The third and final keynote given at the new Zealand Disability Support Network Conference in 2013. The talk describes some of the strategies necessary to strengthen our vision for positive change going forward. Serious threats continue to confront disabled people. We need to be thinking about wider social change and connecting with the interests of other disadvantaged groups.

1. Keeping the flame alive
Reflections on our history, our present and our future
Dr Simon Duffy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform ￭ 14th-15th August 2013 ￭
Wellington ￭ New Zealand Disability Support Network

2. Restoring our vision

4. A new vision must be our vision.
Not a vision for other people -
people with intellectual disabilities
- but a vision for everyone and,
especially, a vision for ourselves.
A vision for us - all of us

5. a society that aims at citizenship

6. a society that treats us as citizens

7. The flame is kept alive by action,
by striving, by companionship and
by facing challenges together.
A vision that we just wait for, or
even just ask for, will just die.
A vision - for real

8. We know our journey is fraught
with problems - including delays
and backward steps.

10. Q: How do we achieve citizenship?
A: Be citizens. Act like citizens.
The answer is in our own hands.

11. 1. Get organised - be strong
2. Build alliances - find new allies
3. Get practical - innovate
4. Be political - make your case
5. Get real - connect to people

12. Getting organised
means not waiting to
be consulted with

13. 1 Rights - robust rights that give people effective entitlements
2 Control - person, or someone close to them, controls budget
3 Clarity - systems, rules and budgets are clear
4 Flexibility - budgets can be used in many different ways
5 Ease of Use - it is easy to plan, manage and control assistance
6 Community - person’s contribution to society grows
7 Sustainable - system is affordable, innovative and supported
These would seem to be some of the qualities of
an effective system of self-directed support.

14. It’s people’s money...

15. Building alliances
means finding common
ground with people
who are different

17. Being practical
means creating new
forms of practice
anyway

20. Being political means
knowing how to
chivvy, challenge and
support government

23. 1. Human rights at the core
2. Clear entitlements
3. Early support
4. Full access to community
5. Choice and control
6. Fair incomes for all
7. Fair taxation
8. Sustainable and affordable
Our issues, are everybody’s issues

24. Getting real means
abandoning the
special codes and
looking at things
from other people’s
point of view

25. Getting a job = ‘supported employment’
Having a home = ‘supported living’
Making friends = ‘community building’Getting a
life = ‘person-centred planning’
Proper entitlements = ‘self directed support’
Working together = ‘coproduction’
Whose interest is served?
The dangers of pyramid selling

26. We cannot build citizenship for all
by just talking to ourselves in our
own language, focusing only on
our own issues.

27. This is our real wealth...

28. Don’t give away your own power
in the search to reclaim power
from others.

29. Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first time the story of
Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow. After many years of great poverty which
had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed someone bade him look for a
treasure in Prague, under the bridge which leads to the king's palace. When the
dream recurred for a third time, Rabbi Eisik prepared for the journey and set out for
Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare to start
digging. Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking
around it until evening.
Finally the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked in a
kindly way whether he was looking for someone or waiting for somebody. Rabbi
Eisik told him of the dream which had brought him here from a far away country.
The captain laughed: "And so to please the dream, you poor fellow wore your shoes
out to come here! As for having faith in dreams, if I had had it, I should have to get
going, for a dream once told me to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the
stove in the room of a jew - Eisek, son of Yekel, that was the name! Eisik, son of a
Yekel! I can just imagine what it would be like, how I should have to try every house
there, where one half of the Jews are named Eisik, and the other Yekel!" And he
laughed again. Rabbi Eisek bowed, traveled home, dug up the treasure, and built the
House of Prayer which is called "Reb Eisik's Shul." "Take this story to heart,"
Rabbi Bunam used to add, "and make what it says your own: There is something you
cannot find anywhere in the world, not even at the zaddik's, and there is,
nevertheless, a place where you can find it."

31. If you found these slides interesting you might like to read...

32. Lots of free resources on all these topics and more:
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