Staff Training on Human Rights

Human rights are integral to us all which is exactly why the staff at My Time undertook a training course delivered by BRAP facilitators Diane Rutherford and Sheila Ellis on the 13^th June 2007.

The human rights training session took place at the My Time office in Small Heath and was attended by all My Time staff. The main driving point of the session was whether human rights acted as a vehicle for progressing equality and to discover individual and joint opinions/ feelings about this staff undertook individual, paired and group activities.

The staff at My Time explored their understanding of human rights, learnt about the factors that had influenced the equalities agenda and related legislation, developed their understanding of human rights by applying the taught principles to imaginary and real life situations, learnt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discussed applications to the rights whilst still having time to reflect on what they had learnt.

Staff also learnt about past events and legislation going back 67 years to 1940 and how it had an affect on human rights/ equality amongst people.

It was a very informative and somewhat shocking session as staff learnt the extent to the lacking in equal opportunities in past history and realised exactly how important human rights is in society.

Sheila Ellis, BRAP, stated ' In an increasingly diverse society, where inequality and discrimination persist, human rights offers us the possibility of exploring what's really important and how to make more of a difference'

She also expressed that ' My Time is clearly an organisation that is willing to invest in the time and resource required to engage in complex debates and look beyond 'easy answers'. Its staff found the workshop stimulating and challenging in equal measure and contributed to brap's developing ideas about the application of human rights to 'front-line practice'.'

One member of staff claimed 'I didn't realise how diverse a topic human rights was initially but I felt the session opened up new doors to the way I think and feel '

Overall it was yet another bend in the learning curve that staff at My Time experience.