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Inequality Is Not Inevitable: Our New Guide for Activists

Inequality Is Not Inevitable: Our New Guide for Activists

The Equality Trust: "We are proud to launch our new activist pack: Inequality Is Not Inevitable. This guide aims to help inequality activists target key decision-makers, and those who influence them, so that action is taken to reduce inequality. In addition to our compelling and growing evidence base in favour of more equal societies, we have always believed in the necessity of a large social movement demanding a fairer, better UK. This guide aims to help people join that movement and to then take concrete action to tackle inequality. Please do read and share the guide with all the people and organisations that you know and work with!" Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Care homes can be lonely and cruel places. But they can also be inspiring too

Care homes can be lonely and cruel places. But they can also be inspiring too

My old man said follow the van, and don’t dilly-dally on the way.” We are seated in a circle, singing. The woman next to me is lusty, her voice clear and her hands tapping out the rhythm; the man opposite in his wheelchair looks slightly dazed but he mouths the words. People who might not be able to speak can often find language when it is set to music. Memory floods back. I am at a residential care home in Carterton, near Witney, Oxfordshire, run by the charity MHA, where two-thirds of the 68 people who live here have dementia. “I dillied, I dallied, I dallied and I dillied,” we sing, smiling, nodding, all joining in except the woman in…
Dr Neil Thompson
March 9, 2017
Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Celebrate getting older

Neil Thompson’s Lesson for Living – Celebrate getting older

We live in a society that seems to value youth (although not necessarily young people!). A fortune is spent on various ways of trying to make us look and feel younger. Whether or not that is money well spent is questionable, of course. Is it mainly another way of consumer capitalism getting us to spend our money? Well, it certainly fits with the idea that, if you want to make a lot of money, sell people things that they have to keep coming back for more of. Trying to hold back ageing is like Canute trying to hold back the tide. Wouldn’t it make far more sense to just accept that every day we create a new yesterday and therefore…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017
Overcoming deprivation and disconnection in UK cities

Overcoming deprivation and disconnection in UK cities

The poorest areas of towns and cities do not always benefit from economic growth. They can remain disconnected from the prosperity experienced by residents of wealthier neighbourhoods in the same region. This research looks at these issues from the perspective of housing and labour markets in the 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods across the UK. It finds that there is a need to reconnect economic growth strategies with poverty alleviation initiatives. The research includes an interactive map which reveals how disconnected regions are spread across the UK, and also shows the areas affected by ‘double disconnection’, across both housing and labour markets. Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017
Photographer combats gender stereotypes with the idea that ‘boys can, too’

Photographer combats gender stereotypes with the idea that ‘boys can, too’

It started when my son was only a few months old. I had taken him downtown with me, for my weekly therapy session with the social worker I was seeing for postpartum depression counseling. There was a chill in the air, and I worried that his little cotton pants would ride up and expose his legs while I wore him, so I decided to put on his sister’s old baby leg warmers. They were mostly white, but had small pink and purple hearts scattered across them, Who would care, though? He was a baby, after all. I stopped by a friend’s house before my appointment, and she immediately commented on it, laughingly telling me she would buy him boys’ leg…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017
Stress in public services: How do you unwind?

Stress in public services: How do you unwind?

So answered a staff nurse, one of the 3,700 public and voluntary sector workers who responded to a Guardian survey on wellbeing in the workplace, when answering the question: when you feel stressed, what do you do to relax? From playing heavy metal music on full blast to crocheting furiously in front of the TV, respondents had developed a wide range of ways to unwind. With 93% saying they suffer from stress at work, and more than half saying they are more stressed than this time last year, learning to clock off and manage stress has never been more important. Alongside the positive and charming “I use adult colouring books”, we received frank responses that detailed the daily struggles some…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017
These amazing animations show what being LGBT in the workplace is like

These amazing animations show what being LGBT in the workplace is like

A series of animations has been created to illustrate what it is like to be LGBT in the workplace today in the UK. Until legislation was changed in 2003, it was legal in the UK to be fire an employee for being LGBT. Later, The Equality Act 2010 consolidated many protections in law for LGBT employees. Author of Straight Jacket, Matthew Todd, told totaljobs: “Although it has never been easier to be Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender, a significant number of LGBT employees are still afraid to ‘come out’ at work because they fear this will lead to harassment and damage their career opportunities. “People who are not LGBT might dismiss the need ‘to be open about your sexuality’ as…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 23, 2017
Avenue Professional Development Programme

Avenue Professional Development Programme

The Avenue Professional Development Programme has been developed to allow busy practitioners and managers across the people professions to maximise their learning. There are two pathways within the Programme, Silver and Gold. The Silver pathway allows members access to a secure website where they can join in professional discussions under the tutorship of Dr Neil Thompson; have access to a constantly growing library of multimedia learning resources; develop an e-portfolio to record and demonstrate their learning and make use of an online reflective journal. It is not a course in the conventional sense, but, rather, an online learning community to support and facilitate continuous professional development and lifelong learning. The Gold pathway includes all the benefits of the Silver pathway…
Dr Neil Thompson
February 9, 2017
Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Security is the ability to cope with insecurity

Neil Thompson’s Lessons for Living – Security is the ability to cope with insecurity

It is quite common for people to be rated according to how secure they are, especially people who are perceived to be low on any such rating scale – that is, people who are viewed as ‘insecure’. But what does it mean to refer to someone as ‘insecure’? Or as ‘secure’, for that matter? The world is a very insecure place, in the sense that, as the old saying goes, the only certainties are death and taxes. No one knows what is going to happen next. Our lives could potentially be turned upside down at any moment, with horrendous consequences. Disaster could be just round the corner. But it probably isn’t ... Click here to read more
Dr Neil Thompson
February 9, 2017