Aman is a young man who lives in Edinburgh. He has made a big impact on the people who have seen him and heard him.
Aman is a citizen leader. He is passionate about giving other people the chance to achieve their potential.
This is what Aman does, in his own words:
I change mindsets
I get involved
I educate professionals
I challenge systems and processes
I work for real partnership
In the last few years Aman has
- Spoken at conferences
- Delivered training
- Developed social services education
- Chaired some groups and participated in others
and lived an inspirational life.
This video shows how facilitated communication can help people say what they want to say. As you watch it, please be aware that the film-makers have edited down considerably the sequences of Aman typing. What is seen as a few taps of the keys may have taken as much as thirty seconds in real time. We did this to make sure that as many of Aman’s thoughts and opinions could be included in such a short time. The effort it takes to type words out one letter at a time is extraordinary, but the words are all Aman’s: the facilitator does not add her own phrases or ideas.
The User and Carer Forum think that Aman’s life is a good example of these Citizen Advocacy principles:
- 1. Potential and 8. Wider benefit
- Citizen Leadership is about helping others see that they have potential
- 3. Early involvement
- because he has got involved in developing the social services workforce at an early stage
