The Faculty of Health and Life Sciences was excited to be supporting Neurodiversity Celebration Week for the first time during the week of March 21st-27th.
Neurodiversity means the full range of human neurology: neurological differences, for example those labelled dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, autism and Tourette’s syndrome, should be recognised and respected just like any other human variation.
The week aimed to raise awareness, acceptance and understanding of neurodiversity in the Faculty and university community and celebrate and support our many staff and students who are neurodivergent. We hope that this will mark a new beginning for Neurodiversity in the Faculty.
Ian Prior, Faculty Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing Faculty EDIW Lead stated:
‘The Faculty of Health & Life Sciences was proud to support Neurodiversity Celebration Week. It was great to see so much engagement from our staff and students. I certainly feel better informed about the experiences and perspectives of some of our neurodivergent colleagues. Please contact us if you have further ideas for raising awareness and improving what we do to support neurodiversity.’
Over the week we recorded over 160 attendances at our talk and workshop events and launched the neurodivergent staff group with an online coffee morning. If you missed any of the events or would like to join the neurodivergent staff group links to recordings and the staff group teams page are available below.
HLS's Neurodiversity Celebration Weeks Events
Event
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Recording & Stream Links
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Talk: Growing up with ADHD Speaker: Andrew Whitehouse (https://andrewwhitehouse.co.uk) TEDx Speaker and Bamford Lecturer Andrew Whitehouse will be talking about neurodiversity and his own experience of being diagnosed with ADHD |
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TRAINING: Support and Adjustments for Neurodivergent Staff and Students |
Support and Adjustments for Neurodivergent staff and students |
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Neurodivergent Staff Support group launch
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You can join the Teams site via this link where you can meet virtually other ND staff and share tips, information or support. The group will also have regular coffee mornings to offer a safe space to talk and support each other. This group is open to all staff from across the University. |
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Talk: Tourette's: Increasing awareness to improve individual quality of life |
Talk: Tourette's: Increasing awareness to improve individual quality of life |
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TRAINING: Supporting Neurodivergent staff session for managers |
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Talk: Me, My Dyslexia and My journey through academia Dr Jenna Kenyani |
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PANEL DISCUSSION: Autistic in Academia: Lecturer, researcher and student lived experiences A Lecturer, Post-Doc and Student will talk openly and honestly about their lived experiences of being Autistic and working in academia |
Autistic in Academia: Lecturer, researcher and student lived experiences |
Training Opportunity
The Faculty Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing (EDIW) Committee is keen to support the development, awareness and training of our Faculty Community in EDIW to help embed its principles into the fabric of Faculty life and would like to share this opportunity with you.
Following on from the fantastic events which took place across the Faculty last week to mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week, we are delighted to announce that we are funding five places from the Faculty EDIW budget for attendance at a one-day colloquium which will explore intersections of minority-racialised identity and neurodiversity. More information about the event can be found via this link and key details are outlined below:
Event:
Race Equality Colloquium 2022: Race Equality in Transformative Times: Exploring intersections of minority-racialised identity and neurodiversity
- Date: Wednesday 4th May 2022
- Time: 09:30-16:30
- Mode of Delivery: Virtual
Who can apply? This opportunity is open to staff and students in the Faculty (however the content is probably more relevant to staff). If you are interested taking advantage of one of the five funded places, please check with your line manager, supervisor or tutor first.
How do I apply? Please email your expression of interest to hls.ediw@liverpool.ac.uk by MIDDAY on 22nd April 2022, with the following information:
- Your name
- Department/Institute/School
- Job role / Programme of Study & Level (UG, PGR, PGT)
- A brief paragraph about why you would like to attend this event & what you hope it will bring to your role / work. If you are a student you should demonstrate that you have an interest in developing a career in one of these areas (i.e. student support, wellbeing advisor, EDI research, EDI practice etc).
- Please ensure you are up to date with your obligatory online Diversity & Equality module
- We will endeavour to get back to applicants soon after the closing date to let them know if they have been successful
- If you need any more information or would like to discuss this further you can contact Mark Morgan (mmorgan@liverpool.ac.uk), Rob Pettitt (robp@liverpool.ac.uk), Jenna Kenyani (j.kenyani@liverpool.ac.uk) or Laura Davies (laudav@liverpool.ac.uk).