Leadership Academy

Launching the Global Disability Leadership Academy.

In 2024 we will be launching the Global Disability Leadership Academy to support the unique but largely untapped leadership potential of disability justice leaders, especially women and girls and emerging young leaders. Many of these groups have received little or no support with their leadership journey. But their leadership would contribute to a diverse and thriving disability justice movements.

We want to support the global network of disability justice activists to become the next generation of change makers.

Disability discrimination interferes with education. Few disabled people take part in existing leadership courses and networks such as those for young people or women. This means disability activists often can’t access the qualifications and networks to set up and run their own organisations and to ensure long-term leadership so that organisations can outlive their founders and thrive.

Vireak a young Cambodian man holds a microphone giving a speech in a garden.

Around the world, young people with disabilities are often absent in positions of leadership. But we have a lot of power to make change. We have a lot of time to improve, grow and get experience. We want our voice to be heard by the world. We want our rights to be known by the world.
Vireak, Young Leader in Cambodia.

The academy will be  a combination of online and in-person training, mentorship, practical leadership work and network-building delivered to cohorts of leaders on an annual basis.

The design of the academy will engage the leaders themselves in identifying the range of support and skills they need to pursue their own aspirations. This may be in activism and movement leadership but could also be in other areas such as business or entrepreneurship. We will work to ensure access to these opportunities for those with limited access to them in other ways.

The leadership academy will support connection and collaborations between alumni in different sectors, allowing disability justice leaders across different fields and parts of the world to draw on the relationships formed throughout their lives and careers.

If you would like to partner with us to make this vision a reality, we would love to hear from you.

Our work with Young Leaders.

Around the world, we are supporting young disability justice leaders to thrive.

From mapping disability movements to supporting gender equality activists, young disability rights activists are using their lived experience and expertise to make change in their communities.

We want to support the global network of young disability activists to become the next generation of changemakers in their communities to achieve their leadership potential for years to come.

We will help young activists build their leadership skills and give them the tools they need to effect change locally and globally. We want to support the next generation of activists to take action locally, within mainstream society and on the world stage.

Daniel and Dorice, two Tanzanian young leaders, are in animated conversation. They sit in front of their laptops gesturing to one another. Dorice wears a blue dress and white jewellery and Daniel wears a white shift and glasses. — Daniel and Dorice, young leaders from Tanzania.

As a growing future leader, this programme gives me clear and strong experience in doing advocacy work, a chance to create connections with key decision makers and stakeholders.
Daniel, Young Leader in Tanzania.

Through a six-month Leadership Training we will provide young people with disabilities, particularly women, with an opportunity to experience working in an INGO environment, to develop their leadership capacities and creativity and explore the future direction of their leadership and activism.

Strengthening the Disability Justice Movement.

Young Leaders in Sudan, Cambodia and Tanzania are working with disability rights activists to conduct a detailed study of the disability movement and identify how it can be more resilient.

ADD has been supporting disabled people to come together in their own organisations to raise their own voices and fight for their own rights for over 30 years.

I have had the chance to help strengthen the disability rights movement. I have visited organisations of people with disability, created networks between different organisations and shared what we have learnt. Many of these people have been ignored, but we listen.
Elkhansa, Young Leader in Sudan

In this project, we will work with activist partners to maximise the Sudan disability movement’s effectiveness and ability to adapt to a dynamic global and national context that is experiencing deep changes in aid, food security, technology and communications, and climate change.

Our mapping will help the future development of the disability movement, to determine how it needs to be strengthened, to respond to new opportunities and threats, so it becomes more effective in supporting disabled people nationally.

Advocating for Change.

In addition to this, the young leaders are learning about their rights, and the disability laws and policies in their countries, in order to use this knowledge to advocate for better access to the workplace, decision-making spaces, and wider society.

I want to use my skills, experience, knowledge and voice to advocate for people with disability, so that everyone can know and realise their rights.
Sokhak, Young Leader in Cambodia.

In many cases, there are policies in place but they are not being acted on. By sharing their knowledge with the wider disability rights movement, and advocating to decision-makers, these young leaders have been able to make real and lasting change.