ARC’s Work in 2023-24 Across the UK

ARC’s Annual General Meeting  (AGM)

Every year the Trustees invite people from the learning disability community across the UK into a room to celebrate the difference ARC has made.  This year we were in England.  On the annual general meeting agenda we heard about two projects that ARC England are leading on.

We were joined by Experts by Experience Christopher Porter and Katie Peacock, Paradigm along with Samantha Clark, the CEO at Learning Disability England.  Because ARC England.is partnered with them in a project called ‘Our Lives’..  Our Lives is a peer-led research project.  And it will ask people about their social lives and community experiences. So the project partners (organisations and Experts By Experience) will influence policy makers.  And tell them the things people with a learning disability wish to change.

Then Rod from ARC England joined us and talked about Online Harms and Digital Empowerment. And he described ARC England’s work in this area over the years.  This includes relationships, when they go wrong and how the internet and social media platforms can make this even harder.

Impact Report – the difference we make

Because we are a charity we use this celebration event to also talk about our finances (the money we receive and how we spent it) and what we have achieved over the past year.

In 2023 we launched a new strategy which was co-produced with the learning disability community across the UK.  And this set out the areas that everyone in ARC will work to try and make better.  Because this includes improving people’s:

• Knowledge and Rights
• Choice and Control
• Inclusion and Equality

And today we shared a report which shows what we did in 2023-24 and the difference it made.

Our Trustees

ARC is supported by a Board of Trustees.  And they give their time for free as volunteers.  Because each of them brings different skills. But our rules say they can help us for 3 years.  And then be voted in again for a final 3 years.  So they can do a total of 6 years.

Our Expert By Experience Trustee Lynnette has been with us for 3 years as a Trustee.  So at this year’s meeting, Lynnette agreed to help us for 3 more.  We are delighted she will continue to help us achieve real change.