What does “living your best life” mean to our Members?
On April 22nd 1993, Stephen Lawrence was the victim of an unprovoked racially motivated attack in which he was tragically murdered. His death and the police investigation that followed brought to light serious issues regarding the attitudes and discrimination within this country.
In 2019, on the 25th anniversary of Stephen’s death, the then Prime Minister Theresa May established a day dedicated to Stephen’s memory that also allows people to reflect upon the part we all play in creating a society in which everyone can flourish.*
In recognising Stephen Lawrence Day, our volunteer marketing officer, Eleanor Piercy spoke with some of the Members here at Langdon. Looking ahead, they shared what living their best life would mean to them and how they feel they can achieve their ambitions.
Hannah’s main goal is to be more independent. We spoke about how her parents have a property in St Anne’s and she wants to be able to travel on the train by herself to visit her parent’s house. With the help of the travel training provided by Langdon, she aims to start travelling with her support worker until she has the confidence to make the journey herself.
“If I can be more independent, I won’t have to rely on anybody else’s time, it will be good for my parent’s and for the staff that they don’t have to be doing everything with me.”
We also spoke about Hannah’s goals on a wider scale for the future and how things can be difficult in the current climate.
“At the moment there seems to be a lot of hate crimes and discrimination, so for me personally, I think for me to be able to feel more confident in myself and to do day to day activities without feeling worried or afraid wherever I go, those things need to change too.”
When we spoke to Claudia, we discussed her favourite things to do are hands on activities and shopping, and that living her best life would be a day out where she can do all of her favourite things independently.
“Having things to do and being as independent as I can would be my best life. If my support worker can practice with me and then gradually I can do more things by myself and get more confident, I will feel a lot more relaxed and people can rely on me. I do like shopping, but I also like hands-on activities. I like going to art places and painting pots so a day of that would be good”.
Edward and Shoshi have been married for almost 8 years and their idea of living their best life thrives from the idea of helping others, together. With the help of the staff at Langdon they have been planning a holiday for all the members to go on when they can socialise together with no restrictions.
“We can fundraise towards the holiday, the incentive for it has kept us going. I want to do a craft stall and we have a baking stall which will all help fundraise at our garden party in August. Different people have different needs but we want it to be fair for everyone to put in funds towards the holiday and anything we fundraise will subsidise the rest. That’s probably the way I think is the best way to live.”
The best life is being able to take control and when it comes to the group, we want to be the ones negotiating and ringing companies.”
You can follow the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation @sldayfdn to see how they continue their fight against systemic racism. To find out more, visit stephenlawrenceday.org
*https://www.voicetheunion.org.uk/news-media-issues/stephen-lawrence-day-2021