Liverpool and Blackburn last Christmas. 

Emma Foley has been involved with the company since 2008.  Emma found herself homeless, and with a young daughter to look after, after she fled a bad relationship in 1999.  Emma says of her experiences with Collective Encounters:- "I ended up in a hostel called Mildmay in Liverpool.  Whilst I was there friends and staff suggested I visit the Whitechapel, which I did.  Then 2 years ago I met Collective Encounters.  Meeting Collective Encounters has turned my life round, it’s made me realise that I've got a voice and people will listen to me.  I also have a learning disability and Collective Encounters helped me get rid of that label."

This lottery award means in January 2012 the company will launch, Transitions.  Over three years Transitions will empower homeless people to engage more effectively with statutory and service provision and support them to make a smooth transition from street to hostel and hostel to home.  Sarah Thornton, Artistic Director with Collective Encounters says:- "This is a really exciting opportunity for us to work creatively with service providers and policy makers to make sure that homeless and ex-homeless people shape the services they receive, and find it easier to adjust to life off the streets.  We’re delighted that the grant from Big Lottery will enable us to continue making work that challenges peoples’ preconceptions about homelessness, and allows some of the most vulnerable people in our society to have their voices heard."

Collective Encounters became an RFO in 2008 and is part of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.

Euro MP calls for tax breaks for eBooks

THE Vice Chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Euro MP Arlene McCarthy is supporting calls for VAT relief on digitally delivered cultural goods such as eBooks. 

The proposal is part of a report on the Future of VAT being voted on by the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, 13 October 2011. 

Arlene said:- "The EU’s VAT system was set up more than 40 years ago and no longer reflects the needs of a service-driven, technology-based, modern economy.  We already have a reduction for ordinary books and newspapers so we must do the same for e-books and newspapers.  This is a sensible and fair proposal which would help save hard hit students and consumers’ pounds in their pocket."