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Oswestry Equality Group’s successful summer The Equality Group has a new tag-line – Equal people, equal voice. With this in mind, we have been involved in a variety of projects this summer. These have included talks on the role of local press by Colin Channon, the new editor of the Tizer, the role of trade unions by a regional Unite co-ordinator and also the Special Olympics by Brian Johnson, Chair of Special Olympics North Shropshire. The group felt very strongly that those with learning disabilities involved with the Special Olympics are not treated in the same way as all of the Olympians who have been to Rio. They have also worked in conjunction with Oswestry Library to put on a very successful Celebrating Age Day. Next term’s programme is very much focused on youth. On September 22ndSarah Smith, who is a Senior Support Worker at New Century Court (NCC) in Oswestry will be speaking about homelessness among young people. Sarah is an experienced worker who has worked at NCC for 2 years, where they support young people (aged 16 – 25) who are homeless or at risk of becoming so, to develop their life skills so that they can go on and live independently. She will be talking about the impact of homelessness on a young person’s life and the kind of situation that these young people experience before they get to NCC. She will be accompanied by at least one of their customers who is happy to talk about their experiences. These young people have had a difficult time and we should give them every opportunity to tell us what they have experienced and how they feel about their situation and the support that they are receiving. On October 20th Bill and Lynn Morris from the Kenyan Schools Project will speak about young people in Kenya. It should be interesting to find out what similarities and differences there are between their young people and ours. This will all be followed by a discussion of young people’s mental health on November 17th Kay Brophy, who is a Counsellor and Psychologist, set up Acorn Families four years ago to provide counselling services to schools for children, young people and their families. She will talk about the mental health problems that school age people face. She will be accompanied by John Slowley who will talk about mental health issues in pre-school children. All of these meetings are held at 7.30pm in the Upper Room at Cabin Lane Church. A donation of £1 is requested to pay for the room hire. Light refreshments are included. Anybody who would like to find out more about these meetings or the group can contact Penny Rice on 01691 680382 or e-mail oswestryequalitygroup@gmail.com.