Breaking Out of the Bubble

WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE WORK

Breaking Out of the Bubble (BOB) is run by four people with learning difficulties. We have three people who help us run the organisation who don’t have learning disability’ (Neil). 

Our management committee is made up of people with learning difficulties. Advisors without learning difficulties do not have voting rights. People with learning difficulties, choose, run and develop all of (BOB’s) projects and have the last word on everything BOB does.

WHAT WE DO AND WHY IT MATTERS

1.    We support people to ‘break out of the bubble’.

2.    We work to keep people safe

‘We are human beings. We’ve got a right to have a life like everybody else. We would like people to treat us more better in society and not cut us out. We are here to have a better life and to live our lives the way we want to (Jennifer).

‘We want to break out of the bubble and mix in with society. ...We are showing people that we are coming out of the bubble and we are showing society how we are getting out of the bubble (Gina).

‘People think that we haven’t got a life and people think we are stupid and that we can’t have rights...We are not stupid you know. ...A lot of people don’t know how to treat us properly’.

‘We do lots of hate crime training to stop bad people doing bad things to people with learning difficulties in the community’ (Jennifer).

‘We have been training police officers how to work with people with learning difficulties’ (Gina).

We support other people with learning difficulties to become more powerful and break out of the bubble of isolation, silence, vulnerability to abuse and hate crime, poor health, poor well-being and exclusion. With a range of local organisations we campaign and co-develop new work that improves the lives of local people with learning difficulties.

‘We have the right to achieve our dreams and our future ...We are people like you are. ... We have the right to the full life you’re supposed to live....We know how to live the life we want to live’ 

3. WE ARE FUNDRAISING FOR £30,000 for salaries and running and equipment costs while we develop funding applications and work towards spreading what we have done much further and wider. We aim to publish more, learn how to use social and other media in helpful ways, train to use new equipment and expand the work we do remotely. We want to support our members and staff to work on getting across ideas in creative and interesting ways. People don’t understand PWLDs, what our lives are how we want and need to be treated and supported. We want as many people as possible to understand what life is like for us and to understand how we can be supported to break out of the bubble of isolation, silence, vulnerability to abuse and hate crime, poor health, poor well-being and exclusion. 

‘We just want to reach out to everybody that has got no learning difficulties and spread that what we do is the best way to work with people with learning difficulties’ (Gina).

It’s about spreading the word as well for other people with learning difficulties. We know lots of other people in this world who’s got learning difficulties and don’t have the life we have and we would like the. To have the same life we have and done and so we want everything to go their way as well (Gina).

‘We are doing a good job. We are supporting each other’ (Wenda).

‘We want to work with people with learning difficulties in the future. If we don’t do it we are stuck in life’ (Wenda).

We are going to spread the word by ‘going out into society. Let them know we are here’ 

Thank you for reading this we hope you can help towards our work by making a contribution.

4. Thank you for helping us.