CTDU's Annual General Meeting
took place on 28th November 2003.

Mr. Reid said: "They made it clear that there are still problems of access in our community. Not just access to buildings and services, but access also to education, employment and independent living.

"At the same time, by working together, they feel stronger and more self confident. As far as Cathy and myself are concerned, they are pushing at an open door. We have made considerable progress with legislation to stop disability discrimination, but Scotland will not be a land of inclusion and equal opportunity until disabled people enjoy the same range of human rights as everyone else."

Members of the Disability Awareness Group (taken with Cathy Peattie MSP and George Reid MSP) who made a presentation including a section from their video 'Wheelchair Challenge' at CTDU's Annual General Meeting in Alloa on 28th November 2003.

Chair's report

As always, it's been an exciting and verybusy year at CTDU! In April we moved to a building owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that we've named 'Bothkennar Centre for Citizen Education'. It's a fabulous building, offering us our own space for training and development work, and wonderful views!! £500 received from the Voluntary Action Fund (VAF) 'Valuing Volunteers' kickstarted our garden, and we have been very fortunate in getting help with the building of the garden.

We were also successful in receiving funding from the Voluntary Action Fund for a 3-year volunteer mentor and support project. This funding has enabled us to employ a new development worker, Fiona McKeown, to work with our students. Although she has only been with us a few months, Fiona has settled into the CTDU way of life and is a much valued member of staff.

The CTDU Students' Association has now been going for almost a year and we are planning some events, including a Burns supper/ceilidh in January - so watch out for details.

I have been able to participate in some of the training sessions organised through our Department for International Development funding.

The 'Global Citizenship and Action' programme has focused on values and conflict, in particular the war in Iraq, and has been very stimulating. However, I don't think I will ever live down the 'bacon roll' episode although I wasn't the only guilty party!!

My thanks go to Iyaah, Rosemary, Fiona, our volunteers, sessional workers and supporters who all contribute to making CTDU one of the best organisations around (but then I may be biased). Let's keep working together to ensure that CTDU continues to grow in strength for many years ahead.

Carey Sinclair, Chair

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Active Citizens - Action for Equality

CTDU receives a grant from the Community Fund to offer citizen education programmes with a particular emphasis on tackling inequality.

ROAD RAGE!
Development Worker, Iyaah Warren, has been working with twelve members of the Disability Awareness Group at the Whins Resource Centre to offer a citizen education programme particularly related to disability equality issues. The programme focused on helping the group participate actively in a European Year of Disabled People project - 'ROAD' (Raising Operators' Awareness of Disability) - which aims to train transport operators to provide a more accessible service.

Many thanks to video worker James Gibson and to the CLiCK Centre for use of editing facilities.

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European Year of Disabled People 2003

The Wheelchair Challenge

The Disability Awareness Group were very impressed by a 'Wheelchair Challenge' TV programme and decided that they wanted to challenge Councillor Craig Holden and service manager Stuart Landels to spend 24 hours in a wheelchair. Both gentlemen accepted the challenge and reported back on their experiences at the 'VAVOOM Extravaganza' event in Alloa town hall. For both, it was an eye-opening, frightening, frustrating but ultimately very valuable experience. Craig and Stuart are now even more convinced that services for disabled people cannot be planned, run or evaluated without the active participation of disabled people. A video about the 'Wheelchair Challenge' is now available. Many thanks to Councillor Craig Holden, Stuart Landels and video worker Matt Rowley.

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Disability Equality Training

In September we started a Forth Valley-wide Disability Equality training programme led by Morag Mackay who has been involved in the disability movement for approximately 15 years. The first event:

• 'Raising Awareness of Disability' was attended by 45 people and focused on understanding the difference between the medical model of disability and the social model of disability.

Three further sessions were organised:

• 'Inequality and Disability' looking at the barriers disabled people face and how they can be removed,
• 'Being a Disabled Person …' for disabled people only, discussing self-image, assessment and choice, and finally
• 'Forces for Change' looking at the Disability Discrimination Act and Direct Payments.

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Global Citizenship & Local Action

values, conflict and the oil industry

This year's programme funded by the Department for International Development was attended by eighteen CTDU members. Nine full-day workshops looked at the themes of conflict and values, with a particular focus on the Oil Industry:

· A visit was organised by Friends of the Earth, Scotland from two environmental justice activists from Ecuador - Jose Luis Guevara and Fidel Aguinda - who have been central to campaigns against health and safety hazards and pollution from the oil industry.
· We learned about Iraq, its people and its culture and the experience of moving to a new land from three Iraqi young people who now live in Scotland, and we tried traditional Iraqi food. We looked back to the start of the war, to reflect on why it happened, the role of the media, and the role of protest movements.
· With the help of Mae Shaw and some songs with a social purpose, we studied the principles and values which shape our society and how they are taught. We debated the topic 'Is war ever just?'
· We learned and practised skills of global citizenship: asking questions, debating, web searches, email campaigning, public speaking and banner-making.

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Volunteers Mentor and Support Project

There are a number of initiatives in the Forth Valley area funded to encourage volunteering. What is special and different about CTDU's new project is that we are trying to increase the number of community activists and volunteers specifically interested in raising awareness of inequality, and tackling barriers to inclusion, for a range of marginalised groups in practical ways.
The project offers one-to-one and small group mentoring work. The aim is to work with members who have gone through our Active Citizen programme, supporting them to 'put their learning into practice'. This may be taking on new roles in a community organisation or developing challenging grassroots projects.

This project is funded for 3 years by the Voluntary Action Fund.

