Changing Our Lives is committed to developing and sustaining visible and valued roles for disabled people and people with experience of mental health difficulties. Part of an ordinary life is being seen and having experiences that mean you are an equal and valued member of society. One aspect of this is having paid employment.

In order to ensure the organisation can benefit from the wide range of lived experience, skills and talents found in disabled people and people with mental health difficulties, we are continually developing a pool of self-employed associates that we draw on for specific expertise. The majority of associates have relevant lived experience, some have professional experience, and some have a mix of both.

Associates share the organisation’s values, reflect our brand and deliver work to the high standard that we are expectant of. For this reason, we headhunt our associates.