When

Monday 4th August, 2014: 6:00am - 7:00am

Where

Park B

Speaker

Session Summary

Sue Smith, Self Advocacy Resource Unit (SARU) Coordinator has many years experience of raising awareness on issues concerning people with a disability. She has done this on a shoe string without the back up of a glossy marketing department. In this session, Sue shares her ideas for making change happen when you have little or no money and encourages discussion from the floor.

 

Audio podcast

 

Transcript

SUSAN ARTHUR:
It is now my pleasure to welcome this afternoons host Sue Smith who will be doing  Change without Change.

SUE SMITH:
I wouldn’t clap too early. The session I’m doing is Making Change Happen with No Change. The story is in giving you a choice. I sat down and did it last night. I had lots of writing about all the things you can do then I got to the interesting bit about joining things like change.org and how to use technology.

I thought I’ve only got 50 minutes, I can do a slow presentation through all the written bits or I could go fast. I thought we could get to the part about setting up Facebook, starting petitions, making posters, using Twitter and we could pick an issue and do it, do some stuff on technology here and now.

What would people like? You can either go through the session or would you like to do some more hands on stuff? Hands up who would like to go through the session and learn it all – looks like the majority have it. Hands up who would like to do some hands on stuff…oh maybe we will have time to do both. In that case, I will stay up here.

The first step in making change happen is picking your issue. What’s the issue you want to lobby or campaign on? It sounds easy but particularly for groups you have to get together, what is the problem and what is the issue.

It might be things like not enough accessible transport, people being bossed around in CAU’s, not enough housing for people with disabilities, closing institutions. A marriott of issues, too many for a lot of people.

I will start from finding from the audience what are some issues you think are important, what are things you would like to change. I will come down with the mic.  Is there some issues you’re passionate about?

CONTRIBUTOR:
The rights for people with intellectual disability living in community residential units or group homes to have the same basic human rights as anybody else in the community so that we can go in and do training for the staff.

SUE SMITH:
You want the life to improve dramatically for people in group homes. Susan?

CONTRIBUTOR:
Parents with a disability to be able to keep their children at home with the support they need and for their children not to be removed because Government might think this is the easiest solution.

SUE SMITH:
Thanks, I’m hoping some of the things I’m going to show will work really well for that issue and for yours. Any other issues to add?

CONTRIBUTOR:
That people with intellectual disability who work in the ADE’s, the sheltered workshops are paid fair wages.

(applause)

SUE SMITH:
That’s a big one. Maybe we can do some of the practical stuff today around some of those. Other issues?

CONTRIBUTOR:
Better access to employment and no more poverty for people with disabilities.

SUE SMITH:
Excellent. Again, it’s the big job isn’t it? Fair pay, not enough jobs and Gabriel?

CONTRIBUTOR:
More choice in housing.

SUE SMITH:
Thanks, yep.

CONTRIBUTOR:
And to close all these institutions in the whole of Australia and never ever to be built again.

SUE SMITH:
Excellent. So we have a good lot of issues and we will try and use those as examples when we go through some of the change you can do with no change.

CONTRIBUTOR:
(inaudible – too far away from mic)

SUE SMITH:
Absolutely.

CONTRIBUTOR:
Also for depending on the train but most trains nowadays will only take up to four chairs. I know some people are going four chairs what are you talking about and that’s a lot. But if some groups are going out with a whole lot of chairs, the driver has the right to refuse you and you have to wait for the next service.

SUE SMITH:
So we’ve got some really good issues and we will look at them as we look at the way some of the ways of making change happen.

There is two things – lobbying and campaigning. I often think lobbying is the first thing you do but you can do it along with campaigning. It’s telling people about the issues and problems that concern you, try and get them to understand the problems and what is needed to be done to fix it.

Campaigning can be a lot of activities you do to raise to community, Government, lots of people about the things that you want change. Campaigns can last a long time and target everyone. I will give you an example.

