Caroline Collier, CEO of Inclusion Barnet, talks about how the Trust’s Strengthening Voices, Realising Rights programme is supporting Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs).
Imagine you’re a woman leading an organisation devoted to women’s rights, working hard to attract funding to promote your cause. Challenging of course, but if you do good work and tell your story in the right way, you will hopefully sustain your organisation and be able to meet at least some of your goals.
Now imagine doing that in a slightly alternative world where the women’s rights organisation you run has to compete for funding with lots of other women’s rights organisations, but with a key difference: almost all your competitors are run largely by men. Imagine that these men-led groups have stronger brands, greater resources, the confidence of funders and the ear of government when it comes to setting out what they believe women want. Imagine that the biggest problem you’re battling is that no one can really conceive of an effective organisation being run by women anyway, because you’re not seen as competent, so everyone’s happy for women’s rights groups to be run by men on their behalf.
As hellish as I trust that sounds, it’s largely analogous to what Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) face in the UK today. As mostly local, grassroots organisations, it’s hard to compete against the big disability charities (largely run by non-disabled people), build a brand or gain traction with our messaging. We are mostly under the radar of the public at large. Nonetheless, there are DDPOs up and down the country quietly doing some amazing work, and ready for opportunities to do more.
Read in full at…
Source: https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/news/why-funders-must-take-a-new-approach-to-disability/
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