Chapter 9 continued

Former leader of Birmingham City Council, Sir Albert Bore, a person instrumental in securing funding and premises, pays tribute to the BDRC and to the Disability Rights Group which got it going:

“It was the Disability Rights Group who drove this project and the officers within the Economic Development Unit persevered alongside the Disability Rights Group. Out of this came a particular type of Resource Centre – a project which had some uniqueness to it and I think that we should all be rather pleased that it had, even though it took seven years in gestation.

“Just to say that it was ’92 when it was first opened (so we are talking about 17 years ago) I think that there is a longevity here that we should all be rather pleased about. We must have got something right.

“Those were the days back in the 1980’s when there was an urban programme (the Inner City Partnership programme) which allowed us to fund things. It is when you have access to a resource like that and you use it in a clever way which will allow you to move the agenda forward.

“I am very pleased that we were able to deliver a Disability Resource Centre. It was a period of years where local government (and certainly local government in Birmingham) were pursuing very imaginative initiatives in terms of helping on enterprise or training initiatives.

“And what we had was a wide spectrum of these initiatives in Birmingham, a disability focus being just one of them and I am just pleased it happened and I am pleased that the Disability Resource Centre is still here 17 years on.”

BDRC Chief Executive, Louise Simmons, summarises her thoughts on why the centre remains extremely successful and increasingly looks towards a bright and abundant future:

“There are loads of things, I have to say, it would be difficult just to pick one. I think BDRC has an extremely committed, dedicated, flexible, fantastic workforce. That is one thing I am extremely proud of, I have been involved in most of the appointments of the staff that are here now.

“Any organisation has a turnover of staff. Some of the people that have been here for the longest have moved on now, but we do have some people that have been here for a while, which is great. We do have a lot of new people, but all the staff are just so committed and dedicated to the organisation and that is something that is sometimes difficult to find elsewhere.

“It’s something very special to the BDRC how everybody will support each other and help each other out, everyone is just so committed to what they do. The services that we provide, I am extremely proud of them too. So I suppose those are the two critical things that for me, I see as being positive.

“On the subject of our Employment Service, because that is one of the things developed here very early on, I don’t think it was an intention of the BDRG, that the BDRC Employment Training became central.

“It may have been but I have not picked up on it, I think it came out of the early relationship with the Economic Development Unit, which provided the financing, there was the connection with Strawberry Studio, which was developed quite early on, then throughout the ‘90s we look at people like David Heap and Debbie Nunn and it seems to be a constant service in one way or another.

“I think, my understanding of service development historically and let’s be fair, I think the organisation started out as a rights and representational type of organisation, but – as funding has changed and funders dictate what they want – then BDRC chased the money in some respects.

“If the money is not there for disability rights work anymore because the DDA came into force in 1995 and should have probably addressed a lot of the issues that were around prior to that, so I think BDRC have had to adapt and change from being a rights based organisation to a service delivery organisation.

“I do believe that implementing training remains important. I think if you look back at BDRC’s constitution it makes it really clear that the centre was established for the benefit of disabled people across the board, whether that be physical disability, sensory impairment, learning or mental health and the centre was established to support and empower disabled people, to take part in mainstream society and to be active citizens.

“At the end of the day a key element of being an active citizen and taking part in society is to contribute to society through employment.”

The year 2010 marks the 18th year of BDRC’s existence and also the 25th anniversary of the launch of Birmingham Disability Rights Group in 1985.

Between 2008 and 2009, BDRC supported just over 4,000 service users in Birmingham and, with new funding contracts being signed with bodies such as the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Adults and Communities department of Birmingham City Council, the number is set to increase in coming years.

The organisation is still governed by a majority of disabled people on its board of directors and 90% of staff and volunteers at the centre are disabled people – in this respect it remains one of just a handful of organisations in the city which are run by a majority of disabled people.

Ironically, perhaps in terms of the timing of the completion of this history of BDRC, this year the organisation has been given notice to vacate the building that it occupies on the Bierton Road site in South Yardley, as Birmingham City Council, the landlord, is planning to close down the whole site.

So, whilst the funding during the next two years and the development of existing and new services is looking extremely healthy, the potential impact of changes to location and facilities will be substantial.