How the old ways can be the best: back to basics in Cumbria

Here in Cumbria we’re really proud of the number of people who’ve signed our petition for more action on the adult autism strategy. We have 388 signatures in total so far and people keep asking us how we’ve encouraged so many people to sign up.

1. Is it that provision for adults with autism in Cumbria is so much worse than everywhere else? Yes and no. Services in Cumbria are seriously lacking, and we really do want to encourage the local authority to do more. However this isn’t unique to Cumbria. As NAS research shows some 70% of adults with autism aren’t getting the support they need from their council.
2. Do people in Cumbria just care more? No. We have some great volunteers in the Furness branch and other passionate campaigners across the county, but committed campaigners have been trying to get people to sign up to Push for Action everywhere, not just in Cumbria.
3. Are supporters all connected and working together? Not necessarily. At the NAS branch in Furness we have an amazing committee who organise lots of activities but there certainly aren’t 388 of them! In fact, one of the reasons the local authority says adults with autism in Cumbria don’t have all the support they need is that the county is so spread out and disjointed.
4. Are there more adults with autism in the Furness branch of the NAS? Actually, many of the people signing the petition are parents of children, but we all recognise that one day our children will be adults, and we want to make sure the best support is available for them when they grow up.

So how did we do it? We went back to the basics of old fashioned campaigning. Remember those days before online sign-ups when you would sign up to a list in the city centre or at a community event? Well, our committee member Jane McFie suggested that every time the Furness branch of the NAS runs activities or attends events we should take a paper copy of the petition with us and ask people to sign up. We’ve been inputting these names into the online tool ourselves. This means it’s much easier for people who don’t have access to the internet or haven’t come across the link online to get involved. We’ve been taking the petition to them rather than expecting them to come to the NAS site.

If you want to speed up the sign-up rate in your area why not give it a go? Contact campaign@nas.org.uk for your own copy of the paper petition and advice on collecting signatures.

Jackie Bell, National Autistic Society Furness Branch Officer