On the International Day of Disabled Persons, 3rd December 2018, the Strengthening Voices Realising Rights initiative has awarded over £1 million to seven Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations (DDPOs) in London.
Disabled people and their organisations have been severely hit by austerity measures and the award will provide extra capacity to enable these organisations to deal with growing demand for their services. The initiative will also provide DDPOs with capacity building support to enhance the quality of their services, build institutional strength and provide better evidence to campaign for change.
Trust for London is proud that the initiative, its giving criteria and the funding decisions were informed by a panel of Deaf and Disabled people. Within the spirit of “nothing about us, without us’' the initiative has recruited advisors who identify as Disabled and have experience as disability rights activists, to a Grants Advisory Panel (GAP) to advise the programmatic approach and grants allocation.
The total awarded is £1.3m (£1m from Trust for London and £300,000 from the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City Bridge Trust). The seven DDPOs will together receive £1.07m, whilst £225,000 has been allocated to the capacity building programme and an evaluation of this initiative.
You can see more information on the initiative here.