Updates and events 

Disability Leadership Canterbury welcomes you to the festive season with a quick update on our latest activities and a tentative date for our next network meeting in February.

DLC made a submission to the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill select committee to ensure we have our say in the changes needed to achieve true accessibility with clear guidelines and consequences if a proper process is not followed.

Have your say on vaccination clinics and accessibility in our latest newsletter, plus don’t miss our August coffee hui on Monday 29th.

We are grateful to our friends at Access Matters Aotearoa for speaking at our recent hui about the #AccessDeniedDiaries campaign and The Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill. We have the Access Matters presentation from this session to share with you.

We are really excited to invite you to join us on Wednesday 13 July for our Network Hui. The focus will be the #AccessDeniedDiaries, and The Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill which is about to be introduced to Parliament.

Read our latest e-newsletter to read the lasted update from DLC. We are beyond thrilled to announce the appointment of our newest Trustee to the Board of Disability Leadership Canterbury: Grant Cleland. Join us on Monday the 20th June for a Zoom Coffee Kōrero. This will be a chance for you to connect with others and raise issues important to our DLC community. You will also find the lasted update we have from the new Ministry for Disabled People, and more information on the Access Denied Diaries campaign run by Access Alliance.

Read our latest newsletter for information on the upcoming hui and an update from our Board of Trustees. It is with regret that we have accepted the resignation of two members from the Board of Trustees. Our focus for 2022 continues to be providing support to the disabled community to access the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots. We are also planning some informal wellbeing workshops and kōrero over the course of the year.

Happy new year from the DLC team. Read this newsletter to find out more on the paper that was presented by DLC to the CDHB steering Group. We have also put together a list of items that can be purchased from Chemist Warehouse that your household might want to top up or purchase incase you need to self-isolate. Finally, with support from People First, we have had information about us translated into an Easy Read document.

Read through our December 2021 newsletter for a recap of the November network meeting and an explanation of the traffic light system. Our November Network meeting saw us embrace technology once again and use Zoom so we could all stay connected despite the Alert level restrictions. This hui was centered around the recent announcement of a Disability System transformation and the new Ministry for Disabled People.

DLC is looking for new trustees to join the team. Trustee positions are volunteer roles, with trust meetings generally being held once a month. Disability Leadership Canterbury (DLC) (Earthquake Disability Leadership Group Trust) is a charitable trust. Together with the local disability community, we develop access and well-being solution’s that benefit all.

Disability Leadership Canterbury continues to ensure that the voices of disabled people and whānau are clearly demonstrated during risk assessment and support planning for the COVID pandemic. Our team presented a paper to the CDHB Disability Steering Group with details of how people with disabilities require support in the community, in hospitals and other facilities, and for whānau.

People First has an Easy Read Translation Service which has translated information about Disability Leadership Canterbury into an Easy Read format.

The new COVID-19 Protection Framework will replace the current Alert Level system on 3 December 2021.
There is a lot of information to understand about this change. This blog contains the Easy Read version and has the link to other alternative formats.

DLC is looking for a new Projects Facilitator to join the team. This is a part-time, fixed-term position of 10 - 15 hours per week for 3 months, based in your home. The Project Facilitator position supports the collaboration between disabled people, their allies and key stakeholders, in the work of the DLC.

Our latest e-newsletter has details of our upcoming network meeting, including details of Christchurch City Council’s Draft Ōtautahi Christchurch Community Strategy and how you can provide feedback to this.

The Lottery COVID-19 Community Wellbeing Fund provides one-off grants for community or social initiatives that increase the strength and resilience of communities that are responding to the impacts of COVID-19. This grant will enable us to continue our important mahi to support our network of disabled whānau through the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.

Disability Leadership Canterbury (EDLG Trust) is collating disabled people's experiences of the COVID-19 Vaccine roll-out in Canterbury, so that we can speak with local health and government contacts about improving the experience for disabled people and whānau.

Our new name means a new way to sign it! Our Board Member Karim Baradi demonstrates how to sign “Welcome to Disability Leadership Canterbury” in this video.

Read our latest e-newsletter for details of our most recent Network meeting including the launch of our new brand, updates from Aaron Haymes, Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Christchurch City Council, Kirsty Peel, Policy Advisor for the Canterbury District Health Board Emergency Control Centre and Olivia Soesbergen, Senior Advisor, Office of the Ombudsman New Zealand.

The new-look EDLG Trust is here: Introducing Disability Leadership Canterbury!

As a Trust, we are very excited to take this step forward as a group with you all. Our new name - Disability Leadership Canterbury - takes us beyond the earthquakes and towards a focus on disabled people developing accessibility and wellbeing solutions that benefit all people in Christchurch and Canterbury.

Since the Covid-19 lockdown, we've been working closely with you - our Network - to reassess our role in Canterbury. Our revised direction and name - Disability Leadership Canterbury - takes us beyond the earthquakes and towards a focus on disabled people developing accessibility and wellbeing solutions that benefit all.