We are very proud to announce that The Being Heard in Government Group (BHIG) are the winners of the UK Parliament Campaign of the Year 2020 Award.
The BHIG group started in 2013. Two people who use Speak Out Services came to us worried about a leaked report in the Argus about proposed the cuts to learning disability services. They decided to learn as much as they could about the local budget setting process and attended council meetings and took part in demonstrations. They didn’t stop there though, they continued to learn about democracy and how people with learning disabilities could be more involved. They attended a course on democracy, they attended public debates, the Houses of Parliament. They met with local politicians to campaign for easy read election material and have been involved in various all party parliamentary groups and worked closely with the government shaping changed to the Mental Capacity Amendment Bill.
The group have worked hard to encourage local people with learning disabilities to get more involved in democracy bu supporting initiatives to help people to register to vote and at election time, they hold accessible hustings events to ensure the best participation by other people with learning disabilities.
BHIG group members have been coming together every two weeks for 7 years now, their commitment is amazing and unwavering so to be recognised in this way is really amazing. Well done to all the members who are Hannah Child, Rohan Lowe, Ian Metherell, Kevin Sutton, Katie Lord, Jamie Larcombe, Andy Saunders, Gayle Driver and Stuart McCallion and we would like to thank BHIG group volunteer Shelley Brown for all your hard work and support.
