The "Things to Do" Groups

Hazel Cant has been working with a 'Community Activity Scheme' group, also known as the 'Things To Do' group. The group is made up of six adults with learning disabilities, Hazel and another volunteer. All of the members of the group were part of a leisure scheme Hazel was responsible for. The group has been working in partnership to do research on 'Things to do' in their area for adults with learning disabilities.

Here Hazel and the group answer questions about what it has been like working in partnership together. Each "segment" of the interview contains a link to a subtitled video of the discussion (RealPlayer is needed to view these).

Question about potential conflicts with Hazel's work and boss [View video of hazels potential work conflicts]

Ian: I know that when I first came down you talked a bit about the fact that your boss was open to you doing this and fairly relaxed about this sort of side project.

Hazel: Yeah.

Ian: I’m wondering were there any sort of conflicts? I guess we’re looking to try to think what sort of tensions if there were any or could have been in this sort of situation.

Hazel: Not really. There’s kind of ones in my own mind on a really simple level about what’s work and what’s not work. I’m kind of doing this thing on my own time and therefore is it work or is it a spinoff from work and those kind of questions, but they’re kind of more questions just for me for my own benefit really. My boss is really cool because I think he’s kind of a bit anarchic really and he just kind of likes things that are a bit different, that you know don’t kind of fit traditional models, so what I’m doing kind of fits his purposes quite nicely.

The burden of protection in terms of the group's being in the 'media' [View video of burden of protection]

Ian: Is there any burden to be…is there a conflict with a burden of protection in a sense?

Hazel: I thought there was more of a conflict when I was doing my project and it wasn’t about or so much about kind of personal or physical abuse, but about how abusive was it to involve them in a process they didn’t necessarily understand and kind of those sort of issues. But, when I… as I worked on the project, once I’d kind of got to the of point where I was happy that the group were there because they’d selected themselves to be there I then felt like I kind of felt better or better about that that they were there because they wanted to be there and chose to keep on being involved. But, yeah in terms of kind of people’s faces and stuff in public information I guess I haven’t really thought about that so much…although I suppose there’s no great difference between having your photo on a website or having your photo in the local paper which most of these guys will have had a t some stage or another in their lives.

How does the group see what they do? Is it research in their eyes? How do they define research? [View video on what the group do]

Ian: I’m also interested in how the group…how the group sort of sees themselves and what they do. I know we’ve talked about this before and we sort of… we kind of tried to cover it a bit last time we were here with the group, but whether they…how much of this they see as being research or what research might mean to them. Is that a term you really used with them?

Hazel: we used it a little bit. We talked about research in the beginning and we came up with a working definition which John actually provided which was ‘finding out about things’ and so that’s kind of what we started from. I think I used the term more clearly when we were kind of having the initial meetings about what we were going to do and how we were going to put together a book and all that stuff. I think that was kind of more clearly about research and then what we’ve done since then has probably been not quite as clearly defined in those terms. Yeah, I think the guys themselves probably are thinking more immediately in terms of kind of choosing what we’re going to do and choosing where we want my scheme to go and probably don’t see it in research terms so much now. I think they might have seen the whole book thing as research.

Ian: And how concerned are they about that as opposed to…or is there a difference between what sort of outings and things they might want to do or…is there a separation between these things or is it all sort of part of the same…

Hazel: Part of the same thing. In terms of the leisure scheme there’s immediate kind of concerns about what we’re going to do next week and the week after, but then there’s also issues of how can we get more people involved in this. Quite a few of them have quite clearly said on different occasions that they know of other people who are involved in traditional services that don’t get the same opportunities so they’d like to see that broadened out. So, that’s a concern, how can you broaden it out? How can you get more people involved? How can we offer these opportunities more widely? And then so related to that is always about resources. You know, if we have money, if we had staff, if there was this, that and the other, then we might be able to expand and so that’s something that we periodically talk about as well. So it’s kind of a bit of a mesh.

The group talk about their work [View video on group talk about their work].

Ian: What about the things that your group does that’s different than other groups?

Kevin: We go out to the pub..(laughs)

Ian: (laughs) What about research? Do you do research?

John: Yeah I do research on the internet looking at theme parks like Dressington, Alton Towers.

Ian: What’s your definition of…what does research mean? You’ve got something about that John.

John: I go onto the internet and go to the library.

Ian: What does it mean, the word research, for you?

John: Research is looking up things.

Ian: And what about the project you did with Hazel? Do you remember this…

John: Things that we like to do.

Ian: Things that you like to do. Do you remember doing that?

John: Yeah.

Matthew: Oh, what the book?

Ian: Yeah, the book.

Matthew: I think that was really good.

Ian: What did you like about it?

Matthew: That it illustrated what we do and stuff.

Ian: And did you want to do more things like that?

Matthew: Yeah.

John: We want to have a presentation…a display to take it to college and show the young people.

Ian: So you ‘d like to make a display out of things to…to make a bigger display?

John: Yeah.

Ian: Do you have a display already?

Hazel: We don’t have a display in college at the moment. We have sometimes done them when there’ve been like events on, but we haven’t got anything permanent up.