Reinforce did the Plain English Less Jargon Campaign. Years ago all Government documents came out in jargon, fair to say and a lot of people with intellectual disability said our rights are denied because information is power and unless we get information the way we understand it, it means we don’t have a seat at the table.

Reinforce campaigned for about 10 years, big campaign Plain English Less Jargon and now within DHS with stuff to do with disability, there is plain English. It hasn’t spread yet to other Departments but it’s a long term campaign. It’s an example of how long it can take to make change happen.

So why lobby? You lobby decision makers because you want to change how things are done. You’ve come up with the ones I’ve picked – closing institutions, more accommodation, better jobs and better employment. Now I will go straight to the tips.

Letters to the editor are a great way of doing lobbying without money. Politicians really try and gage what the community is thinking, what the issues are. They will have press people going through the letters what are the issues, what are people talking about. I encourage people to write letters for the editor.

If you see any little thing about employment, even if it’s about employment not around disability, a letter to the editor going that’s great but did you know…

Some of the tips are just one issue per letter. Introduce your problem as your first thing, a few sentences to support your view, a summary and something punchy. The last thing is proof read your letter. Keep it short and to the point and tell the reader how they can take action, if you support this issue you can. If you’re writing about an article that appeared in the newspaper saying about employment, mention that article.

QUESTION:
Do you have this as a handout Sue?

SUE SMITH:
I will load this PowerPoint on the SARU website the week after next.

The next one is my passion. Most of the members of self-advocacy groups know I go out and tell everybody over and over again people under estimate the power of your local MP. Everyone wants to go straight to the Minister and the Minister gets hundreds of those letters. If you’ve ever written to the Minister the advisor does a little letter back that the Minister signs.

Local politicians are really important. Local politicians want to win elections. If they sense the mood is there is a ground swell they go into a party room and say I have heard this is happening in my electorate around people with employment.

When you talked about the shelter workshop wages, I refuse to call them business services – I just saw a You Tube clip of Adam Bandt in Federal Parliament talking about it. That was so powerful and getting a local politician to take on-board an issue. I can’t recommend enough not just visit and tell the issue but build a relationship with your local politician.

To get in touch either write to them, include a fact sheet about the issue, pick up the phone. Very few people lobby the MP by phone. Ring up their electoral office. Build up a relationship with the electoral officer.

Prepare in advance before you go to the meeting what you want to say, keep it concise and include your top three issues and concerns. You know your issues so very well, it’s in your head, you know it off by heart about parenting, all the issues and that, they don’t. Keep clear points about what you like to happen.

When you get there be friendly and polite, also take your fact sheet with you. Leave it with them in paper. If they don’t have a paper, they won’t remember it. Do your homework.

I was doing some research with this PowerPoint, even though I bang on, and on about politicians I hadn’t thought about this one. Do your research and find out what their different stances on issues are and what are their interests.

You can talk about your interests but you can also say I believe you’re interested in such and such; we have that and somehow link it. You’re working towards building a relationship with them. Never rely on makeup information.

There are strengths in numbers. If you have a network, Susan if you were to go and talk about the issue of parents having their children removed with disabilities, you would say plus I have started a self-advocacy group, which has five members, or if you have a network – there is a network of us concerned about accommodation not just us. Let them know there is a bigger number of people interested.

When you’re there and this is a good one, which I am bad at, is be a good listener. Don’t do all the talking, make it having a conversation. Also, press for a commitment. Ask what are you going to do about the issue or will you come and talk to our group, or can we show you a video of the issue.

Get a commitment but also get something that keeps the relationship going – is it okay if we keep dropping in to your office once a month to update you on what’s happening. Say thank you and don’t forget the staff.

When I started out I’m looking at the audience, I’m probably close to one of the oldest. Who remembers John Cain?

CONTRIBUTOR:
Yes.

