The Social Model of Disability was developed by Disabled people and describes people as being disabled by barriers in society, not by our impairment. The Social Model of Disability and our values inform all that we do at Merton CIL.
At Merton CIL we will...
Value People’s Lived Experience
We are a user-led organisation. This means that we are run by and for Disabled people.
Our lived experience shapes all that we do and we believe that it means we can support you better.
Fight for Justice
We are passionate about standing up for our rights as Disabled people.
We will challenge discrimination that we face and support you to speak up too.
Be Person-Centred
This means we will put you first and we will take an holistic, whole person approach.
We will use active listening to find out what you want to do and we will try to support you to make the choices that you want!
Be Compassionate
We will show compassion for what you are experiencing and we will not come across judgemental.
We deeply understand that some of the issues that we may face are due to barriers in society.
Learn
We will always try our hardest to get things right, but no one is perfect.
If things go wrong, we will try to learn from that and do things better next time.
We will take an evidence-based approach to our work.
Be Welcoming
This means being friendly to you when you come to see us or call us.
It means we will try to help you feel comfortable and we will be positive and do our best.
Be Fair and Inclusive
Our community is made up of Disabled people with diverse lived experiences. We will be there for people across the full spectrum of impairment/health condition, no matter who you are or where you are from, across all strands of diversity.
This means that no one gets special treatment, and no one gets worse treatment because of who they are or who they know.