Community Connecting

Often disabled people and people with mental health difficulties are isolated from their local community. Those people with a label of “complex needs” are most at risk of living a life that is far from ordinary and often spent segregated from society.

Community Connecting uses an assets-based approach to create relationships between disabled people and people with mental health difficulties and their local community. Relationships are grounded in shared interests and a mutual exchange of assets. Both disabled people and the local community have something to give and a lot to gain by connecting.

We use Community Connecting as an approach across a range of projects to enable disabled people and people with mental health difficulties to have meaningful friendships and connections which unlock opportunities:

We provide training in how Community Connecting can be used as a means to enable people to be linked into their local areas, gain friendships and other opportunities.
We use Community Connecting as part of our Leadership Programme to enable people to make strategic links that can benefit their personal development.
We are working with the Co-op Foundation using community connecting as a tool to tackle youth loneliness in young disabled people and young people with mental health difficulties from BME communities (see report and stories below).

Common Ground Report

Common Ground Stories

If you want to know more about Community Connecting email us at [email protected] or ring us on 0300 302 0770.

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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.
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.
Where we work
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.
Katy's Story

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