Partners
The Disability Resource Centre has an outstanding record of supplying high quality information, advice and support services to disabled people in Bedfordshire, Luton and Northamptonshire over the past 25+ years.
Along with our partners, we deliver:
- Advice and information services to disabled people and their families
- Advice and information services to carers of disabled people
- Support under our Direct Payments Services
- Support to enable disabled people to work
- Improving health, learning and work opportunities
- Fitness and wellbeing
New Partners
We welcome the opportunity to work with new funding partners, supply partners and customers.
Dunstable Town FC
We are delighted to be working in partnership with Dunstable Town Football Club.
Dunstable Town FC Chair, Andrew Madaras said;
“We are hugely excited to be working with Mel, Lynda and all of their colleagues at the DRC. We know there is a demand for the type of group activities that we can provide. It’s been an exciting project to put together. We hope we can do justice and repay some of the faith that the DRC has trusted us with”
Melanie Hawman, CEO of The Disability Resource Centre said:
“We are delighted to have been asked to work with Andrew and his team on some very exciting projects. We both feel our combined strengths and areas of expertise will benefit the local community immensely. Together we can make a real difference to reducing health inequalities, increasing social inclusion and most of all, putting support and friendship at the heart of what we do”
Read the announcement of our partnership on the Dunstable Town FC website.
Skills for Care
The Social Care Sector Skills Agency, Skills for Care are one of DRC’s funding partners. We work closely with them to assure that the wealth of educational and training resources they produce are provided free of charge to both aspiring and experienced Personal Assistants. This in turn benefits our service users, who are individual employers, by providing qualified Support workers. It adds value to the other services that we provide on behalf of local authorities, which ensure the smooth facilitation of Direct Payments.
As we continue to grow our Personalisation Service offer ,we are bringing in other partners who we work with in other departments to join in and grow the service that we can provide to service users, local authority partners and each other.
Recently we created a project using existing funding streams between Skills for Care, DWP and unemployed residents of Luton and Dunstable. We were delighted when we were invited to present this at Skills for Care Link-up event, which encourages partnership working to produce results for individual employers.
If your organisation would like more information about working in partnership with the DRC then please contact: Melanie Hawman, Head of Operations and Development on 01582 470900 or melanie.hawman@drcbeds.org.uk
Health, fitness and wellbeing
The Disability Resource Centre is working with a number of trainers including Jude and Nick to make a healthy lifestyle accessible to our service users who wish to lose weight and get fitter.
Fitness is an essential tool in managing many different health conditions, but people that are disabled, obese or mobility impaired can feel intimidated or unsure that exercise and healthy eating is achievable for them.
There are many situations where people feel that they lack the confidence to try a mainstream gym or fitness class. It may be that you have left hospital and need to build up your fitness again or perhaps you have gained weight through injury and therefore do not feel ready to go back to the gym.
We are working together to make fitness accessible for all of our service users.
Direct Payments
The Skills for Care are one of our funding partners. We work closely with them to assure that the wealth of educational and training resources they produce are provided free of charge to both aspiring and experienced Personal Assistants. This in turn benefits our service users, who are individual employers, by providing qualified support workers. It adds value to the other services that we provide on behalf of local authorities, which ensure the smooth facilitation of Direct Payments.
As we continue to grow our Direct Payment Service offer, we are bringing in other partners who we work with in other departments to grow the service that we can provide to service users, local authority partners and each other.
Advice
We work collectively with advice partners in the local area to provide a collaborative approach to support local residents. The Disability Resource Centre is part of a number of advice groups including Bedfordshire Advice Forum and Luton Advice Network. It represents service users on the number of groups including Carers Lead Group, Joint Older People’s Forum, Luton Airport passenger group and Equality Board.
We are working with Bedfordshire Police as one of their Third-Party Hate Crime Reporting Centres.
We are looking for new partners
If your organisation would like more information about working in partnership with The Disability Resource Centre then please contact Tracy Plunkett, Business Development Manager on 01582 470900 or tracy.plunkett@drcbeds.org.uk
Funding partners:
- Luton Council
- BLMK CCG
- Education Skills Funding Agency
- London Luton Airport Limited
- European Social Fund
- Skills For Care
- Funding from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund
- Sports England
- Bedfordshire and Luton Community Fund
- Community Fund / Big Lottery
- Maximus / DWP
- Bedford Borough Council
- Central Bedfordshire Council
- Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group
Associated Partners
We have a supply chain network that includes charities, training companies and colleges. For our supply chain partners we offer excellent management; resources including training and marketing and a partnership culture of collaboration and cooperation.
- Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue
- Bedfordshire Police
- Member of Disability Rights UK
- Hey Jude Fitness
- Cane and Able
Corporate Social Responsibility
We are pleased to work in partnership with companies fulfilling their Corporate Social Responsibility roles, and companies offering us charitable rates for their work.
Thank you to:
| Whitbread for painting our offices |
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