The new Disability Justice Fund focuses on building a strong Disability justice movement in London, following decades of disproportionate cuts to services, inequality and exclusion.
By directly resourcing Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs), we will support these groups to be more effective, powerful, inclusive and sustainable.
The fund has been designed in collaboration with Deaf and Disabled activists, and builds on learning from Stronger Voices, Realising Rights (SVRR), an initiative set up in 2018 to support Deaf and Disabled people’s rights and inclusion.
We hope that the fund will support a range of DDPOs including small organisations and those working across intersections of injustice – for example groups for LGBTQ+ Disabled people – to strengthen their collective identity and capacity to mobilise for change.
Manny Hothi, Chief Executive at Trust For London, said:
Years of austerity, underfunding and more recently Covid have eroded standards of living and everyday rights among Disabled Londoners.
Levels of poverty among Disabled people in this country are unacceptably high – 35% of families in poverty in London include a Disabled person – and the capacity of DDPOs to call for change has been undermined by a lack of resources. We need to build the voices of Deaf and Disabled Londoners back up and bring in a wider diversity of perspectives, so that they can campaign for real change and help build a more equal, fairer London.
The fund is supported by £1.5 million funding from City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity funder, which awards funding of over £28 million every year to tackle disadvantage across the capital.
Giles Shilson, City Bridge Trust Chairman, said:
Find out moreThis fund will strengthen the voice of Deaf and Disabled people and increasing their power to bring about positive change, by giving resources directly to the organisations that represent them. We’re proud to partner with Trust for London on this project, which aligns with our ambition to create a fairer, more equitable London and to grow stronger, more resilient and thriving communities.
6 July 2022