Regeneration Initiatives & Organisations of Disabled People

Rachel Salmon, Principal Community Involvement and Regeneration Adviser, Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust

My name is Rachel Salmon and I am a disabled person working in Tower Hamlets. Over the next few months I will be undertaking research into the extent to which organisations of disabled people are involved in and benefit from local area based regeneration initiatives as part of a Masters degree in Urban Regeneration.

This and previous Governments have invested billions of pounds in initiatives such as the Single Regeneration Budget, Surestart, Health Action Zones etc., many of which have the expressed aim of tackling poverty, inequality and social exclusion.

I would like to find out the extent to which local organisations of disabled people and their members are aware of, participate in and benefit from these initiatives.

I intend to conduct telephone interviews with organisations of disabled people, located in the 88 areas of England in receipt of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding. These areas are considered by the Government to have the highest levels of deprivation and as such are likely to contain the greatest numbers of regeneration programmes.

If your organisation is located in one of these areas and you would like to be included in this research, please contact me on 0207 377 7919, fax.: 0207 377 7803 e-mail: rachel.salmon@thpct.nhs.uk

I am hoping to use the research to make recommendations to ensure that organisations of disabled people can participate more fully in future regeneration initiatives, in particular the emerging Local Strategic Partnerships.

I plan to report my findings in future editions of Activate.

A list of districts in receipt of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding can be found at: http://www.neighbourhood.dtlr.gov.uk/fund/index.htm

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