Rights based advocacy

"Thank you so much for championing her cause so passionately - it means so much to us - you will always hold a special place in our hearts."

Family member

Latest

Leadership development in schools

Feedback from a school following a leadership development programme that we ran with young people with the label of SEND.
Community Connecting

Feedback from young people who took part in Common Ground, a community connecting project for young disabled people and young people with mental health difficulties.
Arts in schools

We use poetry to enable young people to express themselves and challenge injustice. Here is feedback from ‘Express Yourself!’ and ‘Poet’s First!’, two poetry projects in schools.
Young People's Challenge Board

Feedback from the launch of the Wolverhampton Challenge Board's white paper on ‘An Ordinary Life’, which set out young people’s aspirations for the future.
Person centred planning

Feedback from Wolverhampton CCG and a social worker after we supported young disabled people and their families in Wolverhampton to design their own individualised support around their strengths and preferences.
Person centred planning

After person centred planning with an individual in institutionalised care, we received the following feedback from a family member.
Young People's Challenge Board

Meredith Teasdale, the Director of Education in Wolverhampton, shared praise for Wolverhampton Challenge Board’s first piece of strategic work.
Person centred planning

Peter Beard, Senior Commissioning Officer for learning disabilities and carers in West London CCG, reflects on the impact of Changing Our Lives' focus on ordinary lives.

Who we are

Changing Our Lives is a rights-based organisation. We work alongside disabled people and people experiencing mental health difficulties, of all ages, as equal partners to find solutions to social injustice and health inequalities.
National Postural Care Strategy

We all need to look after our posture. For some of us it's as simple as sitting up correctly at our computer. But for those of us who struggle to move our own bodies, for example if we have a complex disability, looking after our posture is even more important. If we don’t look after our posture, this can lead to debilitating health complications.
Where we work
Mental Health People's Parliament

The People’s Parliament is a strategic body led by MPs with recent lived experience of mental health difficulties. Its function is to hold decision makers to account for improvements in services and supports so that people who experience mental health difficulties can have an improved quality of life and be in greater control of their own mental wellbeing. The Parliament is located in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, just outside of Birmingham.
What makes us unique
Safe Places

The Safe Places scheme is based on the belief that everyone has the right to feel confident and safe going out in their local community. Lots of people feel unsafe at times in the local area; this might be because they have experienced crime or because they simply feel unsafe. For disabled people, older people and others who feel vulnerable this often means they don’t go out at all. The Safe Places scheme enables people to feel more confident, access their local areas more and know what to do.
Beth's Story

How Beth broke the mould around post-16 options by designing her own future.
Best practice
Katy's Story

No one's too disabled, or too affected by mental health difficulties, to lead an ordinary life.
Annual Programme

Our specialised team combines extensive experience, highly skilled and tenacious, professionals that are known for an innovative and outcomes based approach to practice and delivery.