KIDS - The disabled childrens charity Inclusion into Practice

Inclusion into Practice

What is Inclusion into Practice?

Young person at a festival Inclusion into Practice aims to empower young disabled people through meaningful participation in the services they access. We work with professionals to support a ‘bottom-up’ approach to their services and with young people to provide them with the skills to equip them in having a positive transition into adulthood.

How can you get in touch with us?

You can email iip@kids.org.uk or call us on: 0117 947 6111

Who does Inclusion into Practice work with?

Young people between the ages of 13 and 25 years who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in areas which will enable them to become independent, via volunteering, training or support with relationships and sexuality.

We also work alongside organisations committed to increasing the involvement of young disabled people in the design, development, review and evaluation of their services.

Free Time Consortium

KIDS is happy to announce their involvement in a new partnership - The Free Time Consortium. Led by Play England, The Consortium is a growing collective of local and specialist organisations working together to increase freedom to play through the Love Outdoor Play campaign. Consortium members are Birmingham PlayCare Network, Children's Links, Hackney Play Association, Hillingdon Play Association, KIDS, Lambeth Play Association, London Play, Manchester Young Lives, Milton Keynes Play Association,Participation Works, Play England, Play Torbay, Playwork Partnerships, Plymouth Play Association, Shiremoor Adventure Playground Trust (North Tyneside Council), SkillsActive and Wansdyke Play Association.

As part of this partnership KIDS are now able to offer two new volunteering schemes in the Greater Manchester area. Both schemes centre around volunteering with children and young people in leisure settings.

Peer to Peer

The first scheme is ‘Peer to Peer’, for young people aged 14-25. We are looking for both disabled and non disabled young people who are experienced or non experienced volunteers. The aim is for young people to be paired up and support each other in volunteering placements. Volunteers on the Peer to Peer scheme will be offered volunteering opportunities, free training, paid travel expenses and work towards a Peer Mentoring award.

Work Tasters

The second scheme is ‘Work Tasters’, a volunteering scheme providing a taste of work for young disabled people aged 14-25. Volunteers on this scheme will; receive free training, paid travel expenses, be offered a Work Taster for around two days a week for four weeks and gain experience of what it is like to work in and for an organisation in leisure services.

To become involved or for further information please contact Tracy Ryan on 07584 702026 or e-mail Tracy on tracy.ryan@kids.org.uk. Or click Volunteer with KIDS to see a full list of current opportunities.

Relationships and Sexuality

Relationships and Sexuality is a three-year project, funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation in 2010, to support young disabled people and their families around issues of relationships and sexuality.

As part of the project, KIDS delivers:

Groups for young disabled people – KIDS runs issue-based groups for young disabled people aged 13 to 25. We currently have groups in the South West, in South Gloucestershire, Bristol and Bath, and in the North West, in North Stockport.
Parent forum – KIDS runs a parent forum for parents of young disabled people in the South West who come together to discuss issues around relationships and sexuality.
Professionals' training – KIDS delivers training to managers and practitioners working with young disabled people aged 8 to 25 who have an interest in working around relationships and sexuality in an empowering way.
Residential trips - The 4 national groups meet annually for a residential trip of outdoor pursuits.
Young person-led relationships and sexuality resources – A group of young disabled people in the South West have been granted some funding from the Boshier-Hinton Foundation and other sources to develop their own resources around relationships and sexuality for other young disabled people.

We are happy to announce that our Relationships and Sexuality groups have been nominated for the Pamela Sheridan young people's sexual health service/project of the year award at the Brook/FPA Sexual Health Awards 2013.

R&S Award

Film about Relationships and Sexuality:

A group of young people from South Gloucestershire recently developed a film about Relationships and Sexuality FOR and BY young disabled people. The film features topics such as; relationships, contraception, personal space, a glossary and a section for parents. The film can be found on YouTube in three parts:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ASCysU1wto&feature=plcp

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAzCXUz9sWw&feature=plcp

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfNd7BUENHo&feature=plcp

To find out more about the project or if you are interested in attending one of our groups or training sessions, please contact Louisa Jennings on 0117 947 6111 or email louisa.jennings@kids.org.uk

• Transitions magazine

Transitions magazine is a termly magazine written with young disabled people for young disabled people. The magazine emerged out of KIDS' Young People's Inclusion Network (YP-in).

Every issue covers three main themes: Relationships and Sexuality; Identity; and Independence. Click the links below to view the magazine in PDF format.

Click here to view the Spring 2011 edition.

Click here to view the Spring 2011 edition.

Click here to view the August 2010 edition.

Click here to view the December 2009 edition.

Click here to view the May 2009 edition.

Producation of the magazine currently on hold, for more information please email transitions2@kids.org.uk or call Louisa Jennings on 0117 947 6111.

• Young Inspectors

Hosted by NCB, the Look Listen Change partnership included the British Youth Council (BYC), KIDS, NCB Residential Child Care (NCBRCC) and the Council for Disabled Children (CDC). Between 2009 and 2011, the partnership delivered a Young Inspectors pilot programme, Youth4U.

The partnership worked with local organisations across England to give disadvantaged and marginalised young people greater influence over services in their areas through the Youth4U Young Inspectors programme. The pilot scheme engaged over 1450 young people, who inspected over 750 services. This pilot came to an end on the 31st March 2011.
The overall purpose of the programme was to:

Enable young people to become more socially responsible, by supporting them in coming together to improve their communities;
Increase the number and quality of opportunities for marginalised young people and give them the chance to improve services and enable change in their communities;
Help marginalised young people to engage their peers in influencing local policies and services across a wide range of issues including locality, health, neighbourhood renewal, transport and community service, to the benefit of their neighbourhoods;
Enable young people to have much greater impact on local services by feeding back both their own views and those of their peers.

The programme supported adult support workers in local organisations to recruit, train and support young people to investigate and assess how local services are doing and help them to improve things where they could be better. The young people were given the opportunity to achieve an accreditation through the programme. To be eligible, young people had to be between 13 and 19 years old or up to 25 if they were disabled and/or had a learning impairment.

KIDS’ role was to advise on and support the recruitment of young people and to ensure that all practice was fully inclusive. As well as this, KIDS provided local authorities with access to the Nothing Special toolkit.

After the success of the pilot programme, through our experience within this field and based on the learning from the pilot, the Participation Works consortium is now able to offer tailored packages of resources and training along with dedicated consultancy time in order for other organisations to replicate models that are suited to their needs. For more information, visit Participation Works

To find out more about the different packages available, contact Nicola Murdoch on nmurdoch@ncb.org.uk or 020 7843 6356

Feedback from young people on current IIP projects

Inclusive cycling “The residential (trips) are very good”