Warrington Disability P
artnership, Bromford Support, Body Positive North West, Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living and the Choices and Rights Disability Coalition also received awards for best practice in facilitating independent and inclusive living for disabled people throughout the UK.
The picture on the right shows delegates taking their seats at the beginning of the ceremony in Manchester Town Hall.
The prestigious event, which was hosted at Manchester Town Hall by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Alison Firth, was attended by Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for Disabled People, Councillor Glyn Evans and leading public, private and third party representatives from around the country.
DWP Minister for Disabled People, Jonathan Shaw MP was the ceremony’s Key Note Speaker, and he also marked the launch of the Office for Disability Issues’ “Right to Control” consultation, which focuses on giving the power of choice and control to disabled people and addresses the Government’s commitment to achieving equality for disabled people by 2025. The picture on the left shows Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for Disabled People, making his speech.
The Independent Living Awards initiative has become a pivotal tool in disseminating information on successful projects and best practice in the facilitation and promotion of independent and inclusive living. Equally important, the Awards seek to highlight the particular achievements of organisations controlled by disabled people, 
whose successes are recognised in the Peer Support Category.
The picture on the right shows from left to right, Paul Seymour and Cathy Cowell from Harvest Housing talking with Gary Timperley and Michele Scattergood from Breakthrough UK at the event.
Sponsors:
Office for Disability Issues, the Northwest Regional Development Agency, NHS North West, Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People.
Award Winners:
We are delighted to announce that the Award Winners are as follows:
Kevin Hyett Award for Best Independent Living Initiative
Two Winners:
- Bromford Support (West Midlands) www.bromford.co.uk
Helen Shields, Business Manager for Bromford Support, said:
"We are delighted to receive this awards in recognition of all the passion our colleagues put into their work to enhance the lives of our service users"
- Warrington Disability Partnership www.disabilitypartnership.org.uk
Jayne Horton, Chief Officer of Warrington Disability Partnership, said:
"We are honoured to be here tonight to collect this award on behalf of the WDP team who work extremely hard to provide our services both supporting and promoting independence throughout life and work. Thank you to Breakthrough and keep up the good work"
The picture above shows the winners of the Kevin Hyett Award for Best Independent Living Initiative (L-R): Jayne Horton, Chief Officer and Pam Thompson, honorary member of Warrington Disability Partnership; Neville Strowger, board member of Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People; Helen Shields, Business Manager and Julia Harris, Mixed Tenure Co-ordinator for Bromford Support.
Award for Excellence in the Employment of Disabled People (Public and Private Sector)
Winner: BT www.bt.com
Dave Wilson, Head of People and Policy, said:
'The Breakthrough awards are fantastic recognition of BT's approach to the inclusion of disabled people on our workforce and as customers. By designing inclusion to our products and services we make them better for everyone be they disabled or not."
The picture on the left shows Dave Wilson from BT with Shahnaz Ali from NHS North West.
Runner Up: The Trafford Centre www.traffordcentre.co.uk
Award for Excellence in the Employment of Disabled People (Third Sector)
Winner: Body Positive North West www.bpnw.org.uk
Sam de-Croy, Development and Well Being Manager, said:
“Many of those living with HIV find themselves unable to maintain or find employment due to the stigma they face from potential employers. BPNW has a long tradition of offering volunteering opportunities to any service user who wishes to take it up - when an opening arises these same volunteers are often first in line to take up the full/part time position. Their enthusiasm is BPNW's gain”
The picture on the right shows Caryl Clavering, Phil Greenham and Sam de-Croy from Body Positive North West with Shahnaz Ali from NHS North West.
Runner Up: DaDa – Disability and Deaf Arts (Liverpool) www.dadahello.com
Accessible Transport
Winner: NEXUS (North East) www.nexus.org.uk
John Usher, Head of Transport Integration for NEXUS, said:
"We are delighted to receive this award in recognition of the various schemes we have introduced over the past few years, to create the facility for disabled people to travel independently on public transport"
The picture on the left shows representatives from NEXUS with Manchester's Lord Mayor, Alison Firth.
Runner Up: Wiltshire Independent Travel Support
www.wsun.co.uk
Accessible Information
Three Winners:
- The Trafford Centre (Manchester) www.traffordcentre.co.uk
Amy Whittaker, HR Officer for the Trafford Centre, said:
“We are delighted to be recognised for this award. It is pleasing to see what we are doing is worthwhile”
The picture on the right shows Diane Warburton and Amy Whittaker from the Trafford Centre with Evelyn Asante-Mensah.
- Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living (Scotland) www.lothiancil.org.uk
Florence Garabedian for Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living said:
“Independent living is at the heart of everything we do and in developing our website and online information service we recognise that new technologies are the way forward. Thank you to Breakthrough UK for the award. It is important to us to be recognised and an honour for our organisation to win this award. Disabled people still face many barriers in accessing information and we work to change this.”
Picture shows Catherine Garrod and Florence Garabedian from Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living with Evelyn Asante-Mensah.
- Choices and Rights Disability Coalition (Hull) www.choicesandrights.org.uk
Mark Baggley for Choices and Rights said:
“It is particularly great to win this award, not just for the efforts we have made to make information accessible for disabled people in Hull and the East Riding, but also because our ethos is based on that of GMCDP and Breakthrough.”
The picture on the right shows, from left to right, Duncan Edge and Mark Baggley from Choices and Rights Disability Coalition with Evelyn Asante-Mensah.
Peer Support
Winner: Body Positive North West www.bpnw.org.uk
Sam de-Croy, Development and Well Being Manager, said:
“We are delighted to accept this award on behalf of all the peer support groups – Body Positive North West is rightly proud of the dedication of our service users, volunteers and staff in the continued development of peer support work”
The picture on the left shows Caryl Clavering from Body Positive North West, Jonathan Shaw MP, Phil Greenham and Sam de-Croy from Body Positive North West.
Runner Up: Full Circle Arts www.full-circle-arts.co.uk 
The 2009 Independent Living Awards also saw the promotion of Manchester City Council's ‘Communities of Interest’ report (specifically, the chapter relating to disabled people). This innovative piece of work highlights the experiences of disabled people in the city, the barriers to inclusion and the steps needed to overcome them. The development of this report also demonstrates the Council's commitment to the Social Model of Disability and embedding the Principles of Independent Living within its services. The picture on the right shows Martin Pagel, Breakthrough Board Member, making his speech.
Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for Disabled people, said: “In Government, we take our commitment to independent living for disabled people seriously. We have published our 2005 report on Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People, an independent living strategy and we have piloted individual budgets, but we need to go further.
“Government can put legislation in place, but it is organisations like the ones we celebrate who make change happen in reality. I congratulate each and every one of the nominees for the fantastic work they do.”
Speaking about the theme for the awards, Lorraine Gradwell MBE, Chief Executive of Breakthrough UK said: “Independence is about making our own decisions about how and where we live, about being part of our communities and about having the support we need to be active, contributing citizens. We know that there is still a long way to go to achieve that independence, and we will continue to work for that achievement. These awards are about celebrating progress, recognising and applauding work which supports independence”.
