About us
Independent Lives is a user-led charity working to change the lives of disabled people, people with support needs and carers.
We provide a range of frontline services which support people and their communities.
From domiciliary care support to respite support for carers, from information and advice for Direct Payment recipients to campaigns that promote the importance of peer leadership and strategic co-production. Independent Lives is a charity which really matters and really makes a difference.
Vision and values
Our vision is an accessible society where disabled people experience autonomy, choice, and control in their lives.
Working together we achieve real change in the lives of the people we support - so that we can all participate in our communities and have greater choice, control and freedom.
Our values are:
Inclusion
We celebrate our differences and believe that embracing diversity makes us stronger. We aim to create a world based on respect and understanding, where every voice is heard.
Innovation
We deliver creative solutions, technology, and forward-thinking strategies to continuously improve services, and support the wider environment to enable people to live independent lives.
Excellence
We believe in integrity, accountability and transparency. Our passion drives us to go above and beyond, delivering high-quality, person-centred services which change lives.
Community
We form part of a connected, supportive environment where we build an accessible and sustainable society through our connections and support of one another.
The social model of disability is a way of viewing the world, developed by disabled people. Independent Lives' strategy and vision are based on the social model.
The model says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Barriers can be physical, like buildings not having accessible toilets. Or they can be caused by people's attitudes to difference, like assuming disabled people can't do certain things.
The social model helps us recognise barriers that make life harder for disabled people. Removing these barriers creates equality and offers disabled people more independence, choice and control.
The social model of disability