The Irish Wheelchair Association has launched its latest three-year strategy aiming to increase financial stability, advocacy and positive change for the people who are central to the organisation’s purpose.
Writing in the Strategic Plan published last week with the assistance of local Dublin GAA stars Brian Fenton and Jack McCaffrey, Irish Wheelchair Association CEO Rosemary Keogh says that:
In developing our Strategic Plan 2017 – 2020, we are keeping people resolutely at the heart of everything we do, underpinning our values as we strive for IWA’s vision of an Ireland where people with disabilities enjoy equal rights, choices and opportunities in how they live their lives, and where our country is a model worldwide for a truly inclusive society.
Our Strategic Plan is our roadmap for the next three years. IWA’s Vision, deliberately aspirational, is of the world we want to operate in – the destination we ultimately want to reach. Our Mission – to work with, and on behalf of, people with physical disabilities, to drive positive change in Ireland through the influencing of public policy, the provision of quality services and enabling accessibility to all aspects of society – represents what IWA is going to do in order to get there; and our Strategic Objectives are the areas which we will prioritise and where we will focus our energies over the next three years.
Financial sustainability is critical to successfully implementing IWA’s strategic plan and ensuring we can continue to respond to the needs of our members and the wider community of people with physical disabilities. IWA welcomes developments in the governance and regulatory environment in which we operate. With these developments come increased costs in providing essential services while state funding for these services remains static.
Over the life of this strategic plan we, aim to develop, diversify and grow our funding streams in order to ensure IWA’s long term financial sustainability and resilience.
We will further develop our pro le as the leading representative organisation and service provider for people with physical disabilities and we will continue to advocate for the rights, choices, opportunities and independence of people with disabilities, to achieve international best standards of service provision and full social inclusion.
IWA will continue to invest in our people and our infrastructure and we will value
and prioritise communications with staff, members, volunteers and customers, to enable and empower everyone to contribute directly to the success of IWA.Our plans for the future are ambitious and challenging. For over 50 years, IWA has advocated to see a shift in the many obstacles and barriers – physical, environmental, legal and attitudinal – faced by people with physical disabilities, and that legacy makes me con dent that together we will achieve our vision of a better Ireland. If ever a group of people could tell the story of moving from total exclusion to achieving social, civic, and political inclusion, it is the people who are Irish Wheelchair Association.
It is indeed the people that are central to the organisation and the new President of Paralympics Ireland John Fulham has been centrally involved in the development of the IWA Sport function alongside Director of Sport Nicky Hammil in recent years.
The success of Wheelchair athletes in Para events on the world stage has created a new perspective on disability across the wider society and the continued achievement of athletes like Cathal Ryan, Orla Barry and Noelle Lenihan will have an impact way beyond the awarding of a medal.
You can download the IWA Sport Strategic Plan for 2017-2020 here.
