The Centre for Inclusive Living Perth and Kinross are thrilled to have brought 11 of their CILPK members together on the 7th of June to talk about what being a Disability Champion is all about. It is about empowering their members’ to share and use their own lived experience to help shape policy, attitudes and accessibility. It might include physical access to shops, pubs & transport, social and health care issues and inclusive challenges within their local communities. It will provide members with the opportunity to get more involved and have more control over the things that affect their lives. It’s all about influencing change themselves with the support required from CILPK.
Critically and importantly, CILPK believes that Disability Champions can play an important role in changing the power balance between those who provide services and those who receive them.
Disability Champions will be trained, equipped and supported to carry out their role or task. The staff and some volunteers at CILPK will support the champions and will meet together regularly as a peer support group and individually; each Champion will require different support and some champions will mentor others to develop their confidence and skills. No one size fits all and support will be tailored accordingly.
CILPK get-togethers every 6 weeks will provide an opportunity to meet others who might be facing the same challenges, or just get out of the house and have a cuppa somewhere safe with like-minded people! It will provide an opportunity to review activities CILPK have been involved in and to forward plan and identify up and coming opportunities. CILPK have lots of ideas for the future, and the Disability Champions themselves will be at the centre of how things develop.
CILPK have already involved a number of our Champions in what they do and these have included Inclusive Communication training for Perth and Kinross Council IT staff, a street audit of a proposed new accessible “Golden Route” from Perth station to the redeveloped Perth Museum and involvement with Network Rail into the redevelopment of Perth Station to name but a few!
CILPK members’ voices, experiences and inputs into a range of things going on in Perth and Kinross have never been more important and sought after and as a result we are busy and the Champions are much in demand! For further information about what CILPK do or about their Disability Champion programme drop them an email at info@cilpk.org.uk or phone them on 01738 587282.
