announcing a little competition for dyslexics 16 years old and under

Hi blog readers from myself here at Dyslexia Pathways CIC hope you are all well and looking forward to a great week end. We are having a family bar b q here tomorrow if the weather permits so lets hops we get nice weather tomorrow.

COMPETITION TIME:

I mentioned this is my last blog. As part of our Unique Dyslexic Campaign we will be launching a dyslexia logo tee shirt design competition starting on September 1st 2015 and ends in two months time on 1st November 2015. Its for children / young adults 16 years old or younger.

The logo design focus is on being dyslexia positive

Maximum of three colours to be used.

Its not about being a fantastic artist its about being creative and having fun and sharing your ideas

I will set up a Pinterest board and create an album on Facebook to showcase all the artwork sent

The winner will be selected by our social media followers

Prize will be a tee shirt with the winning logo on it for the winner. The winner will be showcased on our social media

If there is anyone out there who would like to donate another prize. A small gift voucher perhaps that would be cool

This competition is open to any young dyslexic anywhere in the world 

Below are some of our new tee shirt logo designs which will be on sale soon. They are still not completed but the designs are nearly there. We would appreciate any feedback from you please.

Other News:

A few years ago I completed and passed the Leading Edge Social Enterprise Academy Leadership Certificate. It was a great course that I enjoyed tremendously and I had the honour to work with a lot of very talented leaders from other social enterprises and third sector organisation.  I have just received an invitation to a little celebration with other alumni from that course and others from which will be cool.

If I can raise £700 I will apply for their level 9 leadership certificate later this year. Bit that is a BIG IF though  lol. Here is a bit about the programme:

.   Leading Growth for Senior Leaders

For current leaders and senior managers responsible for leading established third sector organisations and social enterprises. The programme guides you through modern leadership theory with insightful analysis of your own leadership styles and strengths, enabling you to better support your organisation.

First Port have asked me if I would like to enter their Social Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Herald Society Awards. I expect every recipient of funding from First Port will be invited to enter. Have to give a big round of thanks to First Port and Scotlund Unltd for their initial funding that helped me set up Dyslexia Pathways CIC.

Not sure if I will entre this but its still nice to get the invitation and I will definitely go to the awards ceremony to celebrate the work of Social Enterprises across Scotland.

The award is open to entrepreneurial individual who have set up and run a business driven by social aim, Which is certainly something that we do.

Anyway enough of me yammering on here have a great week end everyone

Dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity #vivaladifference

ta for reading

regards

Steve
PS Please feel free or leave any comments here or on Facebook. Dyslexia can be quite isolating so remember:

 

 

dyslexia a difference that reflects diversity

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

I have not been online for a while. Problems with my computer, problems with my teeth and some procrastination problems and maybe an issue with confidence. I also think I just got plain exhausted by the week I spent at the Scotland CanDo Scale event. My brain was mince for a good week afterwards.

Sometimes even the most confident of dyslexics can get affected by our negative live experiences of being dyslexic in a non dyslexic world. Here I am a very happy and confident dyslexic. One who would quite happily swing in the belfry like a deranged Quasimodo telling anyone body who would listed about the positive of being dyslexic still being affected by that little negative voice in my head sigh.

For sometime I have not been going to get my thyroid and diabetic bloods done and I have been avoiding nurses and doctors like the plague. I am now in the process of resolving this also. I totally hate doctors, nurses, dentist and hospitals. This goes back to when I was a young kid. I spent a year in hospital, nearly died with scarlet fever, then got a really back throat infection etc. That was not so bad because I got to eat loads of ice cream. Apparently I had to be dragged into hospital kicking and screaming and a year later I had to be dragged out of hospital kicking and screaming

I also have two speeds when I am working, I am either working like crazy bursting with ideas, franticly updating social media and doing all the jobs I need to get done or I am doing nothing. Once I am doing nothing it can be very hard to get started again. But I am now focussed I have my list done, prioritised my work etc and moving forward.

Tee Shirts Progress:

We have made some great progress with the tee shirt designs. We have three nearly ready for sale and about three more we are nearly ready to move on to. I will be posting these in my next blog but they are up on my Pinterest page already.

I have completed one funding application for the tee shirt project and just have to get it proof read and put together a budget for this.

Dyslexia Training course:

I have completed my new neuro difference / dyslexia training course all ready to promote it. But as I said in my last blog I am still feeling the financial effects of my heart attack last year. Losing four months income and not being able to claim any benefits has made everything just so much harder this year. Still I have nearly completed a funding application to try and resolve this. Again its just putting together a budget for this.

Tee shirt competition:

I know I have been talking about this for a while but watch out for news on our Dyslexia Pathways CIC / Unique Dyslexic design a dyslexia positive tee shirt completion for kids 16 years old and under. The prize to be a tee shirt with the winning design on it. The winner to be selected by our social media followers.

