I am really proud that my Zoom project helped Camden Disability Action win a grant from the Good Things Foundation.

Lots of people applied to them and Camden Disability Action’s bid was really strong and it went through because of my Zoom project and all the work I have done so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Good Things Foundation is a social change charity that supports socially excluded people to improve their lives through digital technology. The Foundation has just awarded Camden Disability Action lots of tablets, which will be used to create a digital hub at the Greenwood Centre.

I am doing the Zoom project as part of Camden Disability Action’s Leadership Programme. The programme is supporting me and other Disabled people to lead the way on issues we are passionate about and become leaders in our communities.

I’m really passionate about helping Disabled people to learn about Zoom because I know it can help them connect with friends, loved ones and professionals too. That’s important because a lot of Disabled people are isolated and many Disabled people were alone during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Not long ago, I didn’t know anything about Zoom myself, but CDA’s Community Inclusion Worker Carly Halpin taught me how it works and now I am passing on my skills to other Disabled people.

The main work I’ve done so far is create an easy-read guide to using Zoom, a flyer promoting my project and a feedback form. I’ve put all those things together in files and sent them out to people with a learning disability.

Because of the pandemic, it’s been hard to deliver training sessions so far, but I have delivered one session to a woman with a learning disability at a café. It went quite well but the woman still wasn’t that confident with Zoom and I think I need to give her another session. That’s ok; it can take time for people to learn new things.

Once the digital hub is up and running at the Greenwood Centre I will hopefully be able to deliver more face-to-face training sessions there.

I have found a few support workers aren’t familiar with Zoom or how to download it, so one important part of the work will be guiding the support workers on how to download Zoom so that people have it on their equipment before the training sessions start.

I am really happy that my project has got off to a good start and that I am going to be helping Disabled people connect to others so they feel less isolated.