United Response celebrates 40 years with its founder Su Sayer
Su Sayer started United Response with small homes in the community for young people with learning disabilities 40 years ago. She has received a CBE for her work championing the rights of people with learning disabilities. With the launch of its Easy Read newspaper this year, United Response continues to work to fulfil people’s ambitions.
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Integrate – still innovating after 30 years
Thirty years ago in 1983, David Brandon, the first editor of Community Living, helped to found Integrate, a Preston based charity developed to resettle Preston people back into ordinary housing in their community.
The initial group persuaded the North West RHA to invest in a small untried charity instead of the 40-bedded unit others proposed. This year Integrate opened an older people’s development, the culmination of CEO Sue Pemberton’s determined efforts over 12 years to ensure people can maintain their independent tenancies and community lives, sharing the costs of the increased needs of ageing. Several people in the cluster flats maintain long-term relationships from hospital resettlement days.
One inspiration for the project was Elsie (not her real name). Sue, then manager of the Elders‘ Project, got Elsie moved from the old people’s home where she had been ‘written off’ by the hospital following her first stroke. As this new flat is near the town centre, Elsie can now resume the regular market visits she made daily independently before her strokes and is enjoying renewing her acquaintance with the many market traders who still know her.