SUE SMITH:
He was the local politician, just became the Premier when we were setting up a drop in community centre for people that lived in an institution. We had the thing to ask him to launch it. He had only just become Premier that week but was the local Bundoora politician and he agreed to come.

We then built an ongoing relationship with his electoral office. We would pop in all the time and it also guaranteed we got an in into him and his electoral officer got a feed into him. He supported us for about 10 years. He got us funding, for two workers got us land on the institution.

They were very upset but their staff are really important. Don’t burn bridges unnecessarily. If you’re really angry about them not responding don’t get angry just keep it going. The squeaky wheel what I said plain English, less jargon often can make an impact.

Say thank you and follow up, a thank you note, an email.

This is a strange one for lobbying – use the Victorian State Plan. I believe they’re talking about this in the next room but I developed a kit about using the Victorian State Plan to lobby.

This is my wrong presentation. It’s not what you want to see, I changed it since then. I just did this in PowerPoint, I know this is Change with No Change but it cost about $100 to print about 300.

They’re postcards around some of the points about the State Plan like accessible transport – we need to work together to make public transport more accessible. Victorian State Disability Plan says there should be more transport options for people with disabilities.

On the back you can send it off to the Transport Department, because all different departments, not just disability have to…it’s the whole of Government plan. You can say Dear So and So, did you know, we would like to meet with you to talk about what you’re doing.

The other thing is you can just hand them out. Susan who posed for this we had a great example. When we took this photo the tram person with the bright yellow thing, we were saying we’ve just taken a photo for accessible trams and he said you can get on there and we said but we can’t get off the other end.

I said I wish I had one of these cards just to inform him. You might think that, don’t argue with Susan about be grateful for what you believe you’ve got, the State Government supports it. We made cards like that and just using PowerPoint to make them up. You can use them to send to a whole lot of people.

Why Campaign? You start a campaign because there is something that people are not happy about. We have looked at some lobbying tips and that’s really important. You might also start a campaign because you’ve lobbied and lobbied and nothing has worked.

Before you decide to start a campaign, you need to think about the issue. If it’s something about your local shop – doesn’t have a ramp that might not need a great big campaign it might be more about lobbying the local shop, lobbying your local counsellors.

Is it an issue that only affects one people, how many people does it affect, why do we think it’s important, is it a human right and what’s our message we want to get across?

We talked about some of the issues here and I would have to say I made a fair call that all of them are pretty good issues about campaigning.

I think the rights of parents with an intellectual disability Sue, is something that there should be a strong campaign about. I think within politics, local members, all of that and the community are not aware of the percentage of people particularly with an intellectual disability that just have their children taken from them.

CONTRIBUTOR:
(inaudible – too far from mic) they do not keep stats so we are only left to guess how many parents this faces. I am in touch with the network. It is Australia wide but they can’t tell me a close number to how many parents or children this can affect.  I believe they’re keeping it hidden so that normal people can’t complain about it.

Like you were saying before take your evidence – I have no research evidence that says like 100 people have lost their daughter.

SUE SMITH:
Redfern Legal Service have done a whole lot of reports about it.

CONTRIBUTOR:
Not even Villamanta (inaudible – too far from mic) they can say we can do reports on it. They will say a big percentage of parents in this area are likely to be acted on but that’s all they can say. They cannot give us a number.

SUE SMITH:
In that case I would take the evidence you have. I would take the report that says a big percentage. If you don’t have exact numbers take whatever reports and evidence you have.

QUESTION:
Is research good too or is it more legal is better?

SUE SMITH:
Again, if you’re just going to meet with a politician I would be going reports have shown that and if you want to find those reports you can get them here or if you’re more interested in reading. You don’t want to go here is a whole lot of academic research because it will just go in the draw. Let them know there is evidence backing up and it’s a real issue.

CONTRIBUTOR:
(inaudible – too far from mic)

CONTRIBUOR:
(inaudible – too far from mic) I get them to hassle them because I don’t know anyone in my area.

