I was interested in the press reporting of the proposed change in the way that the welfare benefit paid to people who are deemed to be unable to work is assessed. Up til now it appears  that it was measured largely on what a person could not do .Check out this report from the BBC on the story.

Thinking about this got me thinking about my good friend Debbie Inkley of the Opportunity Foundation of America . A few years ago I had the privilege of working with Debbie on the BOOST programme here in Scotland. Hosted at that time by Morgan Stanley the programme ran for 7 weeks in their offices in Cumbernauld and Glasgow and was aimed at people who had not been in work for a while – for a range of reasons. They came to the office every day and were let through the programme by a nominated trainer from Morgan Stanley. The programme covered the usual subjects like learning to use a PC, write a good CV and interview skills. But there was a special magic element which was hard to  pinpoint but probably came as much from the cameraderie of people coming together regularly whose own background had been tricky but was no better or worse than any of the others. They shared a goal – to get into some paid employment that would use their skills.

Debbie told the stories of previous graduates so well. Initially Morgan Stanley and Debbie started working together to find new employees for a call centre in Salt Lake City in the US. By setting up BOOST they were able to “pre train” many people whose “disabilities” would previously have hindered their ability to get into work. Maybe in reality. Maybe in their own minds. Maybe in the opinions of others.

She was particulary involved in working with people with Cerebral Palsy( CP) and this led to her working with Professor Jim Gipps of Boston College with “Eagle Eyes” a computer programme which uses eye movements to operate a PC.

When working with Debbie I met people with physical disablities who wanted to find out what they could do so that they could move forward with their lives. Others had had mental health issues and it was a huge step for them to consider their next stage. Very few dropped out of the programme.

Seems to me that we should be living up to the expectation that everyone is capable of doing more than they think they can.