Laura Fergusson Trust Identity Statement

OUR MISSION

To facilitate autonomy, inclusion, involvement and independence for people with impairments and their families/whanau.

OUR VISION

OUR ORGANISATION

We live in a disabling society.  Disability is not something individuals have.  What individuals have are impairments - physical, sensory, neurological, psychiatric, intellectual or other impairments [3]. Disability [4] is the process arising from one group of people creating barriers by designing a world only for their way of living, taking insufficient account of the impairments other people have. 

We accept and uphold the general principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities as the basis of our relationships with those we are established to serve.

We support the New Zealand Government’s Disability Strategy (NZDS) developed by the Minister for Disability Issues in consultation with disabled people and the wider disability sector, and reflecting many individuals’ experiences of disability. 

NZDS presents a long-term plan for changing New Zealand from a disabling to an inclusive society.  It proposes that New Zealand will be inclusive when people with impairments can say “We live in a society that highly values our lives and continually enhances our full participation.”

Our Vision of Ordinary life Opportunities, creates the over-arching basis of and common thread to our strategic direction.  When developing organisational policy and strategy for the provision of services and our relationship with the wider community we will ask, “Will this create ordinary life opportunities?”  

Our strategy will constantly create opportunities in work, play, family and community involvement, for people with impairments to participate, make mistakes, solve their own problems, have adequate support, and be empowered and active in their own lives.

We believe that respectful, seamless and effective responses to the needs of people with impairments and their families/whanau require relentless efforts to identify those needs, and recognition that –

·          Frequently, the best way of supporting individuals with impairment is by providing support to their families/whanau.

·          Over time their needs change and our understanding of the best practices to employ in order to respond to them must also change. Our services should be flexible enough to respond to those changes and to the individual transitions that people face throughout their lives, (e.g., between schools, from living at home to living in a home, to work, to independent living, into retirement).

·          Support organisations must comprise a skilled and stable workforce providing continuously improving quality of services.

·          High levels of interpersonal communication competence are necessary, including the ability to communicate in our consumers’ own language and to accurately interpret their cultural needs.

·          The ability at all times to access clear, accurate and readily accessible information about services available to them and for which they are eligible, is vital.

·          We provide advocacy for our consumers within and throughout the social, regulatory and service-provider network. 

 .   .    .

[3] Impairments are shortfalls in the working of various body systems or structures.

[4] Disabilities are when impairments create shortfalls in a person’s ability to meet the demands of daily living.