SUE SMITH:
You get them all get every member of your group to go to their local member including yourself. That’s what I would do and later on I talk about that – the power of the personal story can never be underestimated. That’s a really important part of campaigning.

CONTRIBUTOR:
Sorry, I’m learning here.

SUE SMITH:
I hope so. Col?

QUESTION:
Just in regards to the transport, yes, it is accessible but it’s only accessible in the city. Out of the city, how do I get there?

SUE SMITH:
Yeah and there is another great example of campaigning.

CONTRIBUTOR:
(inaudible – too far from mic).

SUE SMITH:
I remember after the last conference here about 3 years ago there was an inspiring speaker who came from America. He was a singer – Johnny Crescendo.

After he was here, he went and talked to IDAS and they said let’s do an action now. They went and did a whole thing in front of the trams in Melbourne. They did an instant campaign and made the papers.

Before you start the campaign, campaigns can take a bit of work so get all your information together. Like you said Sue, make sure it’s correct. The last thing you want is someone to go well actually that’s not right, I have proof otherwise.

Write down what you think is important, get all the evidence to support what you’re saying. Get peoples stories and choose spokes people.

Decide who you’re targeting; is it politicians and Government that have the power to change things? Is it about the services? Like in CRU’s, who has the power to change that, is it the community organisations?

For a lot of country people I think the group in Warrnambool they did a campaign with Target not being accessible. Is it the general community or businesses?

CONTRIBUTOR:
In that sense then who would be responsible is the first thing I’m trying to get across to them without worrying about anything else is the UN and having it stated in the disability act that the disability services must provide and help us with our children.

SUE SMITH:
In your case if you wanted to campaign the UN and lobby, I have a printout here for people to take of the names and contact details of all the Federal MP’s. I couldn’t get all the contact details without going through the website for the State ones but I have their regions and names.

The Federal Government have signed the UN Convention and I bet your average MP would have no idea about that. That would be my starting point.

QUESTION:
Okay so the Federal Government have signed this stupid bloody paper, why doesn’t my State member not know about that? We’re a whole country, why is the State member not know and meant to be acting on something?

SUE SMITH:
I can’t explain that and I might be wrong but I don’t know. Who would think every local MP is across the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities?

CONTRIBUTOR:
But to know about it in Australia, otherwise we may as well go and wipe our bum with it if they don’t know about it.

SUE SMITH:
I agree but part of the lobbying is to go in and let them know about it, educate them. But if you don’t step across the threshold and sit down and have the conversation it’s never going to….as I keep saying to people who get really frustrated and I understand people get frustrated about lobbying, lobbying for change and it never happens. Unless you have a seat at the table, it definitely won’t happen.

In your case I would also target the community because I don’t think the community is aware quite what is happening here. I think it’s one of the hidden human rights things, the removal of children.

CONTRIBUTOR:
You would think the expectation of people with disability being sexually active is a really new concept not only in the community but also service providers in general. If they have no expectation that consumers are wanting to express their sexuality and the concept for them that they’re making children…

CONTRIBUTOR:
This is it, they’re not taking children away as soon as you’ve had them at birth unless you’re a really lucky one, they’re sterilising you even before you give birth.

While they say sterilisation is now against the law and you have to go through a guardianship process to do that – A, that’s quite easy to be done and B, if the person has either no speech or little to no speech, they will say the person is too hard to understand, I can’t understand so what do you want for them.

He might say I want them sterilised but as soon as the parent says that bingo. And if they know their way around the system because it’s not meant to be what the parent wants it’s meant to be the independent advocate they get around the system.

I think what’s the point in having all these laws in place when if you know your way around the system there is ways around it.

SUE SMITH:
Yes, can I just say though you’re doing a fantastic example of lobbying right now. I would like to know hands up people in the audience who weren’t aware of the number of children removed from people with a disability.

So you’ve just done practical lobbying in this room. Now people are going to walk out aware of that issue.