Groups the project is working with:

CTDU's Students' Association has been involved in developing our garden at Bothkennar. So far the work has involved fundraising, landscaping, networking with other organisations with accessible community gardens and planting.

The Disability Awareness Group at the Whins Centre in Alloa. We are assisting this group in their preparation and delivery of a training programme aimed at raising awareness of the needs of people with disabilities and the lack of accessible transport.

This participatory action research project involves members, who have a history of mental health problems, initiating a research project about their experience of mental health services.

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Film 4um

Four Film 4um events were run in 2003 in conjunction with FTH (Falkirk Town Hall). The format of the evening is to watch a movie which raises relevant social issues, have some grub and a drink, then discuss the movie in a structured way. The total attendance figure for the year is 177.

This year's films were:

'Sweet Sixteen' - based in a housing scheme in Greenock, a young man's determined and enterprising, but ultimately tragic bid to rescue his mother from her drug dealing boyfriend.

'Rabbit Proof Fence' - the true story of three young girls who are taken from their aborigine mothers by the Australian authorities and placed in a training centre for mixed race children.

'Magdalene Sisters' - based in Ireland, another true story of the lives of young girls and women believed to be in moral danger, who were locked up in Magdalene Laundries run by the Catholic Church.

'Erin Brockovich' - yes, another true story of a feisty American mum who gets a job with a law firm and finds herself investigating a company which is buying land which is contaminated with toxic waste.

Many thanks to Claire Harwood and Stan Reeves for their help with running these very successful and popular events.

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Capacity Building

With financial support from Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils and direct commissions from voluntary organisations, CTDU works with volunteers and community activists to develop skills, knowledge and confidence to represent their communities, run grassroots community organisations and participate in local initiatives.

The organisations CTDU has worked with this year include:

In Falkirk . . .
Advocacy into Action, Bankier Community Education Association, Camelon Community Project, Cluaran Project Parents' Group, Denny Asian Women's Group, Denny Community Support Group, Dialogue Youth, Falkirk Out of School Care, Falkirk Framework Implementation Group/Reference Group, Falkirk Lesbian and Gay Society (FLAGS), Grangemouth Adult Learners' Forum, Greenhill Resource Centre, Greenpark Youth Club, International Women's Day event, Limerigg & Slammanan Community Council, Linked Work and Training Trust (Central), Playpen, Rainbow Group, S Kids, Tamfourhill Women's Group, Vision (Stenhousemuir), Westfield Women's Group, Wider Access to School Project.

In Clackmannanshire . . .
Advocacy into Action, Clackmannanshire Tenants' and Residents' Federation, Clackmannanshire Volunteer Development Agency, Clacksnet, Community Access Volunteers, Council of Voluntary Service Clackmannanshire, Disability Awareness Group (DAG), Fund Raisers' Organising Group (FROG), Greenscene, Hawkhill Community Association, Hillfoots Project, Linked Work and Training Trust (Central), Reachout, the Whins Centre.

Forth Valley-wide organisations . . .
Central Scotland Racial Equality Council, Friends of the Earth Forth Valley,
Open Secret, Wisecrack

In Stirling (no Council funding) . . .
Adult Carers Education (ACE), FrienDS Befriending Scheme, Lets Make it Better, Pakistani Social and Welfare Association, Stirling Carers Centre, Stirling Users Network, The Volunteer Centre, Stirling.

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Income and Expenditure - April 2002 to March 2003

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THANKS TO:

Finlay Currie, who has put in so many volunteer hours we've come to think of him as the back shift! Finlay has been indispensable this year, undertaking vast amounts of electrical, joinery, decoration, landscaping and gardening tasks to establish our new centre at Bothkennar.

Other members and volunteers who helped us pack, move to and set up at Bothkennar: Linda McVicar, Fraser Currie, Jason Wallace, Andrew Rae, Nigel Ramage, Norman Philip, Kenneth Knowles, Kenny Warren, Eleanor Bow and Susan Meikle who also helped with computers.

Supplying materials and helping us to make our garden at Bothkennar: Iain, Rosco and BP for donation and supply of sleepers, the Klondyke Garden Centre for plants and compost, Action Recycle for the compost bin, staff from The Brent Alpha Platform for donation of £300, 'Old Chucks' for his old boat, Harry Fairley for help with landscaping and Margaret Meek who donated £50 from the sale of her poetry book 'Words'.

Andy Hilton of Andy's taxis for making a ramp at Bothkennar.

Office volunteers, Linda McVicar, Lisa Sinclair and Kirsty Warren who have all given much needed assistance with typing.

People who have been volunteer tutors, group leaders and assistants this year: Alana Cairns; Norman Phillip; Mae Shaw, University of Edinburgh; Phill Jones, CND; Mike Trubridge, RSPB; David Miller, University of Stirling; and Claire Harwood, FTH.

Volunteer drivers: Finlay Currie, Nigel Ramage, Julie Johnston.

Sessional workers and consultants: Jan Nimmo, Jean Bareham, S Claire Harwood, FTH; tan Reeves, Tansy Lee Moir, Anne Emerson Smith, Sheila Stewart, Ewan McVicar, James Gibson, Matt Rowley, Morag Mackay, Alex Staerck and Kenneth Knowles.

Allan Thomson of Central Training Services, Bo'ness for loan of their mini-bus, help with our flitting and landscaping in our garden.

Mary and Martin at Minuteman Press Falkirk for helpful services.

All our students and participants for their inspiring, enthusiastic and thoughtful work with CTDU this year.

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