Sustaining the Movement

Andy Rickell, Chief Executive, BCODP

One of the biggest issues for organisations OF is funding – I know this is true at BCODP, it was true at Disability Action Cheltenham where I came from, and it was a major theme of the “Creating Independent Futures” research project led by the BCODP Research Unit which has just been published.

Having visited a number of member organisations now, I know it is even a problem for our biggest organisations. As Mike Higgins put it at the “Creating Independent Futures” seminar – “the only money you can rely on is the money you raise yourself.”

There are of course lots of places to get funding – but funders such as local authorities can be really supportive one year, then cut funding the next. Through BCODP’s Group Development Project, groups can get training and information on how to raise money from funders, but what I want to mention on this occasion is a BCODP project which will bring funding in to the Movement which does not involve us in holding out our caps.

As a national organisation BCODP is able to market to large organisations the skills that disabled people and our member organisations use to help society address the social model of disability – transcription and interpretation services, disability equality and action training, access audits etc. Then when organisations contact us wanting those services we will pass them on to member organisations and individual disabled people within the movement who can provide them.

BCODP will NOT be providing the services – they will be provided by consultants either working freelance or for a disabled people’s organisation, and the money that is paid will go to them. BCODP will only provide a marketing and admin service to enable this to happen – for which it will charge a commission to cover the costs of providing that service. The benefits of this will be:-

1. Additional demand for services provided by the Movement, with the money earned from them going to support what we do, including keeping our organisations financially healthy
2. BCODP furthering its objects of improving the full inclusion of disabled people through getting organisations to address the implications of the Social Model
3. Services being delivered to a standard that the Movement is happy with
4. The extra income generated going directly and indirectly to disabled people
5. The extra work generating more employment for disabled people, and the opportunity to demonstrate additional skills.

So will BCODP be taking work from disabled consultants? Quite the opposite. The intention is to generate extra demand for the services which you already provide from organisations who have not used our services before – for instance major national companies who might overlook the services of a freelance consultant or local disabled people’s organisation. This work will then be passed in your direction.

So would your organisation or you like to generate more income from selling your skills and services? If so, contact us at BCODP and tell us about what you already do OR let us know about what services you would like to do. For instance you might be a disabled people’s organisation which has a transcription service which you sell to local organisations, and you would like to get more work so that you can pay your transcription worker a full-time rather than a part-time wage. You might be a disabled person who is keen to work for yourself as a freelance trainer because it suits your lifestyle but you want to be sure that there will be plenty of work around. We want to help in those situations.

Our first step will be to produce marketing material. If you or your group has a vested interest in selling services, and you want to be in at the start of this project to make sure it will help with what you want to do, then contact Vicki at BCODP who will take your details so that you will be involved in the working group we will be setting up.

© Copyright British Council of Disabled People 2002