CONTRIBUTOR:
I told you I’m going to say it till I’m blue in the face and I meant it.

SUE SMITH:
There you go, it’s the squeaky wheel. It’s really important to work out who you’re targeting with the campaign.

Networks and partners. The next thing is if you have a campaign try and bring together other groups that share the same ideas as you. Other people that are affected by the problem. But not just other people affected by the problem people who are experienced in running campaigns.

I’m going to use you as an example all the way through Sue, you were going to people experienced in running campaigns and I often say a lot of times people go within disability, go outside.

One of the best campaign runners I have ever seen is the Breast Cancer Network of Australia with a field of women. You look now and there is pink everywhere. I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 40, 1997 and it wasn’t so much particularly for younger people. The Breast Cancer Network started with one worker in one office.

Yes it’s an issue that attracts a lot of money because it’s not political, it doesn’t threaten people and there is a feel good factor. But they’re experienced campaigners and very generous in sharing.

Go to the Greens or environmental groups. Talk to people who are experienced and campaigners. Again, that thing Martin said, people that have the lived experience of the issue your voice is the strongest in your campaign. I think people sitting here today who haven’t heard about it, listening to you it’s the strongest voice.

Think about who would be good partners for you in the campaign. There is not just partners that are building that campaign there is just people who can help you.

It might be politicians you’ve met that you know feel the same way. It might be disability advisory councils with local government or local council or advocacy organisations. Like we said Redfern Legal Service has information on the issue of parents so get them to help you with the campaign and again, people who have lived the issue.

The next one is elections coming – lobby, lobby, lobby your local politician. The latest thing I have been thinking about is going beyond politicians and trying to get to party branch meetings because they decide who their MP’s are going to be.

Every year I go to the Marxism Conference because it has the best international guest speakers you can get in one room. Every time I sit there, I think all these radicals here if they knew what was happening in sheltered workshops, slavery happening in Australia today, children taken from people, people with disability should be on this agenda.

Find out where local branches are of Liberal Party, Greens. It can’t hurt to say can we talk about this issue. Meet with the opposition spokespeople. There is a Victorian election coming, there might be a change. Find out who the opposition spokesperson is for disability.

I found out the other day myself because we’re planning to invite them to the SARU meetings. After the election when they’re Minister you’re not going to get a look in but before they’re going to want to see you. Make use now of the election for your issue.

Here’s my big one – using technology. It’s sort of blue because it’s going to take you places and you will see in a minute. Using technology is great for lobbying with no money.

You can use Facebook and I have an example here. This is what I was meaning if we wanted to do it the other way, we could set up a Facebook page. Here is an example of Facebook being used as a campaign. It’s the Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign.

QUESTION:
Where did you get the Aboriginal one?

SUE SMITH:
I Googled disability campaigns on Facebook. Facebook for a campaign and once you’ve got the Facebook page and putting your papers together to go to politicians or to do different things, you’ve then got a website address without a website – if you want to find out more, want to support us go to that.
I think it’s a great tool for campaigning.

You can upload photos, upload videos. I’ve been working with Susan’s group to make a video. You could upload parts of that video to Facebook.

I have more places for information to come. So you can get supporters, you can post updates about what’s happening, photos. They’ve put a thing here about Late line, you could link to Insight that you did Sue. Facebook is a great one.

Keep on hitting the like button. Send out a massive email to everyone saying like our campaign page.  Twitter, I only just started Twitter.

I went to a talk on Monday last week there was two academics from England. They’ve got a massive campaign going called @JusticeforLB and Twitter is one of the main things they use. Apparently, they have places that are like institutions but have a fancy name – a bit like sheltered workshops called business services. He was a young man who died there through neglect.

They’ve started a whole @JusticeforLB campaign so this never happens again. They use Twitter and they put links to it. You link to your web page, link to your Facebook page, link to media stuff. This discussion has been thrown wide open.

