Role model and advocate

Scott works for SoLO Life Opportunities as a Voice Ambassador.

Within this role Scott speaks up for people with learning disabilities in the organisation, both at the trustee board, where he is a non-voting member, and also at external organisations.

Visiting SoLO projects, Scott speaks to the project members, communicating updates from the Trustee Board and feeding back information from the project members to the board.

Through this role, Scott is instrumental in ensuring that each project members’ voice is heard in strategic discussions. Scott is not afraid to share his own experience of suffering discrimination or poor service because of his disability. He is a great networker, because of this he’s well connected and wherever he goes, he’s always advocating for members of SoLO.

Not only that, but Scott has become a great role model within his community. Scott’s learning disability means he could easily be excluded from the community, but as he faces any and all barriers head on, he’s become very popular in his local area.

His ability to share his own experiences has helped to train staff and volunteers at SoLO to have a real understanding of disability and has even helped deliver training to future GPs and other medical staff, to enable them to better support people with learning disabilities and autism when accessing healthcare.

Scott displays confidence and courage through his work, easily standing in front of 300 people to deliver powerful messages.

Scott has also been into schools delivering disability awareness sessions to children in school years 7, 8 and 9. Some of the pupils were less than well behaved in the session, but Scott was incredibly brave and continued and after he had spoken, their approach had changed completely – winning them all over by the end of the day, a testament to his abilities.

He is the most humble of characters, but has a powerful message to share and always amazes the people around him with his generosity of spirit.