Wokingham Borough Connect
 Travel with confidence
Residents who are involved with Supported Employment Services and CLASP members have helped My Journey Wokingham create a local campaign to encourage more people to travel by bus.
They used their experience to think about what would persuade them to try the bus, or to use the bus more often. Some then also became the paid models in the campaign photographs, to bring the messages to life.
Hopefully you will have seen one of the My Journey posts, which are being shared on Facebook, Instagram and X over the coming month. You will also see poster versions going up in venues across the borough, to help spread the message that we want everyone to be able to enjoy bus travel. Please do like or reshare the My Journey posts if you see them.
 Helping everyone get out and about by bus
We’ve been working with CLASP members and their Reader Panel to improve the information available to residents with a disability who might want to use the bus.
We talked about what information would be helpful to know, and how we could explain things as clearly as possible.
The new page on the My Journey Website has lots of information and useful tips including:
- How to get a Safer Travel Card, so you can let the bus driver know how they can help you on your journey
- How to apply for a disabled bus pass or companion bus pass
- How to find out about independent travel training
If you have any feedback, please just let us know.
How to find (and keep) a great PA workshop
On 12 March we held a pilot workshop called 'How to find (and keep) great PA's at the Council's Shute End offices. More than 20 residents came along to the session, which was led by Tricia from Social Care Future and Gloriously Ordinary Lives.
The idea to put the workshop on came from our co-production project on Direct Payments last year. We heard that finding a great PA can be a barrier to choosing or using a direct payment, and that people wanted help where to begin.
During the 4 hour session, we were prompted to think about:
- What's important to you, and what makes life great for you? (Or if you are recruiting for a son, mum, partner, what's important to them.)
- What do you want to be different about how your life works now?
This helped us to get clear on what we wanted a personal assistant to do, the kind of person we wanted to attract with our job ads, and creative ways to find the right people. People who were there said they felt that they had learnt a lot, and could see how finding the right PA could help them enjoy their life again.
Next we will use a form to gather more detailed feedback from the people who attended, so we can see if there are still questions they want answers to, or topics that they still need support with. This information will help us make sure we have the right support in place, and in the way that suits people best. We will keep you posted!
On Wednesday 2 April Wokingham’s Autism Partnership would like to invite all neurodivergent adults, children, family, friends and professionals to an event at the Oakwood Centre in Woodley.
This celebration event is free to attend but you do need to book a place. You can drop in any time between 2pm and 7pm, where there will be:
- A marketplace of organisations and services providing support in the borough
- A Strategy Zone, where you can find out about the 5 year All Age Autism Strategy and get involved
- Fun, in the form of a Brickies LEGO area
- Drinks and snacks from Ability Catering
- And workshops by local advocacy groups at 3, 4 and 5pm
For full details about the day, the workshops, and to book your place, please visit their Eventbrite page.
Thanks to the Age Without Limits free image library for some of the photos in this fortnight's newsletter
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