Brief History

The Asian Disability Network (ADN) is a Registered Charity, which was formed four years ago. Individuals from three separate voluntary groups who at the time felt that there was a need for a specialist disability organisation, which needed to concentrate on the needs of disabled people from the marginalised communities, in the case of Bradford this, was predominately the Asian Community initially formed the organisation. The founding organisations were ADAPT, VALID and Bradford CVS. Due to the funding situation in Bradford VALID and ADAPT are unfortunately no longer in existence, hence the need for this business plan.

The ADN has slowly grown into a stable, reputable organisation and has a good reputation with statutory, voluntary sector organisations however more importantly; we have a strong with user and carer involvement. The ADN is an organisation run by disabled people for the benefit of disabled people. Disabled people fill the majority of the Executive Committee posts. This clause was specifically inserted into the Constitution to ensure that the organisation was and remains representative of the client group that it serves. Furthermore the ADN aims to empower and enable Asian disabled people to articulate their needs. We will assist, support and advocate on behalf of Asian disabled people.

The ADN, as part of its advocacy and advisory role, has been instrumental in creating the Asian Disability Strategy for the Bradford district; Bradford Council and Bradford Health Authority have accepted the strategy. During the consultation work with the L.A., a group has emerged entitled the ADJPT (Asian Disability Joint Planning Team) which has representation from Social Services (includes Mental Health, Learning Disabilities, Physical Disabilities, Children with Complex Health Needs), Bradford Health Authority, Community Health, Housing, Education and Leisure services. The ADJPT up and till recently was chaired by Professor Waqar Ahmad, Center for Research in Primary Care at the Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds.

The ADN has been working closely with other local and national organisations to enable them to be more accessible to the Asian communities. The ADN was commissioned by SCOPE to do some research into Cerebral Palsy and the Asian community. This research is now complete and will be of national interest The ADN has very close links with DIAL (Bradford), Bradford Talking Cassettes, ABDA (Association of Bradford Deaf Asians) as well as many others.

The ADN has a partnership agreement with the Assisi House Project Ltd (a housing/homelessness project) and together with CAB to share premises.