History of C-Change

The history of C-Change is made up of all our individual stories woven together. The Our Lives pages has information about people's stories.

We wanted to create an organisation that would value every individual's personal story and would successfully support adults with learning difficulties to live good lives as citizens in their communities; people who due to their reputation for challenging services, would have remained in segregated or secure settings in the past.

We started on the 1st May 2001.

 

'The first person that we helped to move was Edward and I still remember the sense of excitement driving Edward to his new home with all his worldly possessions in the back of the car.'

Sam Smith

 

We now work for thirty six people, supporting everyone to live in their own home and to follow their own direction in life. There are approximately one hundred and sixty people working in the organisation.

We have learnt that it's not our job to know what is best for a person or even to get it right first time, but to keep listening and learning from and with, the people we work for. Changing and evolving what we do is essential so that it always suits where the person is now and is focused on where they need to go next in life.

Some key principles help us do this and we believe these are essential for understanding our history and our future as an organisation.

• The First Principle is that power and control remains with or as close to the person we work for as possible.
• That transparent individualised funding arrangements are in place for each service.
• We have a flat and accessible management structure.
• As people's needs and wishes change, their support changes with them.
• We endeavour to work in partnership with all those who may assist in improving the lives of the people we work for including families, friends and other agencies.
• Finally that we will remain small (supporting approximately 40 people) in order to keep the focus on the people we work for

We began in 2001, as a project of Inclusion Glasgow (www.inclusion-glasgow.org.uk), with the commitment that we would become an independent organisation as soon as we became financially viable. Partnership working has been a foundation stone of the organisation ever since. Funding for the services we provide has come from a range of sources; Glasgow Learning Disability Partnership, other local Authorities, Supporting People and the Independent Living fund.

We have also worked very closely with housing providers such as Glasgow Housing Association, Sanctuary Housing Association and Cube Housing Association in order to source appropriate housing for the people we work for.              C-Change became a separately constituted organisation on the 1st April 2004.