Activists launch London's new GLAD

Cathy Reay

A London pan-disability body, tentatively-titled the London Deaf and Disability Organisation Community Interest Company – or CIC for short, is being set up.

Its chair, Andrew Little, a former director at the UK Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS, said the new body hopes to represent “a strong voice for the deaf and disabled”.

CIC has already set up a steering group, including Anne Novis, a trustee of the UK’s Disabled People’s Council, to research issues that the disabled public wanted addressing.

One highlight was the need to support black and minority ethnic, refugee and migrant disability organisations.

Ms Novis said: “I hope that representatives will speak for us at the new CIC. We definitely feel the need for a London body that can represent all of us.”

Director of the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Tara Flood, said: “I think that over the last two to three years there’s been this vacuum across London. Organisations like ours are keen for this to get off the ground so that there is a genuinely effective voice for Londoners.”

Unlike its predecessor, Greater London Action on Disability (GLAD), which collapsed in 2006, CIC is
not a charity.

Mr Little said: “We are aware of the lessons to learn from GLAD. I feel this will be different because it was set up as a community interest company, allowing us to create our own income.”

Initially funded by London councils and the Big Lottery Fund, Little said that it will be his challenge to try and find innovative sources of funding so the organisation can function independently.

CIC was due to hold its official unveiling on 29 September.