Community Living magazine is delighted to welcome two new sponsors, Thera Trust and Choice Support, who join our existing sponsors Linkability, Integrate, LDN Network and the Elfrida Society.
Our sponsors help enormously to ensure the viability of the magazine and support our campaign for equal citizenship for people with learning disabilities.
To find out about being a sponsor, email Jo Clare (jo.clare57@hotmail.co.uk).
Thera Trust – Main sponsor
First, we would like to say “hello”!
Thera has a unique vision, which emphasises choice and control by people with a learning disability – in their day-to-day lives and in the control and direction of Thera, demonstrating that people with a learning disability can be leaders in society.
We felt our values were a good match with Community Living and that’s why we are delighted to become a sponsor of Community Living magazine.
For those of you who are not familiar with Thera, here is a little about us: Thera Trust began in 1998, initially supporting five people in Cambridgeshire. We started as we meant to go on, by quickly recruiting our first paid executive director with a lived experience of learning disability to make up our first equal executive team.
Now a charitable group of companies, Thera supports more than 3,000 people across the UK, at home and in their local communities, through a range of specialist services such as quality assessment by people with a learning disability, employment and training, housing and financial advocacy.
Thera’s social mission is to work closely with and for people with a learning disability to empower them and support them to lead the life they choose. You can read more about Thera’s impact in our latest social impact report on out website.
Our commitment to leadership by people with a learning disability is embedded in all we do. Thera Group has 3 paid leaders with a lived experience of a learning disability, who include nine service quality directors. Service quality directors work in equal partnership with a managing director to lead their local Thera company. There are also voluntary directors with a lived experience of learning disability, strengthening our governance.
Further developing our leadership approach, we were delighted to welcome in 2020 Michelle McDermott and Sally Warren as Thera Trust’s new co-chairpersons.
Our leaders ensure Thera’s work remains focused on people with a learning disability, demonstrated through their early development of and active leading on Being Heard – Thera’s strategy for advocacy and involvement. This includes the implementation of company membership, which enables people we support, family carers and staff to have real control of their Thera company.
We are pleased to be part of the Community Living family and look forward to our sponsorship helping Community Living continue its impact for people with a learning disability and their families.
Choice Support – Associate sponsor
Choice Support is a national, innovative social care charity, regulated by the Care Quality Commission, that supports autistic people and people with a learning disability or a mental health need. We have almost 40 years’ experience and employ around 3,000 staff to support 2,300 people.
Our purpose is to create opportunities for people to be happy – we aim to understand people and strive to give them what they really want. This means recognising hopes and dreams, as well as needs.
Choice Support has a long history of involving people we support to influence the decisions that affect them, and their involvement shapes our whole organisation. We believe this helps to keep people we support safer and more aware of their rights and responsibilities.
For example, we consulted those we support to create our new set of values. We checked carefully that the words used were understood by all. Those we support chose four words to represent our values: care, respect, learn and lead.
Our values underpin what we do and help us to be the best we can be. They give us strong foundations and are reflected in policies, procedures and comprehensive training to better support people.
Our work stretches across Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, London, Essex, Kent and Medway, East Sussex and Hampshire.
https://www.choicesupport.org.uk/