Anyway its a toodle pip from me here in very sunny Glenrothes and peace love and groovyness to you all

ta for reading

PS: my bro from London is staying with us for a week. He is a brilliant dyslexic artist himself. Always good to see middle sized bro Ian as it is to see mini sized bro Neil. I am the older brother lol. 

 

and finally being dyslexic can be very isolating so my message to all dyslexics and parents and carers of dyslexics out there:

 

Feedback from the Scotland Cando Scale programme and other news

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

Scotland Cando Scale feedback

 

Last week I went to the week long inaugural Scotland Can Do Scale entrepreneur programme. I was on the Scale part of the programme which is for organisations wanting to expand and diversify what they do. I have to say it was a great week. I met with many other entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs all doing great things. I learned a fantastic amount about entrepreneurship from participants, lecturers and speakers at the programme. It was the hardest working week of my life phew 9am to 9pm long days with very few breaks. My head was mince, as they say in Scotland, by Friday afternoon.

This was all about taking a disciplined approach towards entrepreneurship, which for me as a totally undisciplined typical dyslexic, was not going to be easy. Something I would like to ask all my dyslexic blog readers. Are you a very disciplined person? Answers in comments please. 

 

The programme itself was funded by the Scottish Funding Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise and is part of an ambitious Scottish Government programme make Scotland into a centre of entrepreneurial excellence with a focus on innovation as key driver of growth here in Scotland.

 

 

 

 

The main man was Bill Aulet, (picture above) who is the Managing Director, Martin Trust Centre for MIT Entrepreneurship. He is a really nice guy quite humble but he knows his stuff. I had dinner with him and we sat around talking about music mainly with other people at our table. He is into Elvis Costello, Madness and Ska music would you believe. Great with the banter as well.

 

Picture above me having dinner with Bill Aulet talking music. I am afraid I may have been a little brahms so I was teaching Bill a little cockney rhyming slang which he found incomprehensible lol. Brahms is cockney for a little worse the wear for a few drinks by the way lol.

 

 

Above is a picture of Noam Wasserman who is a professor at Harvard Business School. He likes to wander around the room a lot while lecturing. Very difficult to get a good photo lol. Maybe he was another person wearing a fitbit.

Lots of people wearing fitbits here. Fitbits measure how many steps you take per day. Apparently you need to walk 10,000 steps per day to be healthy.

As a social entrepreneur myself I would like to see something like this being organised for social entrepreneurs in Scotland. As a social entrepreneur my organisation is about meeting our social aims and using profit to meet our social aims. There was nothing about this at all.

One puzzling thing I never met another dyslexic all the time I was there. Which is quite surprising considering 35% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. I think part of this may have been down to the selection process for this programme which was, from my personal experience, more than a little dyslexia unfriendly.

I believe there were around 300 applicants for this programme and I was one of the 100 who were shortlisted. As part of the shortlisting process we were told to prepare a three minute pitch to give to the selectors. I duly prepared my pitch in a dyslexia friendly format and we ready to go. When we got there we were told this was not going to happen. Instead we were split into pairs and we had to pitch to each other and then pitch for the other person. All well and good but this was to be done under timed conditions.

For me with my slow dyslexic hand writing I was going to struggle to do this task effectively. There was also a lot of noise going down making this task even harder. I was, to say the least miffed, so I stood up a pointed out these issues to the board and everyone else in the room. I was met with blank stares lol. My point dyslexics might have been put off by this change and many may not have been able to stand up and complain. I felt I had no choice but to stand up and say something. Not for myself but for any other dyslexic faced with this. It was also not only unfair to me but my partner. Any way as it turned out we both got selected and the board took on board what I said for future programmes.

I met and chatted to three of the board afterwards at the Cando Scale event who felt I gave a great presentation and presented my issues very well hence getting selected for the programme. 

Other news:

I had a meeting with Alex and St Andrew uni on Monday regarding my application for a Scottish innovation certificate. This is now ready to send off to Interface to see if we can get £5000 funding to move the project onwards. We have honed the idea down to developing a tool for dyslexic readers using visual tracking hardware and a bespoke piece of new software. If there is anyone in Fife who would like to get involved in testing this new tool / software please contact me. I will be setting up a friends of group for this soon.

In my last blog I mentioned I was seeking an appropriate individual who could examine our accounts and sign them off as good accounts. This has now been sorted out so I will soon be writing a couple of new funding bids for this.

Tee shirts:

We have nearly completed the finished designs for the tee shirts and I will be posting photos in a later blog and asking for feedback regarding these designs.

Ta for reading my blog please share it with others.

PS: If there is anyone out there who would like to support us in our work, help us fund our work through a donation etc please just send me an email.

We at Dyslexia Pathways CIC and through our Unique Dyslexic Campaign promote and support the social model of dyslexia:

 

#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity

#vivaladifference

 

Neuro diversity is as important as biodiversity

#vivaladifference

Ooooops nearly forgot above is a picture of my certificate from the Scotland Can do Scale programme.