Encounters with remarkable people - who is in?

The last week has been rich in encounters. I spoke to three people with the compassion to renew my faith in a community's capacity for self healing. Each evoked a different response from me but first let me tell you a little bit about them.

Having Parkinsons disease can sap my energy levels. I wanted to do more to resist Government plans to cut disabled people's entitlement to Personal Independence Payment. I went back to my blogs and spoke to Marian who had commented upon a recent blog. Marian it turned out was neurodivergent and had two neurodivergent children. She nurtured a community of parents with similar challenges living in East London. I wanted to hire her, I still do. Marian please can you email me at philipjconnolly@hotmail.co.uk

I was contacted by Michael Holloway the specialist on disability officer with Lewisham Council who asked me if I would meet Meire a disabled Brazilian woman working as a P.A. In her own neighbourhood of Bellingham in South London. I agreed to meet Meire when she said to me "if I only help one person I want to help that one person." When I met her I asked if she would be my sister.

I renewed my contact with Jacqui of the disabled staff network of UK universities, a few days ago. I remembered reading an account of her work in Edinburgh University as long ago as 2016. I knew of the support such a network can provide and responded positively to her suggestion of being involved in commenting on the proposed changes to Access to Work. Jacqui is an amputee member of staff; I wanted to be a work colleague of hers and have a little first hand experience of good practice. 

What did these encounters mean? Here are my thoughts. First the UK's best defence from being a land of strangers are so often the women of ethnic origin who bring communitarian values to tthe places where they live and the families they have. Thank god for their gifts. Secondly these women are seldom supported because the support system has to give to another bureaucracy. I remember the DRN once being turned down because we didn't have audited accounts and not because we didn't have any money to audit. Lastly just as the black US/French dancer and singer Josephine Baker formed her own version of a United Nations family it is possible to extend and reinvent family. Tell me how I can do this in a meaningful way. Those who achieved sharing at this level of simplicity and sophistication please share your experiences. 

I invite everyone who in a network already or wishes to form a network locally to link to the Disability Resilience Network. We might become your political wing or where your professional network becomes grounded and keeps its activities real. Finally if you want to exercise a little philanthropy share with people like those that I have been in dialogue with, they exist everywhere there is a need. Together we will offer a network of networks. An extended family for those with no family perhaps or who feel that they have some family members missing.

Who is in?