Sunderland Region Virtual Disabled People's Organisation
Not to a charity. Not to the council. To Disabled People in Sunderland and the surrounding region, as shareholders, voters, and founding members of something that has never existed here before.
What makes us different
Disabled People hold the majority on our governing board. Not as advisers, not as consultees. As the people in charge. If you cannot say that, you are not a Disabled People's Organisation.
Disability is not located in your body or your mind. It is created by the barriers society puts in your way. Every part of this organisation is built on that foundation.
Blockchain governance means every member's vote is permanent and unalterable. No officer or funder can quietly rewrite a decision. Your voice is protected by design.
Not a service user. Not a consultee. A real stake in something you help build and own. Founding members earn Criptos, our own digital currency, for every contribution to the movement.
No inaccessible venues. No travel costs. No barriers to participation from wherever you are in Sunderland and the region. Everything is designed around your access needs, not the other way round.
Sunderland is the second pilot of the national Virtual Disabled People's Movement. Brighton and Hove has already shown it can work. Now we are building it here in the North East.
The Supreme Court DoLS ruling. The DWP's deadly benefits system. The assisted dying Bill. This week three things happened that make it clearer than ever why Disabled People need organisations that genuinely belong to us.
Watch Criptos flow from members to the movement and back. Ideas shared freely. Democracy locked in.
Find us
info@srvdpo.org.uk, we respond to every message personally
ukvdpm.org.uk, the Virtual Disabled People's Movement of which Sunderland is a pilot
bnvdpo.org.uk, the first pilot, already active and showing what is possible
The peer-reviewed academic research in Disability and Society that underpins everything we do
"Creating our own organisations is not something to take our minds off our 'tragedies' but a matter of life and death."
Mike Oliver (1996, 123), More urgent now than ever.
Ready?
Start with the Independent Living Challenge. Name the barriers in your life. Earn your first Criptos. Become a founding member of the Sunderland Region Virtual DPO.