Issue 2 Autumn 2015 Partnership Initiative members welcome new Social Work students to Kent Welcome to Issue 2 of Bridging the Gap, the newsletter of the Partnership Initiative. New students to the BA and MA programmes will already have met PI members during the observed group discussion exercise which forms part of our admissions process. As part of induction week, students have a chance to get to know PI members better and find out how they can factor in user and carer involvement into their understanding of social work from the start of their degree programme. This session will be run as a panel discussion on Tuesday 22nd September at midday and students will have the opportunity to hear about PI members' experience as service users and carers, and to ask questions about PI. We hope this will be the start of a long and useful dialogue between our new students and PI members. Bridging the Gap Issue 2 Autumn 2015 PI: what's it all about? The Partnership Initiative mission statement is that, ‘PI exists in order that people who use services and carers work collaboratively with staff and students. This is to ensure that the skills and experiences of all are integral to the Social Work programmes at the University of Kent.’ Thank you to Social Work course reps. A big thank you to Social Work student reps for their constructive contribution to the PI Steering Group over the past academic year. This kind of direct dialogue between PI and students is a key part of user and carer involvement at Kent, and we look forward to seeing student reps at the autumn term meeting at 10.30am on Tuesday 27th October. Questions or comments? Ask a PI member. Any burning questions or comments about PI? Then email Mike Thomas who will pass on your comments and questions to a PI member and get back to you. You can email Mike at [email protected]BRIDGING THE GAP The Newsletter of the Partnership Initiative at the University of Kent
Transcript
Issue 2 Autumn 2015
Partnership Initiative members welcome new Social Work students to Kent Welcome to Issue 2 of Bridging the Gap, the newsletter of the Partnership Initiative.
New students to the BA and MA programmes will already have met PI members during the observed group discussion exercise which forms part of our admissions process.
As part of induction week, students have a chance to get to know PI members better and find out how they can factor in user and carer involvement into their understanding of social work from the start of their degree programme. This session will be run as a panel discussion on Tuesday 22nd September at midday and students will have the opportunity to hear about PI members' experience as service users and carers, and to ask questions about PI.
We hope this will be the start of a long and useful dialogue between our new students and PI members.
Bridging the Gap Issue 2 Autumn 2015
PI: what's it all about?
The Partnership Initiative mission statement is that, ‘PI exists in order that people who use services and carers work collaboratively with staff and students. This is to ensure that the skills and experiences of all are integral to the Social Work programmes at the University of Kent.’
Thank you to Social Work course reps.
A big thank you to Social Work student reps for their constructive contribution to the PI Steering Group over the past academic year. This kind of direct dialogue between PI and students is a key part of user and carer involvement at Kent, and we look forward to seeing student reps at the autumn term meeting at 10.30am on Tuesday 27th October.
Questions or comments? Ask a PI member.
Any burning questions or comments about PI? Then email Mike Thomas who will pass on your comments and questions to a PI member and get back to you. You can email Mike at [email protected]
BRIDGING THE GAP The Newsletter of the Partnership Initiative at the University of Kent
PI Member profile: Helen Aveling, Chair of The Partnership InitiativeBorn in Malawi, I grew up in mainly in Kent, and was the first woman in my father’s immediate family to graduate from university, walking off with a 2.1 BA Hons in Literature from Essex University in 1983. I’m surprised that my near-collision with the Vice-Chancellor at Graduation didn’t affect that fact!
Following this, I lived in Milton Keynes for many years in a very a-typical residential service in 1984 before returning to Kent in 2001, making the most of the move to enable residential service users to live independently in the community. What that will be like in real-life terms post-ILF is anyone’s guess. At the moment I’m taking the ostrich’s view on life and danger. If I did anything else I’d paralyse myself with fear and good, old-fashioned panic, and not get anything else done. I joined PI in 2008/9, which has had some downs but far more ups. I’ve seen PI change, becoming more in tune with both the Department and what’s going on “out there” as well as watching the courses Kent offers evolve. I take part in delivering sessions to Stages 1 & 3 on the BA course and potentially the MA course.
I also help out at church in putting the hymns and readings into a program called EasiSlides for projection onto a screen during the service and I’be been a member of the council’s Physical Disability Partnership Board (PDPB), since 2008.
My academic credentials include commissioning and editing a non-fiction book, Unseen Childhoods: Disabled Characters in 20th Century Books for Girls which arose from my hobby of collecting school-girl books of the 1920s/1930s-late 1960s. I wrote an article for Winchester University’s Write4Children Journal entitled “Who Wants A Disabled Child?”, which focussed on the portrayal of disability in scifi/fantasy novels for all ages. Now, though, I'm working on a fantasy novel called The Last Robot. I am a self-confessed Nerd-of-the-First-Order, currently owning 5 computers of various ilk and age and two powerchairs, one of which I use for wheelchair dancing, though my nerdishness extends to all kinds of things other than tech or chairs. Much more important than any of the above, I am a Cat-Owned Human to a gorgeous little black cat called Bubz. She too came into my life in 2008! You can find out more about me at www.livingwithwheels.co.uk.
Bridging the Gap Issue 2 Autumn 2015
PI member awarded degree in Health & Social Care
Many congratulations to PI member Gerry Bennison, who graduated from the Open University this month with a BSc (Hons) at 2:1 in Health and Social Care.
PI in print
Joanna Whisker has published a journal article in Social Work and Social Sciences Review entitled “Personalisation and disabled people: the rhetoric and the reality. A discussion paper regarding aspects of the transformation agenda.”
This is a joint publication with Dave Sims from the University of Greenwich. The article can be accessed via the contents page of the journal, here: http://journals.whitingbirch.net/index.php/SWSSR/issue/view/
Debby Darby stepped down from her administrative role in the social work team in August to take up a position with the timetabling team at the Canterbury campus. Debby has been a good friend to PI during her time in the social work team and PI members wish Debby every success in her new role. News of Debby's replacement will be circulated to PI members early in the autumn term.
Farewell, class of 2015, see you at graduation PI member Joanna Whisker joined members of the academic staff to wish departing BA3 students good luck on the final day of the programme in June. Student feedback on the final day of the programme highlighted input from the Partnership Initiative as a positive aspect of the BA in Social Worl at Kent. We look forward to catching up with our graduating students at the Congregation at Rochester Cathedral 2.30pm on Wednesday 18th November.
We hope PI members will join the academic team at the graduation ceremony: please contact Mike Thomas for tickets.
