I am going to make some inroads into learning more about supporting, training and funding of prospective volunteers for Dyslexia Pathways and for my new project. The main stumbling block is finding funding to pay for volunteer costs such as expenses.
I feel I also require training myself to enable me to support prospective volunteers who will be giving their time to Dyslexia Pathways. So I am looking around for and free or low cost training to enable me to do this more effectively.
In a small organisation like Dyslexia Pathways there is never enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. For example I have a vast amout of training materials and company documnets that need to be redone, rewritten into a universal format. Everything is all over the place. Thinking about company image, making sure everything is in an accessible format etc.
The other issue many small organisations like mine is training and finding funding for training. I have started a european union course looking at provision of training for staff which has been usefull for the delivery of training to ditectors and volunteers. I have also been accepted on a free training course on resiliance and vulnerable adults with the Scottish Mentoring Network which looks interesting to.
Then there is getting out their and raising aweareness. I recieve a lot of invitations to take part in scottish parliamentery groups. I already do some work with the Goodison Group and Futures Forum where I endevour to raise a more positive profile of dyslexia at every opportunity.. I have invites to get involved with groups within the NHS, the police etc. However, I cannot get involved because if I do we miss out on income because I would have to cancel students and not do any work on the days I would do this raising awareness.
Sigh
Monday 18 March 2013
Thursday 14 March 2013
Blimey
His it been Chistmas since I last wrote to my blog? Time flies when you are working hard and having fun so they say. I think when you get a little older time just flies no matter what you are doing.
The dyslexia support work with my company Dyslexia Pathways is going well....slowing down a little now as it always does around easter. Looks like we will just about reach our targets for this year Getting a lot of very positive feeback from students which is always good for moral and it feel great to be able other dyslexics to succeed in their chosen paths.
There has been one problem that has affected my work with students. A lot of disabled students are still not in reciept of their DSA Disabled Students Allowance.I do not know if this is a localised issue or a scotland wide one. However, it can mean students cannot access learning support or be given assisstive technology and the training to use it.
I also hear on the grapevine Disabled Students Allowence rules may be changing. Mind you I have been hearing this for two years. There is a suggestion that disabled students will have to pay for a laptop and printer through their student loan. I am not sure if they will be entitled to a bigger student loan to cover the cost of this. It could mean that disabled students will be put off from going to university altogether. Not sure about the cost of software or of learning support sessions. As far as I can gather DSA will still be granted to cover the cost of this.
I have just taken on a new director...just have to fill out the forms and it will be official. Not going to give her name out just yet. Now without asking her first. What I can say is she is a social entrepreneur herself. Full of great ideas for enableing young people to overcome barriers to education, employment and training.
We have had a couple of meeting to discuss an idea i have been working on for a while and we are going to apply for lottery funding to move this forward. Even better she is completing the funding applications which is cool. Its not that I cannot complete them myself. I have made many successful funding applications but she will do it faster than I can.
I have made an application to the Fife Cultural Trust Fund. Its only a small amount of money to set the wheel in motiong of a much bigger project I have in mind. I also have another application to complete.
Now for some not so good news lol. My main desk top computer got hacked, or was infected by a virus etc we are not sure. The reuslt was a total systems crash and the loss of a lot of data. Most of it was backed up in once place or another and is retrievable. But I lost access to my company e mail and web site for about a week. Its still not working correctly I am still struggling to get everything back into good working order. For example I had to load a totally new opperating system onto the desktop. Then I found out my wifi card / stick does not work on Windows 7 64bit version. So now I am having to replace this with a new one sigh. It has not cost a lot to put right but any additional finacial costs are an isuse for any small social enterprise.
Have to give a big thanks to With People who run my web site....thay have been very helpful.
I wrote a 4000 manuscript on Disobedience and Dyslexia for RASP a dyslexia writers group. I recenlty was informed it has been accepted for publication in the next anthology to be released in November. It has given me the encouragement to write a book or my life with dyslexia. I have also been thinking about writing childrens books for a while but not been confident enough to do it. Have to see how this goes lol.
Anyways thats enough of my inane ramblings for now lol
The dyslexia support work with my company Dyslexia Pathways is going well....slowing down a little now as it always does around easter. Looks like we will just about reach our targets for this year Getting a lot of very positive feeback from students which is always good for moral and it feel great to be able other dyslexics to succeed in their chosen paths.
There has been one problem that has affected my work with students. A lot of disabled students are still not in reciept of their DSA Disabled Students Allowance.I do not know if this is a localised issue or a scotland wide one. However, it can mean students cannot access learning support or be given assisstive technology and the training to use it.
I also hear on the grapevine Disabled Students Allowence rules may be changing. Mind you I have been hearing this for two years. There is a suggestion that disabled students will have to pay for a laptop and printer through their student loan. I am not sure if they will be entitled to a bigger student loan to cover the cost of this. It could mean that disabled students will be put off from going to university altogether. Not sure about the cost of software or of learning support sessions. As far as I can gather DSA will still be granted to cover the cost of this.
I have just taken on a new director...just have to fill out the forms and it will be official. Not going to give her name out just yet. Now without asking her first. What I can say is she is a social entrepreneur herself. Full of great ideas for enableing young people to overcome barriers to education, employment and training.
We have had a couple of meeting to discuss an idea i have been working on for a while and we are going to apply for lottery funding to move this forward. Even better she is completing the funding applications which is cool. Its not that I cannot complete them myself. I have made many successful funding applications but she will do it faster than I can.
I have made an application to the Fife Cultural Trust Fund. Its only a small amount of money to set the wheel in motiong of a much bigger project I have in mind. I also have another application to complete.
Now for some not so good news lol. My main desk top computer got hacked, or was infected by a virus etc we are not sure. The reuslt was a total systems crash and the loss of a lot of data. Most of it was backed up in once place or another and is retrievable. But I lost access to my company e mail and web site for about a week. Its still not working correctly I am still struggling to get everything back into good working order. For example I had to load a totally new opperating system onto the desktop. Then I found out my wifi card / stick does not work on Windows 7 64bit version. So now I am having to replace this with a new one sigh. It has not cost a lot to put right but any additional finacial costs are an isuse for any small social enterprise.
Have to give a big thanks to With People who run my web site....thay have been very helpful.
I wrote a 4000 manuscript on Disobedience and Dyslexia for RASP a dyslexia writers group. I recenlty was informed it has been accepted for publication in the next anthology to be released in November. It has given me the encouragement to write a book or my life with dyslexia. I have also been thinking about writing childrens books for a while but not been confident enough to do it. Have to see how this goes lol.
Anyways thats enough of my inane ramblings for now lol
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