The focus this year was to share what we had achieved, as well increase our memberships understanding of the terms ‘Social Model of Disability’ and ‘Lived Experience’ as a tool for social change.

The sun was shining, and we were delighted that over 40 members and supporters joined us at Tooting and Mitcham FC’s hub.

Our board began by hosting our AGM. They shared details of what the organisation had been working on over the past year. This included some of our successes like running a pilot that led to us funding a new Speaking Up service, as well as some of the challenges we faced around recruitment.

The board also presented our financial statement for 2024 and elected a new treasurer to the board. Welcome Eekeen! You can read our impact report and financial statement here.

We then went on to host My Voice Matters. At Merton CIL, we operate within the social model of disability and think that lived experience is the most important tool to challenge the barriers that we face.

 

A video explaining the social model of disability shared by an individual on our panel of speakers. You can see an audio description of the video here.

However, we have realised that some Disabled people can struggle to grasp what the terms ‘social model of disability’, ‘lived experience’ and ‘intersectionality’ actually mean. This then results in difficulty applying this way of seeing discrimination/society to our day-to-day lives.

To achieve lasting social change together, we all need to be on the same page about the social model of disability and lived experience.

Therefore, we wanted to start an ongoing and accessible conversation to ensure that we have made the terms digestible to our members to increase our confidence to remove the weight of social injustice off our shoulders and place the weight back on society.

We also wanted supporters and professionals in attendance to better understand the terms and see the value in increasing collaboration with local Disabled people.

 

Our volunteers, members, staff, trustees and partners shared their stories and perspectives on how working within the social model of disability and seeing the value in their lived experience has allowed them to grow and challenge discrimination to make our community more equitable.

Over the next few days, we will share snippets of all speeches on the day. Keep an eye on our website and social media!

Illustration by www.sandrahowgate.com