The William Keown Trust

Highlighting The Achievements And Promoting The Dignity Of People With Disabilities

April

Personal Achievement Awards information was collated and sent to the members of the short-listing panel.

The June edition of Trust Newsletter was finalised and sent to the publishers.  Twice a year at our Personal Achievement and Access Award Ceremonies the Trust launches its updated newsletter containing full coverage of the season's events. 

April also saw a visit to Knocknamuckley and Clonduff Churches to give advice to enable these listed buildings to be as accessible as possible to people with disabilities. 

Our Church Access Guide which was first published in October 2001 has been widely distributed and is still in great demand as October 2004 approaches and the final provisions on the Physical Adjustments to premises embedded in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) will be implemented.

This year due to demand the Trust has expanded our support and information department and library services.  We continued to extend to the general public, a client services department where customers with genuine need value our representation.  In April we were delighted to hear that a client we represented had her hospital wait for a hip replacement cut from two years to four months.

We are happy to report that in April after canvassing the Road Services in Ballymena in respect of high kerbing outside Broadway Nursing Home, Larne that was causing extreme difficulty for patients with walking problems and those in wheelchairs accessing the footpath, the Road Service agreed to drop a number of kerbs to improve access facilities.

May

The Meeting of the Personal Achievement Awards short listing panel took place, this is a very difficult task to execute, as all our nominees are special in their own unique way

May also saw the Meeting of the Personal Achievement Awards Interview Panel take place.  This small committee was delighted to meet the nominees short-listed for the various cups and trophies.

  Members of the Trust gave a presentation to Ardglass W I on our work.  It was a most enjoyable evening where information on our activities was given to a large audience invited from throughout County Down.  It is the aim of the Trust to strengthen our links with other community groups and offer lectures, seminars and workshops on a variety of disability issues

A meeting of the Access and Education Committee took place to discuss the forthcoming Trust events.

The members of the Trust’s Access and Education Committee are committed to the constant improvement of access standards for people with disabilities.  Several successful initiatives have been identified to address the needs of people with disabilities.

Various access audits were also undertaken in May.  It is wonderful to see that so many businesses and organisations are interested in bringing their premises up to a standard that makes access universal for everyone.

June

June began with a meeting of the Administration, Awards & Finance Committee to finalise arrangements for the Personal Achievement Awards which is one of the keynote events in our calendar.

Preparation of further funding applications was undertaken; the majority of the Trust’s finances comes from street and supermarket collections but submissions have to be made to various bodies for support assistance   

Members of the Trust were invited to the Headquarters of Abbey National in Belfast to receive a cheque in the sum of £4,500 for sponsorship of the Personal Achievement Awards. The Abbey National Charitable Trust Limited works closely with charities and voluntary organisations throughout the United Kingdom, as part of the Community Investment Programme of Abbey National plc.  It favours projects concerned with equal opportunities for people with disabilities and activities that provide education and training for disadvantaged groups. 

The William Keown Trust Awards for Personal Achievement were held on Thursday 26^th June in the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel, to recognise the accomplishments and courage shown by children and adults with disabilities.

The awards, which marked their 24th anniversary, attracted over 80 nominations from across Northern Ireland.   

Gerry McCollum, chairman elect of the William Keown Trust’s Admin, Finance and Awards Committee welcomed the guests which included award nominees, their families and friends, mayors and chairpersons from a number of councils and members of the community who made the original nominations and without who the awards would not be possible. The Trust President, Kate Smith of UTV, presented the awards and the afternoon was presided over by Gene Fitzpatrick.

The Celtic Lyre Orchestra, an initiative from the Camphill Communities of Northern Ireland, provided musical accompaniment. This exciting project has designed, developed and built its own very high quality musical instruments- whilst working alongside and including adults with special needs.

The William Keown Trust promotes an association between awards recipients; the framing of the certificates and the engraving of the shields, trophies and cups are carried out by previous award recipients.     

Mr  Keown was among the dignitaries invited to  present prizes to the winners of the Special Olympics Roller-Skating competitions at the King's Hall in Belfast on Saturday 28^th June.  Mr Keown said the Games have touched the hearts of so many people and  have helped to strengthen the Trust’s message that disability does not mean inability and  that everyone is entitled to an  equal  place in society.