Lots of this is about links. And another learning disability is what they used for the term intellectual disability in England – broken arm during restrain, broken leg when being put in seclusion. Twitter is a good way of getting things out quick, short and punchy, adding it to your toolKIT.

Talk about free campaigning – Campaigning with No Change. They came with a banner that was just painted on a sheet to give their talk and they just had @JusticeforLB that they held up when talking. Very cheap, very easy to do, very powerful.

YouTube – now here is the one. If you have a smart phone or a laptop, this one is a little video about disabled students campaign Get Involved.

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I’m not saying you make a big presentation like that but students got together with that campaign.

When they talk about scrounges, this was something that was really interesting that opening thing of lots of headlines about people bludging on the disabled pension. The two academics from England where we’ve got leaners, where the Government talks about people are leaners if they’re on the pension, in England the language is scrounges and strivers.

Scrounges are people on the disability support pension and the strivers are people that are striving, earning money and consuming. When they had scrounges in there that’s what they were referring to.

You can just video. I do it a lot with an iPad or a phone, someone talk straight to camera send it to You Tube. Collect a lot of personal stories straight to camera, straight to YouTube and send out the links. You can go – you can go and watch people’s personal stories here at these links.

Again, get everyone to hit the likes. You can put that in your thing – we have a You Tube link and 400 people have watched it. You can say that to your politicians.

Change.org I’m sure most people have heard of but it’s a petition place. Sue, it’s the sort of thing you could start a petition tomorrow.

This one is about Theresa and she started a petition against people being forced into a nursing home at 49, so young people in nursing homes. She is using change.org to write petitions. Costs nothing, get it going, send it out to all your networks, try and build momentum with that.

In particular, if you add it to a You Tube clip, all that stuff you build up a whole big campaign.

Bambuser – who has heard of bambuser? It’s a new one and it rose to the occasion during an Arab spring in Egypt. You’ve got an app on your iPad or phone that links directly to it. I could film you here now, press and upload and it goes straight to bambuser. It immediately goes live.

We put all our SARU emails. I get filmed in my office reading it out so people who have problems reading know what’s in the SARU memo. Again, use it, film people’s stories, get them up, get the link, make it a campaign page, go to our bambuser page and watch people’s stories.

I will show a little bit of bambuser. Bambuser is dot com and this is a video again of a rally.

(video shown)

It’s similar to the VSWAT – the wage assessment tool used here for people in sheltered workshops. They’re saying scrap that tool and it’s in England. It is so easy bambuser. Literally I can do it because you have a little record button, press it, it’s instant. You can delete it at the other end.

It’s immediately up there so it’s instant. If you opted for lets do the practical thing, we would’ve put up a bambuser thing of Sue talking or the group raising their issues and then it would’ve been there.

Then there is pre-technology, that’s what I have labelled this one. The old-fashioned written petition is another thing. People tend to go all for emails. Email petitions I tend to think everybody is emailing them. I can’t possibly think the politicians are paying that much attention but if you get at written letter maybe they will open it, maybe it will get somewhere.

(inaudible – too far from mic)

Okay you can’t table online petitions, only written petitions in Parliament. Information kits are great. Peoples stories. Get the plastic cheap folders at Officeworks, put in people’s stories.

SARU has a great way of using PowerPoint to make posters. PowerPoint is the best poster-making thing. You just drop your picture in, easily move it, put a slogan, print it out.

Make a little kit. If you find films – I love to Google, I Google anything. Using Sue as the example, I would Google around the world looking for videos that people with disabilities had their children removed. Burn them to a DVD and whack it in the kit.

Letter campaigns – I think it’s very rare politicians get letters these days. An addressed letter and getting everyone to write a letter.

We did that with John Cain once, got everyone we knew to send letters because we knew we were going to get a funding cut. It didn’t work however, I think letter campaigns. Badges, posters, flyers, all these things are great tools. Don’t just think technology.

