Bromley Experts by Experience (X by X Bromley)

Who we are

We are a Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation (DDPO) in the London Borough of Bromley.

We were established as a Community Interest Company (CIC) by Disabled people in 2012. We became a Charity in 2022.

We are run by and for Deaf and Disabled people and carers in Bromley and neighbouring Boroughs. 

All our trustees, staff and volunteers have lived experience.

All our work is informed by lived experience of disability discrimination, prejudice, oppression and societal barriers to independence and inclusion.  

We are part of the Disabled People’s Rights Movement.

Our vision:

We have a vision of a world where Disabled people are able to live their lives independently, in the way they choose, participating fully in society and enjoying equity and respect for diversity.

Our mission:

We aim to enable Deaf and Disabled people and carers in Bromley and neighbouring Boroughs to fully understand our rights, develop collective pride and build skills and experience in self-advocacy and strong civic participation. 

We believe this will allow Disabled people to lead in challenging discrimination in Bromley and beyond, breaking down barriers to independence, choice and equity. 

Our aims:

• Support Disabled people to get our voices heard and to influence change locally.
• Campaign for an inclusive and accessible society.
• Support, develop and celebrate Disabled people’s skills and leadership.
• Improve the sustainability and effectiveness of X by X Bromley so that we strengthen our ability to meet our long-term mission and objectives.

Our culture and values

Values and approaches that make us unique:

These are the principles and beliefs we always keep to while we are working towards our aims, and which make us different from other local organisations: 

• We always work within the Social Model of Disability and are open to everyone in Bromley and neighbouring Boroughs experiencing disabling barriers.
• We believe in the Disabled People’s Rights Movement approach of “Nothing About Us Without Us”. Disabled people set up, lead and staff our organisation. We co-produce ways to challenge and remove barriers with local Disabled people so that we can realise our potential and live our lives as we choose. We are committed to the 12 Pillars of Independent Living, which the Disabled People’s Rights Movement advocates for. 
• We lead by example, using rights and strengths-based language about Disabled people; using peer support to create empowering opportunities for Disabled people to build experience and skills; and providing meaningful opportunities for Disabled people to be change-makers. 

• The lived experience our trustees, staff and volunteers bring means we understand first-hand the challenges and barriers to independence and inclusion local Deaf and Disabled people and carers face. This helps us to engage well with local people and genuinely involve them in developing and influencing services. Our services are therefore more effective, better designed, more accessible, approachable and culturally sensitive.  

• We value the rich diversity of people’s lived experience. We recognise that Disabled people often experience multiple forms of discrimination and oppression because of other characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender. We see these diverse backgrounds and experiences as a collective strength and encourage people to bring these in to influence our work. This allows us to provide our services based on understanding of both shared experience and diverse perspectives.

• We treat everyone fairly. We support equitable access for service users, members, volunteers, staff and trustees. While equality is about treating everyone the same, we are committed to making adjustments for people’s varied access needs to ensure that everyone can participate fully.  

• We provide support in a holistic way. This means putting the people who use our services at the centre of what we do, giving them time and support to make choices and developing our services around their needs. 

• We encourage Disabled people to develop positive self-identity and pride in themselves and in their membership of the wider disability community. We bring people together to directly tackle exclusion and support Disabled people and carers to influence change beyond the local area.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

What we aim to do to make our workplace inclusive and fair:

• X by X tries to be fair to all groups of people in everything that it does.
• We take any form of discrimination very seriously.
• We recognise that some groups of people are given fewer chances than others.
• We recognise that to make things fair we sometimes have to treat some people more favourably.
• We monitor the diversity of the people who we pay to work for us, management committee members and volunteers and take positive action to make things more equal.  
• Staff performance is monitored on how well staff include and are fair to different groups of people.
• We have Codes of Conduct for staff and volunteers and we expect everyone to read, understand and follow them.

We try to be accessible in everything we do through:

• easy to understand information
• disability access
• support
• going at a pace the suits everyone
• providing signing or translation support as needed
• reaching out to specific groups
• thinking about the access needs of different groups (for example single sex environments for Muslim members)