Disability

Speaking Up

Creating core funding streams    

Speaking Up, the charity that gives a voice to people with disabilities, was doing award- winning work on a local basis up to 2002, but its chief executive was acutely aware that the outcomes it was achieving were happening in spite of the organisation, not because of it. 

Craig Dearden-Phillips knew that the charity lacked the capacity to maintain the quality of its work, attract talent or to survive the departure of the founders should they leave. So he drew up a new strategy that emphasised the organisation’s core attributes and introduced new revenue streams including an advocacy business and a consultancy and training business. The charity partnered with venture-philanthropists, Impetus Trust, to create a plan to grow the businesses, increase innovation and build capacity.   

Nat Sloane, vice-chairman and co-founder of Impetus Trust, says: ‘We were attracted to Speaking Up for their consistent, high quality work and delivery on their overall objectives. They are reaching out to more people outside of their core area as a result of their recent advocacy contract gains and can spread their ethos outside their local area well on into the future.’ 

The new business streams and extra income have not only expanded the charity financially but have helped it to treble the number of people it works with. Turnover has rocketed from around £600,000 in 2003/4 to £1.37 million today, with a £2.3 million target for 2006/7. Most importantly, it is now sustainable, the charity citing its robust advocacy service business as its core funder.  

Craig Dearden-Phillips  Chief executive Speaking Up 1a Fortescue Road Cambridgeshire CB4 2JS 01223 566258 Reg no. 1076630 www.speakingup.org

Find out how this award winning charity made more of a difference through using performance approaches - click here .   

RNIB

Bridging the technological divide   

RNIB has worked with publishers, mobile phone companies and television providers to give blind and partially-sighted people access to media that people with good vision take for granted. The electronic divide has been bridged through the creation of multi-format books, mobile phones and audio-described television and films.  

‘Blind and partially-sighted people told us that they were missing out on using mobile phones, reading books and watching films and TV,’ says RNIB chief executive Lesley-Anne Alexander. ‘We knew that new technology offered the potential to transform their lives by giving them the opportunity to use these key everyday items.’ 

Only 5 per cent of books currently published are available to the 370, 000 people registered blind or partially sighted in the UK, a statistic the RNIB insisted must change. The charity invested in research, campaigned for inclusive consumer rights, developed relationships with industry and helped to shape legislation. 

In 2005, RNIB provided 40,000 customers with two million books recorded on digital CDs. Lisa Charlton, a Talking Books reader, said: ‘I’d always been an avid reader, until I lost my sight.  Then I discovered Talking Books and my life seemed worth living again.’ 

Kirsty Major, a user of the mobile phone software Talks, added: ‘It is great having a talking mobile. In the past I used to have to memorise phone numbers. Using a phone to text somebody is part of our everyday life now. I also like having a phone that fits in and looks like everyone else’s.’  

Cedar Foundation 

A smart housing model   

Cedar Foundation’s new ‘Smart’ accommodation integrates technology, environmental design and care provision to enable disabled people to control their surrounding environment independently. The technology, previously only available in luxury housing, allows people to live on their own or with friends rather than in crowded residential care homes or with a 24-hour carer. 

The housing model uses technology powered by infrared signals that allows users to activate automatic door access, window and blind control, heating controls, lighting control and radio and TV. These functions can greatly empower those with physical disabilities and brain damage, allowing them to control their own environment, rather than having to rely on carers to perform basic functions as turning the light on.  

‘People with physical disabilities and brain injury have the right to live more independent lives and have more options when it comes to their day-to-day living arrangements. With this model, things are finally looking up and carers under this model can act as facilitators rather than needing to do everything for their clients,’ says Eileen Thomson, deputy chief executive at the Foundation.  

The project is delivering significant benefits to users as well as providing learning opportunities to the other organisations involved.  It has become a demonstration model, influencing future practice both within the Cedar Foundation and within other organisations.  

Seven Smart apartments have been built and the Foundation has commissioned a further 15 in partnership with Habinteg. There has also been interest across Northern Ireland, particularly in creating risk prevention accommodation for disabled people.   

Mrs Eileen Thomson  Deputy chief executive  Cedar Foundation 31 Ulsterville Avenue Belfast BT9 7AS 028 906 66188  Reg no. 2132  www.cedar-foundation.org

West Midlands Special Needs Transport

Ring and Ride service expansion   

West Midlands Special Needs Transport is the UK’s largest provider of Dial-a- Ride services, yet it was only delivering, on average, one return trip a fortnight for each of its users. Despite the fact that its operations have expanded by a third in ten years, this growth has been offset by rapid growth in the aging population, creating a 14 per cent rise in the number of new users every year.   

The charity wanted to do more to satisfy the demand but could not persuade local authorities to provide more grant funding.  So it decided to generate more resources by planning and running special needs transport for local education authorities in return for use of the vehicles and staff when school transport was not required, for more Ring and Ride trips.   

Barry Connor, chief executive at West Midlands Special Needs Transport, says: ‘As a result, the councils now have a more efficient and cost-effective service while Ring and Ride users can enjoy increased mobility.’  In Birmingham alone, around 100,000 Ring and Ride trips are now being provided by the contracted vehicles - around 5 per cent of the charity’s total remit.