Ian: That sounds good. What kind of things do you use in your displays when you…

John: Pictures, photographs to show what we do.

Hazel: We’ve got leaflets as well, which we give out.

Ian: With pictures and words?

Hazel: Yeah.

Ian: And your drawings…I’ve seen some of your drawings Kevin. I like them.

Kevin: Yeah.

Hazel: I did a powerpoint display a couple of months back and then when I went to do it they didn’t have a projector, so I had to print them all out and do them all on OHP.

Ian: I’ve had that problem.

Will the group be able to carry on without you after Hazel’s gone? do they have enough motivation and sense of group identity to do things on their own? [View video on the future]

Ian: What happens when you do go (leave the group)? Will it be volunteers then who are carrying it on, or does the group have enough sort of group identity to be able to do things almost on their own and ask…dictate where they need support?

Hazel: I would like to think that, but I think they will still be looking for outside leadership. They look to me for…sometimes they look to me for more leadership than I would like to provide. I think that’s a kind of a question is yeah kind of how far can…how far is it desirable or fair to somehow coerce them into doing stuff for themselves when actually they would rather have the support? Yeah, I know it’s a kind of hard one to think through. Is it actually giving them…is it enabling to take more control if you make it ok for them to offer help? You see what I mean, it’s kind of thinking around in circles.

What about things you like to do in your lives? [View video on the group's lives]

Ian: Anything anyone wants to say about their lives and things they want to do?

John: I want to move out one day and get my own flat and job.

Ian: Are you any further along in doing that than the last time we were here?

John: I’m still looking.

Ian: Still looking.

Matthew: Yeah, but Jonathon, you have to put your name down on the housing list.

John: Yeah, on the housing list.

Ian: Have you done that?

John: No, I haven’t yet. After Christmas I can do that.

Matthew: That’s what I had to do before I moved into my flat I had from the Guinness Trust. Now I’ve been there four years and I’ve put my name down on a housing association list and the housing association (unclear). I’v ebeen there four years and I really like it.

Ian: So you’re happy with that. And is work still an issue for you…

Matthew: Yeah, I’m still looking for work at the moment.

Ian: So, it’s not easy.

Matthew: No, it isn’t easy finding a job.

Ian: Did you have anything you wanted to say Lesley?

Lesley: No.

John: Lynda put me in touch with Leo’s. Leo’s is a (unclear) like cooking and sewing (unclear). And Lynda’s got me in touch with respite.

Matthew: It’s lucky really because I’m not working at the moment I’ve got the group…Hazel’s group to come to in the evenings.

Ian: Right, so that’s another thing that the group is, it’s a social thing for people.

Lynda: Yeah, it is yeah.

Matthew: Yeah, it’s a social thing getting people out.

Ian: And you give each other support?

Matthew: Yeah.

We need more (young) people to join the group. What about people joining the group? [View video on needing more young people to join the group]

John: We need more young people to join in.

Lesley: Yeah, I think we need more young people really.

John: More young people.

Kevin: Yeah I think that.

Ian: What did you say Lesley.

Lesley: I think we need some more people to join in.

Ian: How do you think you’re going to get more young people to join in?

Kevin: Draw.

Ian: Draw…like you mean draw up something about what you do like a picture?

Kevin: Yeah.

Ian: That’s a good idea. And where would you put these things?

Kevin: And write.

John: Put them on notice boards…colleges’ notice boards.

Ian: Have you been successful in having more people join your group? Have you had more people join your group?

Kevin: Yeah.

Matthew: The other problem is that people don’t often turn up to things.

Kevin: And we don’t know why.

Ian: And what happens when people don’t turn up to things?

Matthew: Then you get…you don’t really like them do you…

Hazel: The problem is that sometime some activities we’ve got have a certain number of spaces so like if we’ve hired a mini bus and we have like twelve seats there and if twelve people say they’re coming I have to tell other people no you can’t come because I haven’t got enough spaces so then if only half of those twelve people turn up then I get really cross because I might have said to someone else that they can’t come. So then I kind of stamp around and get bad tempered.

Ian: (laughs) But nobody gets kicked out of the group for this type of thing?

Hazel: Kevin’s out (laughs) no..

Kevin: (laughs)

What are the boundaries between Hazel’s professional and personal life? [View video on Hazel's boundaries]

Ian: Does the professional life stop and your personal life start in a way in any…

Hazel: I think I’m lucky in a way because I can work more or less how I want in my professional job. I think if I were having to follow a whole load of structures…for example there’s a group home in (….) where it’s written, enshrined that the staff there are not allowed to take service users into their own homes ever, full stop, the end. And even around for tea, it’s just not…and if I had to work in that sort of environment I would find that very difficult because what we were doing this afternoon would then become illegal basically. So I think that because I can work more or less as I want in my professional job, it means that I’m kind of free to blur all the edges because I’m not actually going against anything that’s enshrined by doing so. I think the main issue is kind of when I think about writing in my time sheet at the end of each month, it’s like well what was work and what wasn’t work and what did I do because I just wanted to and what’s actually within the project and those sort of questions.