Liverpool: ‘Cafe Psychologique’ Invites All To Monthly Event

Cafe Psychologique is a space to talk about life from a psychological perspective, with several Cafes running throughout the country.
There are some trained professionals at the Cafe but no lectures or seminars, instead ideas are dropped into the group to stimulate thought and discussion.
It’s a forum with an open invitation to everyone to come and give their thoughts on the topic being discussed.
It’s a relaxed informal atmosphere.

The next Cafe is Wednesday 31st May (6.30pm-8pm).

 
The title is “The hat or the heart: what does it mean to have a home?”
It will be exploring issues such as the changing concept of a home, homelessness, and how this affects people’s well-being.
However, the direction of conversation depends entirely on those attending.
 
The Brink, Liverpool.
Monthly on Wednesday at 6.30pm, £2 on the door (£5 with food provided – arrive at 6pm).
 
More information: info@thebrinkliverpool.com or 0151 703 0582
 

The aim of the Cafe is to include as many perspectives as possible to promote rich discussion.

It would be fantastic if people came to share their views.

Second Annual Faith and Peaceful Relations Conference: Coventry 5th July

Last date for submission of abstracts: 22nd May 2017

 

Second Annual Faith and Peaceful Relations Conference

Faith in the Care System: Addressing the Diverse Needs of Children

5th July 2017, Jaguar Building, Coventry University

Co-hosted by the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University & CoramBAAF

 

http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/research-events/2017/Faith-in-the-care-system/

 

In the context of Social Work, faith – both religious and non-religious – remains an under-researched and inadequately understood aspect of children’s identities. Children’s beliefs influence their care needs, aspirations, perceptions and connection to family and community life. Research evidence suggests that depending on a child’s particular circumstances, faith can either strengthen their sense of self-worth and resilience or it can inhibit it, reducing a child’s confidence in his or her decisions. In either case, faith can impact on a child’s ability to form positive realtionships with their carers. In order to improve outcomes for all children, it is imperative that researchers, social work professionals, carers and parents better understand the impact that faith can have on children’s lives and well-being. This conference will create a forum where exciting new research, current best practice and everyday lived experience of faith in the lives of looked-after children can be discussed and better understood.

 

The Faith and Peaceful Relations (FPR) Research Group at CTPSR explores the role religion can play in achieving peaceful and just societies. Faith can be a driver of social justice, yet it can also be a source of exclusion, misunderstanding and conflict. We are currently leading a project (funded by the charity Penny Appeal in collaboration with Coram-BAAF) to examine the experiences of Muslim children in the British care system. Following on the success of the first FPR conference on Islam and Peaceful relations we are excited to collaborate with CoramBAAF on the second FPR conference which will examine the impact of children’s diverse faith and belief positionalities on their journey’s through the British Care System.

 

This conference is an opportunity for academics, professionals and carers to come together to share expertise, experiences and good practice of caring for and addressing the needs of children from diverse religious and non-religious faiths. We invite proposals for papers, panel discussions, workshops, poster presentations and other contributions from academic scholars, social work and care professionals, adoptive and foster parents, legal experts, community activists and from those who experienced the care system. The conference will explore themes including:

 

Plenary Speaker: Dr John Simmonds OBE, Director of Policy, Research & Development, CoramBAAF

John is a qualified social worker and until his appointment at BAAF was the Programme Coordinator for social work programmes at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has been involved in consultancy and training for social workers and social work organisations throughout his career. He has published many articles and chapters in books and was the co-editor of ‘Direct Work with Children’ published by BAAF/Batsford in 1988. He is the adoptive father of two children.

 

Abstracts & Proposals

To submit a proposal:

 

Registration

 

Conference Organisers

Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (ac0967@coventry.ac.uk), Mphatso Boti Phiri, Alison Halford Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University; and Savita de Souza (Savita.deSousa@Corambaaf.org.uk) CoramBAAF

Join DPAC: Wed 17th in Birmingham, for the End of May!

 
 
 
 
Disabled People Against Cuts West Midlands
 
#StoptheToriesintheirTracks
 
Wednesday 17th 2017, 2pm – 6pm
 
Protest @ 2pm – Congregate lower end of Bull St, Birmingham B4 7AA
 
Rally @ 4pm – Waterstones Bookshop, 24 – 26 High St, B4 7S
 
The Days Ahead Look Grim:
 
Say No To Five More Years of Tory Death and Destruction!
 
Read the attachment….

Resisting the Austerity Agenda: Engage in the General Election

Well, assuming that other people will do it clearly won’t work. Despite this being the first time in decades that opposition parties have presented so many pro-welfare state policies, much of the public remains exhausted, mistrustful and unable to conceive of anything other than ‘better the devil you know’. Our media has fallen for the Tory tactic of staying very quiet, and is failing to scrutinise their last 7 years in power. The British political landscape is complex and at times frightening. The need for us to engage, to speak with neighbours, colleagues, friends, strangers, has never been greater. 

SWAN does not affiliate with any one party, but calls on everyone to use their vote as a vote against austerity and racism. Use your vote to demand a properly funded welfare state free from vulturine private companies.

Please create or assist in voter registration schemes over the next week. Those living with disability, with mental illness, women and students in particular have the power to change our lives – let’s get people registered! 

Please host public meetings with other public interest/campaign or charitable groups in your area. Invite political candidates to come and ask them some hard questions! We have attached a flyer with 5 questions covering Brexit; the NHS; privatisation of social work; health and social care and the refugee experience. Use and share this flyer! 

 

Disability Studies: Austerity and Precariousness Seminar Series

Please find here an Introductory You Tube video, and an Eventbrite link for tickets and a full timetable for the day.

Disability studies is a scholarly movement that engages with interdisciplinary insights into the construction(s) of disability and ableist-normativity and what these dividing practices means for social policy, social care, legal regimes and biopolitics more generally. Precariousness ‘implies living socially, that is, the fact that one’s life is always in some sense in the hands of the other. It implies exposure both to those we know and to those we do not know; a dependency on people we know or know not at all’ (Butler, 2009, 14).
 
Precariousness can be a significant measure of the efficacy of social policy and law.  This seminar series will bring together researchers whose work focuses on the marginal, the aberrant, disabled people, displaced persons and the trans/categorically ‘othered’ to explore austerus, those ‘dry, harsh and sour’ landscapes of thinking about difference, variability and the increasing (re)turn to classifying populations creating inside and outwith zones of belonging and exclusion.
 
 
This series is sponsored by:
(Dis)places: Embodiment and community in critical and creative motion
 
(Dis)places: is a new grouping that goes by a name that is emblematic of its intended flexibility, critically and creative, without us taking ourselves too seriously. The ‘dis’ element, reflects, firstly, the School’s historical and continuing strengths in disability-related research – broadly defined. Bracketing it alongside ‘places’ draws attention to our interest in marginal spaces – physical, political, educational, cultural, economic, etc. – in which disabled people, as well as other groups and communities, find themselves. (Dis)places: Embodiment and community in critical and creative motion highlights the broad disciplinary base of our group – humanities, theology, social sciences (pure and applied), as well as making links with creative arts.
 
 

SWWB Visioning Meeting: Sat 13th May

Swan Dundee: Meeting Mark McDonald MSP on June 7th

As per the Minister’s request, it is now arranged that the Dundee SWAN students will be meeting with Mark McDonald (Scottish government minister for children and early years) on June 7 at Holyrood. Items on the agenda will include our objectives as an activism group and how the Scottish government might support our actions, and also to give him our views on the vision and strategy for a social work paper they’re currently implementing… Watch this space!