Lewisham Speaking Up

Who we are

Lewisham Speaking Up is an independent advocacy charity for people with learning disabilities in the London borough of Lewisham. We've been supporting people with learning disabilities for over 20 years.

Through our 1-2-1 advocacy service we support people to speak up and get their voices heard. We are not part of council or any other organisaiton and can support people directly. 

In addition to our advocacy service, we also support self-advocacy through various group activities. Our largest group is the quarterly People's Parliament. In addition we have several smaller self-advocacy groups. Through these groups people discuss topics that affect people with learning disbilities and the aim is to feed this through to decision makers and people in positions of power.

Our culture and values

Understanding: working together to fully understand what people with learning disabilities want;

Independence: asking for changes that people with learning disabilities want as we are not attached to statutory services and do not need to follow statutory service rules;

Strength: working together and by doing so, forming a strong base to achieve what we set out to ahieve;

Kindness: treating people with kindness and expecting everyone else to do the same. Kindness shows strength and is at the heart of what we do;

Respect: respecting all people who use our services and expect people with learning disbalities to be respected;

Equality: working together for better treatment and opportunities for all people with learning disabilities.