Since AoD was established in 1979, the tough social, political and economic times we have faced in nearly 40 years of existence illustrate both how resilient we are as an organisation and the importance of our role as a strong advocate providing vital front-line services for disabled people in Hammersmith & Fulham and other London Boroughs. Members and supporters significantly shape and influence our work and delivery of local services and support

We work with:
• Disabled individuals and groups
• Families of disabled people
• Professionals supporting disabled people
• Local authorities and providers
• Other local and regional disability organisations to promote more equality and inclusion as well as via joint partnerships to provide more services.

Our aims are to:
• Support disabled people to increase their knowledge and confidence about their rights enabling them to access opportunities, make well-informed choices and live independently
• Deliver high-quality professional, inclusive and accessible activities which promote independent living
• Promote the rights of disabled people, and influence local and national policy and practice.

AoD provides five key services. These are:

• Employment Service: works with over 150 disabled people a year. Last year we provided management, job coaching and employer engagement for 51 young people with learning disabilities across our 6 internship partners and delivered employment services to another 53 disabled residents in partnership with H&F MIND focussing on individual employment pathways. Last year, 65% of AoD’s graduates gained sustained employment compared with 6.7% of the national average.
• Youth Service: provides opportunities for young disabled people aged 11-25 to actively participate in the development and improvement of services across the borough, and have fun, learn new skills and challenge themselves through a varied programme of music, life skills, sport and volunteering. About 170 young people are registered with our service and round 120 different young people accessed our projects each year. Over the course of the year, Youth Service delivered 8 regular different projects which amounted to 252 days of contact delivery with over 120 different young people attending. We have partnerships with the Lyric Theatre, Dance West, Lumi Yoga and run a Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
• Advocacy Service: provides free, independent, confidential support to people over the age of 18 who are eligible for social care. This year, AoD provided advocacy in 225 cases for 141 individual service users on a wide range of issues including Social Care assessments and reviews, problems with care providers, access to community and statutory services, complaints, safeguarding, wheelchair services, Child Protection and support in meetings. A further 234 people not eligible for our service were given information and/or referred to other
services where appropriate.
• Welfare Benefits Service: During the past year, we dealt with 553 cases as well as giving advice by telephone and e-mail. It also handled 2,300 phone calls last year of which about half entailed giving one-off advice to other organisations and disabled people in the borough. It received 205 requests for advice by email.
• Supporting 229 disabled children, one off backdated payments totalling £74,688. Increased on-going weekly income totalling £16,901, the total yearly figure is £878,872. Supporting 310 disabled adults, total amount of weekly increased money secured is £6,502, one-off lump sum payments amounted to £68,416, the total yearly figures for these clients is £338,117.
• Independent Living Service: Peer Support projects for disabled people to become independent and confident citizens thus increasing confidence, knowledge and skills to challenge the barriers that they face. From a total of 442 AoD Connect Project Members, 240 active members accessed our Peer Support Project (AoD Connect) 2,455 times.