Julian, who is a researcher, crowdfunded journalist and Community Living’s courts reporter, has been announced as among this years cohort of Tenacious Campaigners, an initiative from the charity Changing Ideas. Her campaigning journalism involves reporting the deaths of learning disabled and/or autistic people, dying years before the rest of the population and with higher rates of avoidable death. The award will enable Julian to “review a decade of reporting, identify learning that might prevent future deaths and develop key messages and outputs to challenge the social murder of learning disabled people”, said Changing Ideas.
The journalist said: “Being tenacious is turning up, repeatedly, refusing to look away from hard truths. It is witnessing, as an act of solidarity and love, putting on the public record how people are treated. It is staying the course when walking away would be easier. It is speaking up, even if your voice is carried away on the wind. It is stating simply and repeatedly that learning disabled people’s lives matter, even when society suggests otherwise.”
Community Living is extremely proud to have George Julian on the editorial team and delighted that her campaigning work is both recognised and supported.
You can read all of George Julian’s writing in Community Living here.