AMIDA has done a great thing with the upcoming election. They’ve written a position statement around accommodation. AMIDA is an advocacy service around accommodation for people with disabilities. They’ve asked advocates to send out the letter and to send out the position statement to all their local MP’s. It’s rallying the troops and getting other people to get it disseminated. It’s to the point of these are the things we want you to think about. Do you want to speak to it Gabriel – no.

(inaudible – too far from mic) just make it very concise what the problems were and what we were going to do about it (inaudible – too far from mic). Make it clear, easy to understand. It was very well written.

SUE SMITH:
And it’s enlisting the help of other services – it’s Dear Advocates, we want your support, we are writing to inform you of the position of AMIDA, while lobbying decision makers we’re also urging others to take up this issue and help put them on the agenda for decision makers.

We hope you in your role as advocates can support the call for the closure of institutions and good housing for all. We are encouraging people to write to politicians particularly those enclosed with this letter. A suggested letter is also enclosed to assist but please feel free to change and add your own group’s details.

Again, it’s using your own networks and rallying everyone to help.

The community it’s really important in your campaign that you work to let people in the community know about the issue. That’s why I talked about going to conferences like you haven’t thought of like the Marxism conference, getting out there and getting the community aware.

Politicians listen to voters, if they hear other people saying what about this issue or stuff in the media. It’s also important letting the community know.

Getting the message to the community – hold a public rally, hold a campaign launch, arts projects and exhibitions. Larissa is going to hate men for this but when Colin was talking about accessible transport Larissa sent me like a book, or a series of…?

It’s a series of information (inaudible – too far from mic).

It talks about all the things that people with disability face on public transport. It has humour, it’s thought provoking. Art is really powerful.

I also belong to a community art group and we do lots of arts projects as an advocacy tool. We’ve just got funding from Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Victoria to work with people who are involved with the disability movement to tell the history of the disability movement using art.

Public information seminars, street stalls, stickers and flyers and posters, flash mobs and I have a flash mob in the field of women.

contributor:
I’ve done one in Melbourne.

sue smith:
So a flash mob – can you tell the people what it is?

contributor:
It’s a dance.

sue smith:
Yeah it’s something in the public that no one is expecting that you all turn up and do but it can raise an issue. I think I have a You Tube clip here of a flash mob around disability issues.

(video shown)

It doesn’t have to be dancing, you can be a bit more creative. Some mass thing that has a message, something out of the box. The field of women, which visually represented the number of women that died from breast cancer each year, a very powerful way of getting the message across.

Doing a theatre piece. Reinforce, you spent 3 months working with a theatre person and made a fantastic small play about living in an institution. What was it called, one day at a time with the clock ticking, a day in the life or something? I can’t remember.

You did do a play and it was fantastic. Again, making films. You did a theatre piece had a clock ticking, pretended to all get the food. I don’t know what’s happened there that’s unfinished. There were pictures with this one too I want to let you know. I have loaded the unfinished one.

Use the media, send out press releases. Ring talk back radio. Politicians listen to talk aback radio. Again, they want the mood of community.

Find the media person who is interested in your issue, plan events that media will want to go to.

Make a press kit, I always put in DVDs. Do the job for them, write the article for them, especially newspapers. If they can just plop it in they will.

If you have a member of your group or someone aware of the issue get them to contact their local newspaper. People like to do stories for their local newspaper. Issue press releases.

This is my unchanged one because there was no Step 6 Go but Go. Everything is ready, working for change it may take a long time so don’t give up.

Make sure you try and have fun because it is hard so enjoy some of the things you’re doing. If you get stuck or need ideas you can contact SARU or DARU.

Down here I have form letters you can use for writing to MPs, I have the whole pile of the politicians contact information. I’m sorry there is no question time. Thank you everybody.

There is feedback forms that you can fill in, love to get feedback even if it’s constructive criticism because it always helps you to do things better.

Thanks.