About us
Lewisham Speaking Up is an advocacy organisation based in the London Borough of Lewisham. We pride ourselves in supporting people with learning disabilities to speak up, be heard and have a stronger voice. We work together to bring about the changes people want and need. We strive to get better and fairer treatment for all people with learning disabilities.
We have four service areas:
- Self-Advocacy
- 1-2-1 Advocacy
- Training (currently unavailable) *
- Health Advocacy (currently unavailable) *
These services all work together to maximise the help we give to people. As an organisation we genuinely value and listen to the people we support and we work hard on their behalf to get their views and wishes taken into account.
*We hope to offer these two services again in the future.
Our vision is for a society where people with learning disabilities are listened to, recognised, respected and included in all decisions about their lives.
We do this by:
- working with and supporting self-advocates to speak up and be heard
- providing independent advocacy to individuals and groups
- supporting people to come together to work for change
- working together to tell people and organisations what is important to us
Our values
Understanding
We work together with people with learning disabilities to fully understand what they want.
Independence
We are not attached to statutory services. This means we can ask for the changes people with learning disabilities want. We don’t have to follow the rules of the statutory services.
Strength
We join together to form a strong base. Then we work together to say what we want and ask for changes.
Kindness
Kindness shows strength and is at the heart of what we do. We treat people with kindness and expect everyone else to do the same.
Respect
We respect all the people who use our services. We expect people with learning disabilities to be respected.
Equality
We work together to get better treatment and opportunities for all people with learning disabilities.