DPULOs as voices at a grassroots level

I caught an interesting debate between two of my favourite tweeters earlier today. They were both talking about the recent merger of Radar, NCIL and Disability Alliance to form Disability Rights UK, and what this might mean. Their exchange – with my *personal* views included – is below.

“	Interesting. Mega charities good or bad? RT @tlap1 Disability groups merge to form largest user-led charity http://shar.es/beQuN #ukmh #mhuk
	MarkOneinFour October 26, 2011

In the link above, Mark is talking about the merger of Radar, NCIL and Disability Alliance. From a professional point of view, I don’t have a perspective on this, but Dominic did:

“	Unconvinced http://bit.ly/tHDqZi will give louder voice to ppl with disabilities.Fewer ppl speaking 4 the many /v @MarkOneinFour #disability
	dominiccampbell October 26, 2011

The bit that really took my interest was Mark’s response:

“	@dominiccampbell I think next wave of change will come from disabled people’s user led organisations & autonomous groups with suss & skills
	MarkOneinFour October 26, 2011

“	@dominiccampbell Pressing question is how we fund, support, start, resource, develop & advocate people doing groups & orgs themselves
	MarkOneinFour October 26, 2011

I couldn’t agree more with Mark on this.I think Disabled People’s User-Led Organisations (DPULOs) (along with others in the voluntary and community sector) will play a significant role in representing the voice of disabled people at a local level.

They undoubtedly face a number of challenges in being in a position to do this. This is part of the reason why I’m involved in the Strengthening Disabled People’s User-Led Organisation Programme: it aims to provide precisely both the financial and non-financial support that DPULOs require to do the work they uniquely can do.

Thus, I hope it’s part of the solution to the issues that Mark highlights and that Dominic himself has come across:

“	@MarkOneinFour couldn’t agree more. @enabledby and others emerging in that space with exactly those challenges. need more!
	dominiccampbell October 26, 2011

It’s great to know that I’m not the only one who sees the value in the work of DPULOs. I hope the Strengthening DPULOs Programmegoes some way to addressing the challenges Mark and Dominic highlight.I also hope they – and others interested and involved in DPULOs – will let me know how the programme can provide better support, and help me get the message out there about it!

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