Darlington Association on Disability

Young Leaders

Aims

DAD provides Inclusion, Participation and Leadership opportunities for disabled young people aged between 14-25 years through its Young Leaders Project. The intention is that young disabled people gain skills and experience in order to influence DAD and other services.

Young Leaders is a user led group and aims to achieve the following:

• Have an impact on DAD by influencing decision making internally
• Improve accessibility of services
• Widen public attitudes with regards disability and change negative attitudes
• Develop leadership skills in members

Why Young Leaders is important

Young Leaders is important for several reasons. Firstly it actively involves young disabled people in DAD, which could potentially lead them to play prominent roles within the organisation in the future.
It is also the only organisation of its kind within Darlington, and as such it plays a fairly prominent role within the community. Without it young disabled people would be completely without representation.
Thirdly it also provides a voice and a place for young disabled people to express their views. This is vital as young people as a whole, are often marginalised by society. This is even more true for young disabled people,

What we want to achieve

• Ensure the setting up of a DAD Facebook page
• Open up the group to all ages and allow membership from the wider public
• Continue to work with and in greater cohesion with other Young People’s organisations
• Increase young people’s influence within DAD
• Increase the number of members through wider recruitment 

For more information contact Chyps:  01325 489999 or chyps@darlingtondisability.org