Disability Rights in Action

27 June 2011

Around the world disabled young people face significant barriers to full participation in society. Social attitudes and physical barriers prevent disabled young people accessing education, entering employment and getting appropriate healthcare. Many will experience prejudice and discrimination.

In the UK, disabled young people are over twice as likely as non-disabled young people not to be in education, employment or training and poverty is far higher amongst families with a disability. 

What we are doing

Y Care International is running a three-year project to bring a global dimension to work with disabled young people in the UK and Ireland and raise awareness of disability rights. We are linking with our work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories looking specifically at the lives of disabled young people in the UK and in Palestine.

We are working with ten organisations to introduce groups of young people to the concept of disability rights and make connections between the lives of disabled young people in the UK and in Palestine.

We have nine groups participating in the project from across the UK. They have received free training as well as £500 funding to undertake a project with twenty-five young people which advocates for the rights of disabled young people.

Each group is designing and implement advocacy actions aimed at reducing the social exclusion of disabled young people in Palestine and in the West Bank. Learning from the project will be gathered together and a training pack on disabled people’s rights will be published and made available to YMCAs and other youth organisations in the UK and Ireland. The pack will be published in Spring 2012.

We look forward to working with the following organisations on this project:

• Bournemouth YMCA
• Derbyshire Coalition for Inclusive Living
• Derby and Derbyshire Race and Equality Commission
• YMCA Chelmsford
• North Staffordshire YMCA
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Stroud Valleys Woodcraft Venturers Group
• Sutton Coldfield YMCA
• The Woodcraft Folk

If you would like to get involved in the project please email us at .

Read about our work supporting disabled young people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This project has been funded by the Department for International Development. Due to funding restrictions we can only support youth groups in the UK.