This page gives further details about Leonard Cheshire, an organisation awarded £127,322 for three years in 2006/07 under the Partnership Grants Scheme.
Leonard Cheshire provides disability support services as well as campaigning for the rights of disabled people. For further information:
The Citizenship Academy
The project equipped disabled people with the skills, knowledge and confidence that are necessary for active citizenship. The project delivered a series of workshop days covering citizenship, rights and participation. The project worked across Scotland attracting participants from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife and Aberdeen.
On completion of the training, workshop participants became Academy Graduates, and were supported by the project co-ordinator to cascade their learning to other Leonard Cheshire beneficiaries. This took a number of formats including peer support sessions, workshops and presentations delivered at local community events. The project co-ordinator also developed roadshows delivering workshops to groups of disabled people at community events.
In addition, the Academy developed strong links with grassroots organisations which enabled them to undertake joint work at partner agency conferences. The project also delivered an annual conference, to showcase the Academy and encourage other organisations in the field to work with the Academy to increase the impact of the project. The project has also developed an interactive website.
Our grant funded staffing, venue hire, website and associated project costs.
Project outcomes
- disabled people from across Scotland (Academy Graduates), will have the skills knowledge and confidence to take part in various aspects of political decision making
- disabled people will have increased awareness of democratic processes, and become more active citizens
- academy Graduates will become role models for active citizenship, sharing their learning through the press, radio and internal publications
- Leonard Cheshire beneficiaries will be more likely to vote
- politicians will become better informed of the needs of disabled voters
Objectives achieved
The Citizenship Academy empowered disabled people across Scotland to become more actively involved in democracy, including learning how Scotland’s decision making processes work and how they can be part of them. The Academy trained 35 Academy Graduates that worked with the Project Coordinator to enable cascaded learning. The roadshows that they delivered were extremely popular, in addition to joint work that was conducted with Glasgow Disability Alliance increasing the awareness of democratic processes amongst 750 disabled people. The Academy encouraged Leonard Cheshire beneficiaries and participants to register to vote at all events and 950 disabled people stated their intention to register.
Case study
Keith lives in Aberdeen and attended the Citizenship Academy course there. He decided to take the course because he thought it sounded interesting and he wanted to learn more about democracy and active citizenship and to hear other people's views. Keith is interested in support services for disabled people, and wants to improve things. Keith feels that the Citizenship Academy has boosted his confidence, and helped him understand more about politics and voting.
