CAFE is proud to be working with a number of organisations and NGOs to better inform our works around non-visible disabilities and / or long-term health conditions.

The non-visible disabilities working group has been established to bring expert advice and guidance to the group, representing some of the people that the project will hope to engage with.

The working group first met in November 2019, and through our cooperation with the group we have launched our survey for non-visibly disabled people and / or people with long-term health conditions to complete.

If you consider yourself to have a non-visible disability and / or long-term health conditions, or if you are a companion to such a person, please take part in the survey here. A Word document version is also available here.

If you are not a native English speaker, please feel free to complete the survey in your preferred language.

An easy-to-read version is available now as a Word document and PDF. You can find out more about the easy-to-read version here.

The survey will be open until 1800 CET on 16 June 2020.

Through working with the group and the outcomes of the survey, we aim to find out more about the typical matchday experiences of non-visibly disabled people and / or people with long-term health conditions; which facilities, services and practices provide the greatest benefit, and appropriate ticketing and seating categories.

CAFE would like to extend our thanks to the working group for all of their support and guidance so far, and we look forward to continuing our cooperation to make football more inclusive and accessible for all.

You can find out more about some of the organisations and experts who make up the working group below:

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Nicky Baker, Level Playing Field

Nicky is a registered Access Auditor, and works with our partners at Level Playing Field as their Disability Access Officer.

Level Playing Field campaign for improved access and inclusion for all disabled sports fans across England and Wales.

Nicky also plays powerchair football, whilst supporting Liverpool FC and Wigan Warriors RLFC.

Cormac Coyle, Inspire

Cormac is the Director of Operations and Safeguarding Lead for Inspire.

Inspire is a charity and social enterprise, it’s aim is wellbeing for all. Inspire provides mental health, learning/intellectual disability, autism, addiction and workplace wellbeing services across the island of Ireland. Cormac  has over twenty years management experience in adult and children intellectual/disability services and mental health services.

A qualified Social Worker, Cormac also holds a Leadership and Strategic Award for Social Work, and a Masters (MSc) in Health and Social Care Management. He has a keen interest in research, and is in the final year of a PHD in Social Work, examining Policy and Practice developments in Northern Ireland’s Adult Safeguarding, and conducting a qualitative comparative study of Adult Safeguarding across the United Kingdom and Ireland.  

In 2018, Inspire supported the Irish FA to launch a Mental Health and Wellbeing Guide for football clubs across Northern Ireland. The guide was funded as part of a UEFA Hat Trick project to challenge mental health stigma and help prevent mental health issues. 

Soufiane El Amrani, Inclusion Europe

Soufiane is the Easy Read Editor at Inclusion Europe. He has prepared the following biography in Easy Read format:

Hello, my name is Soufiane El Amrani.

I am from Belgium, Brussels.

I am the Easy-to-read editor at Inclusion Europe.

Inclusion Europe is an organisation that defends the rights and interest of intellectually disabled people and their families.

I have been with Inclusion Europe since 2008.

 

Here is the website address for Inclusion Europe:

Inclusion-europe.org

Here is the Facebook of Inclusion Europe:

https://www.facebook.com/inclusioneurope/

here is the Twitter of Inclusion Europe:

https://twitter.com/InclusionEurope

 

My proudest achievements are:

• Taking part in Inclusion Europe’s leadership training and the self-advocate meetings.

For example, I enjoyed taking part in Inclusion Europe’s

annual conference Europe in Action in Prague last year.

I like meeting new people and making new friends.

• Being part of the team that created the European Standards

on making information easy-to-read in 2000.

• Being able to explain to other self-advocates

about how to create easy-to-read information.

• Being able to give easy-to-read trainings to other organisations.
  
  

Poppy Ellis Logan, Attention UK

Poppy is an Associate Lecturer in Mental Health at Middlesex University and a Practice Lead at the My Care Academy, which comprises Middlesex University, NHS Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. In 2017, Poppy founded Attention UK to advocate for the equal treatment of people with ADHD in the UK.

Attention UK campaigns seeks to raise awareness of the barriers and challenges facing adults with ADHD, and calls for better media representation of people with ADHD using media guidelines and political resources. The campaign also seeks to address inequalities in service provision across the NHS and Higher Educational Institutions in the UK.

In 2018, Poppy successfully argued for the inclusion of a statement regarding under-diagnosis rates in women with ADHD on the NICE Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of ADHD. This contribution has had a significant impact on the recognition of women with ADHD and in July 2019, Poppy was listed as one of the Top 50 Influential Neurodiverse Women of the Year by Women Beyond the Box.

Poppy enjoys watching football (she supports Altrincham FC), and has a particular interest in the mental health of footballers and other sports professionals.

Libby Herbert, Colostomy UK

Libby is General Manager at Colostomy UK, a non-profit charity that supports and empowers people with a stoma (ostomates) their families, carers and friends, as well as healthcare professionals.

Like others with non-visible long-term health conditions, ostomates can find accessing facilities challenging at times. Libby is passionate about changing this, and Colostomy UK are campaigning to ensure that non-visible long-term health conditions are understood and accepted by all. The charity is working with businesses, public bodies and policymakers to make their organisations stoma-friendly.

This involves guiding decision makers, helping them to make practical changes to infrastructure and processes, as well as ensuring that in-house training equips customer-facing staff with the tools to deal compassionately and empathically with the needs of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions.

Colostomy UK’s Active Ostomates projects (#ActiveOstomates) help people get active after stoma surgery by delivering a range of free sessions (swimming, chair yoga, art sessions and archery) through stoma support groups, stoma care open days and in the community. These sessions are all aimed at improving the physical and mental well-being of people with a stoma, supporting them to get their lives back on track as soon as possible. They also run challenges each year to encourage more people to be active and have their very own Team Colostomy UK Rugby League team (#TacklingTheStomaStigma).

Olga Kotova, Perspektiva

Olga leads the Russian pan-disability NGO Perspektiva on its sports programs. She oversees several sports-related workstreams including disability awareness and Paralympic sports awareness programs at schools, trainings for physical education teachers in adaptive sports, and pilots inclusive physical education programs in inclusive groups in schools targeting children of 8-12 years old.

Notably, Perspektiva is a part of the international Designed to Move initiative aiming to increase physical activity globally through involving children in positive sport-related experiences and activities. This initiative involves many commercial, governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Olga heads the Football for Hope project in seven regions of Russia. As part of this project, disabled children and non-disabled children participate in inclusive football training and activities, meet prominent football players and visit football matches.

Olga has served as both an organiser and a participant in numerous conferences and seminars related to sports and adaptive physical education, as well as parasports festivals in Moscow and 14 other regions of Russia. She is a member of the cross-country skiing and table tennis teams of the North-western borough of Moscow, and participated in the Sochi-2014 Olympic Torch relay.

Daniel Townley, Level Playing Field

Daniel works alongside Nicky, and is Level Playing Field’s Development Officer.

His role involves developing and delivering disability awareness training across clubs and organisations in England and Wales.

Daniel also works closely with football clubs in the English Football League on access and inclusion, promoting a better matchday experience for disabled supporters. Daniel plays football regularly and supports Liverpool FC.

 

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CAFE Research Officer Isobel Robins, who is leading the research project, said, “We are very fortunate to be working with so many experts who are working to improve access and inclusion for non-visibly disabled people and / or people with long-term health conditions. Each member of the working group shares our belief in a game that is welcoming for all people, and we hope that this group will help to make football a truly inclusive game”.

If you have any questions about CAFE’s non-visible disabilities project or the expert working group, please contact CAFE by email to [email protected] or call +44 (0)208 065 5108.



Published 7/4/2020