Response to misleading information from NCBI re cuts to pottery classes.
A tweet from @ncbi_sightloss on October 14th reassured myself & others that
pottery classes were continuing as normal with Terry Cartin. I was further
reassured in an email from the NCBI on October 15th that quote "There were
to be no cuts to Service User contact at NCBI in relation to pottery
tuition & that the NCBI were delighted to be retaining the services of
Terry Cartin who is a valued tutor in NCBI, and someone who is held in very
high esteem, both by our many service users and the organisation. We
realise the significant benefits of Pottery for our service users, and
indeed, we would hope in the future to extend and not diminish this
service. Thank you to everyone who has expressed their concerns on this
issue, but there was never any talk of Terry being let go, or leaving NCBI
services and I hope that this update will put the issue to rest and I
further hope that we all benefit from Terryâs significant expertise long
into the future." end quote. Before the NCBI email went out on the VIP &
Michael lavin's email list's, we had 64 signatures overnight to support our
petition. Signatures immediately stopped & people began to congratulate us
on helping to sort out cuts to The pottery Service.
As a past pupil of the NCBI Rehabilitation Training Centre on the Whitworth
Road who had the pleasure of attending pottery classes, I regret to inform
you that the hours Terry Cartin the pottery teacher works have been
significantly cut. I understand from Students that cuts implemented are
having a serious knock-on effect on productivity. Achieving the high
quality of service that we have been used to is a mission impossible
working in an environment with greatly reduced hours. It is disappointing
that Students are no longer able to achieve their full creative potential.
All students of the ceramic class realise that as much work is done by the
teacher outside the class as within the class. Without his collaborative
help, the finishing, glazing & firing of works cannot be successfully
completed. These cuts need to be reversed.
The pottery Teacher Is a graduate of the National College of Art & Design,
who is himself visually impaired, has been a role model & an inspiration to
hundreds of students over the last 17 years, from both the NCBI
Rehabilitation Training Centre & the Iona Centre. He works at NCBI two days
a week, & his enthusiasm & dedication has enriched our lives, allowing us
to fully participate & to tap into our creativity, & sometimes discover
creativity that we didnât even know we had. There is talk of an N C A D
volunteer student being brought in to help. Having experienced a number of
students in the pottery class, I found they can be more of a hindrance than
a help as the teacher has to look after them as well as us. They are no
substitute for the professional service offered by the teacher. There is
also a very important aspect of art therapy involved in these classes which
can be undermined by another person not known to the class being present.
We aim to meet Gerard Byrne, Manager & Chris White, CEO, as soon as
possible & to present the petition to them.
In relaunching this campaign, I would appreciate if you could sign your
name to the petition to save Pottery Classes at the NCBI Training Centre &
add an optional comment. Any problems, please send an email to:
save.ncbi.pottery.classes@xxxxxxxxx & we will count this as your signature.
The campaign team consists of myself & Carmen Miller at present with Owen
Kyne being a driving force behind us. We hope these savage cuts can be
quickly reversed with no need to further our campaign. We have no wish to
damage the NCBI's excellent reputation but consider that another cut & the
present approach by management is far more damaging than our campaign could
ever be. Anyone with particular skills who may wish to help or join our
campaign team can contact us by email.
Many thanks for your support.
Barry OâDonnell & Carmen Miller.
link to petition:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DPBLVBH
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account, subscribe or unsubscribe:
//www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/fb-exchange ;
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
