An Insight Into the Day
Our UpLift Team’s ACTION event to get people involved in campaigning took place on Saturday 18th October at The University of East London’s Sustainability Research Institute. Combining workshops and presentations from experienced campaigners and activists, the event aimed to give us the knowledge and tools to help kick off our Hoists in Hotels Campaign; an initiative that will soon be unveiled concerning hotel accessibility and calls for more hoists to be available to guests nationwide.
Who we heard from
We heard from speakers including Jon Hastie, CEO of Pathfinders Neuromuscular Alliance, and Sarah Rose, Chair of Pathfinders, who spoke together about their experience campaigning. They shared their work supporting disabled people to bring their PAs onto hospital wards during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their action against parking penalties at Eastbourne railway station for those with Blue Badges. Jon and Sarah led our workshops after the other speakers had presented. Both are currently working on Pathfinders campaigns to improve health and social care.
Other speakers included Sue Elsegood, a disability rights activist and therapeutic counsellor, who works with Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) and the Disabled People’s Direct Action Network (DAN) among many other organisations. Sue has been passionately campaigning for accessible public transport, disabled people’s civil rights legislation, and independent living rights since the late 1980s. She is currently providing accessibility advice to both the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and The O2 Arena in Greenwich.
Our Campaigns Officer at Pathfinders, Samuel Cornelius-Light, also presented and spoke about his own struggles with housing, and how he has been involved in the media, including interviews on BBC Radio 4 and a piece for ITV about his wait for an accessible home in Bristol. (https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2024-02-26/disabled-man-waits-years-for-an-accessible-home-in-his-community)
We also heard from Josie Verghese, a freelance journalist and producer who previously worked for the BBC. She gave us communication tips, such as the importance of clear messaging when campaigning. Josie left the BBC earlier this year following a 20-year career that began as a production secretary and included roles with Newsround, BBC London, 5 Live Radio, and BBC News. Her longstanding experience in media and journalism got us thinking about how to communicate our campaign’s mission and who to connect with; from hotel companies to members of parliament.
Conclusion
The ACTION Campaigning event gave us valuable insight into the different ways we can approach the Hoists in Hotels campaign, learning from people with lifelong experience in activism. This is only the start of our campaign, but the event gave us the tools and enthusiasm to move forward and reach our goals.