Claire Morgan 04/03/2025 Member Stories

My name’s Craig and I’m a member of People First Bridgend. I’m also a member of All Wales People First and I’m the National Council representative for Bridgend.

I do quite a bit of work with People First Bridgend – I’m part of their training team and we train organisations in awareness of learning disabilities.  We speak to medical students, the police, social work students etc about how to treat people with learning disabilities, to be respectful, have patience and give people time to listen, understand and speak.

At People First Bridgend we talk about self-advocacy.  Self-advocacy is so important because it means you can stand up for yourself and help others to stand up for themselves.

A lot of people with a learning disability can’t do this and they have confidence problems.  I used to have confidence problems but now I don’t because I am part of PF Bridgend and that’s helped me to speak up for myself.

I’ve recently been elected as the National Council rep for Bridgend.  I used to be the Deputy Rep, so I am quite used to attending National Council meetings.  Not everybody can naturally sit in a meeting and take it all in.  As time goes on, it gets easier and it’s important that we have the paperwork in Easy Read format and that things are properly explained and presented in a straightforward way. 

At People First Bridgend we’ve had sessions on what a good meeting looks like and what a bad meeting looks like.  There are so many barriers in meetings such as difficult words or people talking at you instead of discussing things with you.

I go to the Gateway club in Bridgend during the week in the evenings – it’s a good social event.  Mum takes me in my car.

We use public transport for longer journeys, but public transport isn’t very accessible.  It’s hard to understand the ticket machines and there are fewer people behind the counters selling tickets these days.  New technology can be a barrier for people sometimes.

I am also Chair of the Regional Partnership Board for the area – I go to the People First Bridgend offices for this.  Members of the RPB include all the We talk about all the issues which affect people such as transport, housing, health and jobs.

It’s really important to campaign for change especially with the cost of living crisis, cuts to benefits and human rights issues.