A lot has changed since we created the Fair4All Card Scheme. Find out here where we started, and where we are now.
How the Fair4All Card Began
From the start of the first Covid-19 lockdown, new regulations were introduced, such as only leaving your house for essential travel and exercise once a day. As a disability charity, BuDS was contacted by many concerned disabled people, parents and carers, who were impacted by these rules. Parents of autistic children were concerned they would be arrested for leaving the house everyday if their child needed exercise every day.
As a result, BuDS created the ‘Letters of Authority’ Scheme – a letter that listed the reasonable adjustments the disabled person needed. However, these letters were not durable and could break easily.
In August 2020, BuDS created the Fair4All Card Scheme. Taking inspiration from the Letters of Authority, the scheme was designed to create a durable, plastic ID card, to replace the letters previously used.
During August, BuDS created a Facebook poll, asking whether disabled people would be interested in the Fair4All Card – the result was overwhelmingly positive. Cary and Freya, the Project Coordinators, then worked hard for the next few months, creating proposals, plans and designs. We worked hard and were prepared for launch in November 2020. Then cue the November lockdown. At this point, we had no choice but to put the launch on hold.
It turns out this lockdown was a blessing in disguise for the scheme. It then allowed us to expand the scheme much further than before. We were joined by our amazing team navigator and enabler, Angie and Alicia. We gained ambassadors and supporters, gaining attention of local supermarkets.
We were then ready to launch! As the 2021 winter lockdown eased, we officially launched the Fair4All Card Scheme on the 25th June 2021.
The Scheme Today
It is now two years since the first launch in November 2020, and much like the Queen, we enjoy having two birthdays! A year and a half later, much has changed.
We’ve expanded our team a lot! We now a brilliant volunteer helping us respond to your applications, and many more in the pipeline. These new volunteers will be helping Freya and Cary to manage your Fair4All Card applications and contacting potential Fair4All Card Partners.
We also said goodbye and good luck to our Project Navigator, Angie. With her support we made amazing progress over the year, and we couldn’t have done it without her. Now that the Fair4All Card Scheme is off the ground at a flying start, she moved over to another project to help them get the same success. Thank you, Angie, for everything!
Recently we said a further goodbye to our amazing team enabler, Alicia. She helped us get in touch with so many supermarkets, and helped build the scheme. Alicia has moved onto an amazing new job, and we wish her all the best for the future!
But that’s not all! Freya and Cary have processed a lot of cards since we launched – not bad for a team of two balancing disability, work and education at the same time. We’ve also got many more being processed, and we’re hoping that some of our upcoming ideas will bring in even more applicants too!
Our Partners+ Scheme is no longer an idea on paper, but an official scheme about to be launched! Watch this space for more information and details about this brand new initiative.
We launched our Social Distance Lanyards, and have consistently listened to what you as the disabled people of Buckinghamshire want to see from the Fair4All Card Scheme. We’ve also set up our Facebook and Instagram pages, providing disabled people with regular content and answering questions.
What have we got planned next?
We are currently working on a large expansion of the Fair4All Card Scheme.
You’ll need to follow us on Facebook at ‘FairFourAll’ and Instagram at ‘fair4allcard’ to keep up to date, but we promise that we have a lot more exciting things in store that we can’t wait to tell you about.