Action on Disability is immensely proud to hear the news of our local 10 Disabled residents, mostly members of Action on Disability, who are to be bestowed with the highest honour of the borough, the Freedom, at this evening’s Full Council Annual General Meeting. They were the driving force behind H&F Disabled People’s Commission to bring everyone together, listen to the local community and present the important report ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us’ to the Council back in November 2017.
From late 2017 to the present, the Council has truly transformed to implement the key recommendations of the report, the only local authority in England and probably the whole of the UK, to make the necessary changes within the council and the community at large – coproduction and disability equality – ensuring that the Council made its commitment to the new Independent Living Vision, leading further implementations across all the council departments to date.
Sharon Holder, Chair of Action on Disability, states
“We have moved forward greatly from 2017 to now, for example, the Council gave us the land to build the newly built ground floor Centre for Independent Living which opened in August 2022. This gives us the opportunity to bring more local Disabled residents to use our new Centre and have better outreach across the borough. Sharing the same vision for Independent Living is a big step forward for all of us, working with our local councillors and council officers to move towards the 12 pillars of Independent Living during the next few years. Without the Disabled People’s Commission, this would not have happened so we are very proud of our 10 local Disabled residents who worked together through these challenging times, now we can see the fruits of their hard work, with more to come, so a huge congratulations to them for their Freedom of the Borough!”
David Buxton, Chief Executive of Action on Disability, also states
“It was a great pleasure to work with 10 local Disabled people, one of them is Patricia Quigley, she was encouraged to stand for the local election in 2018 and won, and again re-elected in 2022, she is now the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham since last year, and again for another year! We are very honoured to be informed by our Mayor that Action on Disability will be one of her three chosen charities for 2024/25 so we are very much looking forward to continuing to work with her, especially at our 45th anniversary celebration on 3rd December 2024. This shows how important co-production is to everyone so we excited to work with everyone for better inclusion and equality in this wonderful Borough. A huge congratulations to 10 local Disabled residents for being awarded with the Freedom of the Borough.”
For more information, please contact:
Contact: David Buxton
Tel: 07720 916515 (SMS only)
Email: david.buxton@aod.org.uk