Food bank volunteering no cosy photo-opportunity for Tory MPs!

Food bank volunteering no cosy photo-opportunity for Tory MPs!

Casework experience, aspiring helping professionals, and a simple KUWG leafleting session

Elizabeth Niles concludes her Z2K blog piece Case study: a year long ESA saga(1) with these words:

Before I started my placement at Z2K I had no experience of writing tribunal submissions but in the time that I have spent at the charity the caseworkers have been very supportive in showing me the ropes and I am now able to represent clients and help them challenge their benefit entitlement.I would encourage anyone who is interested in law, social welfare or helping to fight injustice to apply to be a volunteer at Z2K.

In KUWG's collective experience, a preliminary to casework can be just standing outside a jobcentre and/or disability benefits assessments centre, say, with leaflets and placards as 'ice breakers' and listening to people as they unburden themselves. It can be very good to talk to someone whose leaflets suggest  that you are not the first person who has ever been abused by government officials. And it can be very heartening to learn that it's not necessary to go out and dispose of yourself as a huge 'saving for the public purse'. ;-) It's great to be listened to by another human being who is not out to rubbish you as the Government would have DWP employees do to service users,(2) or as professional workers burnout despair leads service users to feel they have been treated.

For further details of volunteering opportunities with Z2K go to http://z2k.org/volunteering-at-z2k/(3)

For how to get involved with KUWG, come to one of our weekly Thursday afternoon, 3:15pm to 5:20pm business meetings at Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH. Location map.(4) How to get there.(5) At present, we are planning to have a caseworkers workshop on how to deal with burnout. That is likely to take place in July 2016.

Link

1. http://z2k.org/2016/06/case-study-a-year-long-esa-saga/
2. http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/pcs_comment_archive.cfm/id/0BCC603C-DEE6-4F77-A7338C216969AA58
3. http://z2k.org/volunteering-at-z2k/
4. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=525177&y=184362&z=0&sv=NW6+2JH&st=2&pc=NW6+2JH&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

KUWG Diary from Wed 29 July 2015

Compiled by Ivy

Wed 29^th July, 2:30pm-4:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training sessions organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
ESA (Employment & Support Allowance) and PIP (Personal Independence Payments) training by KUWG

 

Thurs 30th July, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting

Wed 5^th Aug, 2:30pm-3:30pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/Community Resources in South Kilburn training by South Kilburn Trust and South Kilburn Voices

Thu 6^th Aug 4.15 - 4.45pm Keep Volunteering Voluntary at KUWG meeting, Penny from Waterhouse NCIA will attend in regards on how to tackle workfare. (Weekly KUWG meeting meeting assembles from 3pm; exits 5:30pm sharp.)

Wed 12^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
Cooking on a budget training by Granville Community Kitchen and Fuel Poverty Action

 

Thurs 13th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting
 

Wed 19^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/
Money Management training session by Hillingdon Credit Union and Kilburn Fair Credit Campaign

Thurs 20th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting 

 

Wed 26^th Aug, 2:30pm-4pm, @ Kilburn Salvation Army Hall, 55 Chichester Road, NW6 5QW: Rights training session organised by Lift: http://www.liftpeople.org.uk/

(This will focus on changes to EU migrants' benefits and other entitlements following changes to legislation.)

Thurs 27th Aug, 3pm for 3:30pm-5:30pm @ Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Road, NW6 2JH: KUWG regular Thursday meeting 

 

(KUWG Thursday meetings as usual ongoing as long as Kingsgate Community Centre is open)

Sun 4^th - Wed 7^th Oct Festival of Resistance - a counter protest against Tory Party Conference in Manchester. By People’s Assembly.

Sun 4^th Oct National Demonstration by the TUC. Pesky Tories are itching to criminalise trade unions’ right to strike. Let’s show them what they’re missing.

Thu 5^th Nov 6pm The Million Mask March by Anonymous at Trafalgar Square. Work your finest Guy Fawkes attire & roar: Fuck Austerity! Anonymously.

Councils and electrical repair and reuse — perhaps they are not doing enough?

By Swheatie of the KUWG

It is perhaps good that Camden Council is doing something to promote DIY electronic repairs — see previous posting on this blog. But are they doing nearly enough?

Though an LB Camden-resident, I recently contacted LB Islington's one-of-a-kind 'Bright Sparks' electrical repair place by phone about the prospect of getting my stereo turntable repaired. (It has not been working properly since I took the old stylus out and put in a new one.) There I was told that their specialist repairer of such items is off sick but the other volunteer would be willing to have a look. So, not really confident about the 'non-specialist volunteer' handling the job, I went to an electrical shop near where I live but also in LB Islington and asked the propietor if he knew anyone who fixed such items.

He told me that he does, and advised me to bring it in, and so I did this afternoon. This afternoon, though, he told me that he gets so many such items for repair that he is fed up with them, and that mine will be the last one he'll attend to!

So it seems to me that there is under-provision for such services, perhaps, and London boroughs could perhaps be more resolute in fixing that gap? Maybe they should give more training to potential professionals, bearing in mind that some of us with various disabilities would not be able to do the fix-it stuff no matter how many short workshops or even longer courses on DIY electrical and electronic repairs we attend.

And how about paying people to do the repairs, rather than just relying on volunteers? Should not reducing the proportion of potentially repairable items that go into landfill and thus reduce land available for housing be a priority?