Posts

The Times They Are A-Changin’…

Ben Clark

A blog for Trustees Week 2022 by Andrew Clark, Chair of Trustees, Buckinghamshire Disability Service, BuDS.

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog by a BuDS member. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.

The times they are a-changing, sang Bob Dylan nearly 60 years ago, and he’s still right.  One verse of his famous song reads:

If your time to you is worth saving, then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times, they are a-changin’

Bob Dylan

As a user-led disability charity, BuDS has been swimming hard for 13 years. But the last three years have perhaps seen more change than ever. When Covid arrived and lockdowns started, BuDS Trustees refused to let the charity ‘sink like a stone’. With charities closing all around us, unanimously we decided to go instead for rapid growth to meet the surging needs of disabled people who were most affected by Covid.

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Volunteer at the COAM Christmas Weekend

Freya Clark

Please note volunteer applications have closed for this event.

Do you want to help support disabled people and get to attend an amazing event? BuDS is looking for event volunteers for the Chiltern Open Air Museum Christmas Weekend, on the 3rd and 4th December 2022.

The event will show how Christmas was celebrated in the past and give you the opportunity to see some of the Museum’s historic buildings traditionally decorated for Christmas. There will be an artisan Christmas market and the Museum’s shop will be full of handmade products.

We are excited to support this event to be more inclusive and accessible for all disabled people by providing an access information and support, and an emergency quiet space.

Volunteers will get free time to enjoy the event and will be able to enjoy the demonstrations, or just have some chill out time!

Strict Covid-safety protocols will be in place to keep everyone safe and every volunteer will be provided with a BuDS polo shirt and PPE face mask.

If you’d like to be part of the volunteer team for this amazing event, please fill in the expression of interest form, and we will be in touch! Disabled people are very welcome to volunteer, and we have a wide range of roles to suit everyone.

We are very welcoming, even if you can only commit to an hour during the weekend.

Three hands of festival-goers wearing BuDS wristbands and stickers

About BuDS

Ben Clark

Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) is a user-led disability charity operating in Buckinghamshire and across England. We are a successful, dynamic and influential charity, focused on supporting disabled people by fixing the biggest issues facing them. We aim to build a world which is Fair4All, including disabled people. 

BuDS works by permanently removing barriers facing disabled people and finding answers to the big issues facing them, alongside helping individuals. Our projects and partnerships deliver unique and lasting change and effective support that helps tens of thousands of disabled people in Bucks and across England.

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Quotes from Ann's Trustee Blog

My Journey As a BuDS Trustee

Janneke

Written by Ann Hedges

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog by a BuDS member. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.

“I have been a BuDS Trustee since 2018, and it is a role I have found very rewarding. Having left work, I found that I am able to continue using skills which I have acquired over many years in my work with BuDS. 

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Covid-19 Risk Assessment: Week Ending 4 November 2022

Ben Clark

The Covid wave in Bucks has dropped slightly, but the risk of meeting an infected person when out and about remains EXTREMELY HIGH. As of 2 November, we estimate 1 in 34 people in the county were infected with Covid-19. In your average busy supermarket, there will now be nine people breathing out Covid for you to catch.

Our advice remains to wear a FFP2 or N95 filter mask in public places (especially hospitals and GP surgeries), breathe clean air, avoid crowds and busy places, work from home if you can, and protect your older and vulnerable relatives and friends. These simple precautions will help save you and your family from serious illness or long-term disability.

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A BuDS Access & Inclusion survey taking place at Chiltern Open Air Museum, Bucks. A group of disabled people are seen leaving the "Tin Church"

How Accessible and Inclusive is Chiltern Open Air Museum?

Ben Clark

On Sunday 25 September, a BuDDy tour of 10 disabled people made an escorted visit to the Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM) to assess its disabled accessibility1 and inclusion.2 They also looked at Covid safety, particularly for disabled, older and clinically-vulnerable (CV) people.

The BuDDy tour captured the experiences and views of a wide and mixed group of disabled and CV people on a typical tourist visit to the site, and flagged up areas for future action. Although the BuDDy tour was escorted by COAM staff, it was completely independent of the Museum.

The Tour followed a preliminary escorted reconnaissance visit on 15 September.

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BuDDy Tour of Chiltern Open Air Museum Assesses Disabled Accessibility

Ben Clark

Ten disabled volunteers from disability charity Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) have spent a day at the Chiltern Open Air Museum near Chalfont St Giles, helping to improve accessibility for disabled people.

The trip, called a BuDDy Tour, is one of several taking place to Buckinghamshire tourist destinations and visitor attractions as part of the charity’s new Fair4All Visitor project. This project, backed by Buckinghamshire Business First and Visit Buckinghamshire, aims to help Buckinghamshire businesses become more successful by improving and publicising their disabled accessibility and inclusion. Learn more about the Tour here.

The BuDDy Tour is part of Visit Buckinghamshire: Boost programme of support being delivered in partnership by Visit Buckinghamshire, Buckinghamshire Business First and Buckinghamshire Council, and funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.

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An autistic school child in uniform looks at their teacher

About The BuDS SEND Transitions Service

Ben Clark

The BuDS SEND Transitions Service is a three-year project funded by The Rothschild Foundation. The purpose of the SEND Transitions Service is to improve the experience of disabled children and young people moving through key transitions within school education and from school education into work or further/higher education. It will do this by: 

  • Investigating and reporting on services supporting disabled children and young people.
  • Assessing to what extent the needs of disabled children and young people are met by existing services.  
  • Proposing new and improved services to eliminate gaps and address deficiencies, including new BuDS and Reach4Work services.

The SEND Transitions Service is made up of workstreams from a number of BuDS projects, principally Fair4All Education and Reach4Work.

To learn more about the Reach4Work workstream, which is looking at disabled young people’s transition from education to employment, click here.