News

Maxine Vernon reports on how the winner of the Community Care Awards 2001 disability category is encouraging disabled people to acquire new skills and to develop their self-respect where needed

There are more than 8.5 million disabled people in the UK - a significantly larger number than any other "minority group". And yet the profile of disabled people on TV and in advertising continues to be low and their portrayal is often one-dimensional. But Rainbows in the Ice, the winner of the disability category at the Community Care Awards, is aiming to change that.

Rainbows in the Ice is an initiative developed by the Moor Lane Resource Centre in Preston. Established in June 2001, its aim is to encourage disabled people to develop a positive self-image in order to contribute and participate fully in society.

"We found that people were acquiring skills, for example, improving personal care, developing education and lifelong learning but staying with us and not moving on. We realised the missing element was developing their identity," says David Halpin, Lancashire Council manager for older people, physical disability and sensory impairment.

Many of the 70 people who attend the centre have suffered some kind of medical trauma (for example, multiple sclerosis or a stroke) or have become disabled through an industrial injury or leisure accident. For many clients, becoming disabled will affect the way they see themselves. Halpin describes the process of "digging people out of a hole". He says: "Lots of newly injured people want to go back to what society sees as acceptable - being upright. It is sad to pick those people up three or four years later when they have lost their identity, their self-respect."

Halpin reflects upon society's often negative attitudes towards disabled people. He describes a large poster on the wall at the Moor Lane centre. It shows a young woman in a wheelchair. She is heavily pregnant. "This caused a lot of discomfort to many people - they didn't like it."

Working with its partners Preston Community Arts Project, the Disability Information Services Centre and the Lancashire Information Federation, the centre hopes to use art and images to change attitudes.

Disabled people are encouraged to set a series of goals through an individual action plan. As well as acquiring professional skills clients also spend time exploring issues around the image of disabled people.

Halpin describes a client who has been through this process. The project gave her the confidence to go back to work in a bank after a period of hospitalisation. "Disabled people are almost always seen as receivers, but it's a two-way street - we are able to give something back," he says.

Halpin feels that winning the award is acknowledgement that the project is making a difference. "Somebody nationally has said 'You're on the right track. Go for it'. It has given us a springboard."

Because of the shortage of positive images of disabled people, the centre aims to use its prize money to produce an image bank. This will be made available to disabled people and resource centre team workers from Lancashire's seven other disability day care centres.

Service users will steer the project, but an expert will be employed to establish a core image bank. Service users will also work with the county museum service, the county archive service and library services to create a history zone charting the history of disabled people and the disabled people's movement. Some of the prize money will be used to fund equipment and transport.

He hopes that this sharing of information will go some way towards changing attitudes.

On a personal level David Halpin, who is disabled himself says, "People still ask me in the pub 'How did you become disabled?' This can really hurt, especially if you are newly disabled."

He adds: "Disabled people are not always looking for a cure, we are just seeking our own place in the community."

- The disability category was sponsored by Cooper Stanley.