Over a year ago we were approached by Laurel Le Tocq from the Guernsey Community Foundation about a new scheme they were running called the Volunteer Matching Programme. Little did we know that this would be the start of an incredible, and at times very emotional, journey that would help to change the lives and attitudes of a huge amount of people in Guernsey, including myself.
The Volunteer Matching Programme was set up by the Guernsey Community Foundation to match skilled individuals from the business community with charities that required their help. We were contacted by Laurel and paired with the Guernsey Disability Alliance, who were looking for some help running a social media campaign.
Unbelievably, there are no laws in Guernsey prohibiting the discrimination of disabled people, and no simple and concise strategy for dealing with the issues that disabled people face living here. Thanks to the hard work of Shelaine Green from the Guernsey Disability Alliance and a little bit of Crowd magic, this is all about to change.
Over the last year I have been working with Shelaine, members of the GDA and various politicians to find out more about what it is like to be disabled and living in Guernsey. I attended many of the GDA’s meetings and met the people who struggle to go about their day because we are living in a community which simply isn’t built for them. With the help of Adie Roussel, I have been putting together videos of these amazing and inspirational people who, after years of suffering in silence, are now prepared to speak out and get their story heard.
We’ve now launched the ‘We All Matter, Eh?’ campaign, which will share these stories with the public using Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. You can get involved using the following links: Facebook Twitter YouTube
Leading up to the debate, the team at Crowd will continue to support the campaign by sharing the content we have created. I would be so appreciative if you could get behind the campaign and help to share the videos, read the information on the website and, if you can, stand at the steps of the Royal Court at 9am on November 27th, because we all matter, eh?
The last year working with Shelaine, Adie & the GDA has been a rollercoaster.
There has been laughter and there has certainly been tears, but it has all been worth it, because by the end of this process, working together, we will have significantly change the lives of 4000 islanders for the better. I leave this project with an enormous sense of pride, a huge amount of empathy and a group of friends that I never would have met had it not have been for Laurel at the Guernsey Community Foundation.
Team Crowd wish them all the very best in their continuing fight for equality!
Shelaine Green, Chair of the Guernsey Disability Alliance said:
“We’d been following a successful initiative in Australia, called Every Australian Counts, which was having a huge impact on the level of government support for disabled people and their families. One of their campaigns encouraged their supporters to record themselves talking about their experiences of disability, load them on a central website and then use social media to ensure they got seen. It got us thinking that a similar campaign could be really impactful here in Guernsey on the run up to the November States debate on the Disability and Inclusion Strategy. But we knew we didn’t just have the expertise, or the funds, to do it. As it happened, we asked the Guernsey Community Foundation for help just as Crowd joined their Volunteer Matching Scheme. Serious serendipity.
Our members have really embraced the opportunity to tell their personal stories and Crowd have edited hours and hours of footage. We have just started to load the first videos on the matter.gg website that Crowd created for us and our members are ready to share them via We All Matter, Eh? Facebook and Twitter accounts. Making full use of social media is something that charities need to learn, just like businesses, so it has been fantastic to have the experts hold our hands all the way through the journey.”