Damien joined ILMI in October 2017 and has over 15 years experience in equality and human rights organisations, including the Irish Traveller Movement, the Equality and Rights Alliance and Aontas. Damien is keen to bring previous experience of actively engaging and supporting people to work collectively in to ILMI to ensure that people with disabilities see ILMI as a vehicle for change to bring about equality in Irish society.
Nina joined ILMI in 2011 to work on what was then called the Strasbourg Freedom Drive now the Brussels Freedom Drive and has worked on many other projects where she helped coordinate the communications and event management, including the Mansion House “Meet your TD” event where ILMIs and their members from around the country came to speak with their local representative. Nina also worked on the Personal Assistance Bill project and the Disability Studies course run in conjunction with NUI Maynooth.
With a background in corporate communications and marketing a degree in Graphic Design and Fine Art Nina has a diverse range of experience and skills and bring them all to the Irish Independent Living movement. The ILMI eBulletin, the ILMI Social media accounts and maintaining links with and building the ILMI membership are part of her day to day work.
Finance/Office Administrator
My name is Elaine and I have recently joined the team at ILMI as Finance/Office Administrator.
I bring over 18 years office experience and have worked within the community sector for 14 years. I am delighted to be part of such an important and worthwhile movement and I am here to assist and support the team whichever way I can.
DPO Development Officer
Peter started work with ILMI in June 2019 as ONSIDE Project Coordinator. Peter graduated from Trinity College in the late 1980s with an English Honours degree and followed this with an MA in Film & TV Studies at DCU and a Higher Diploma in Adult & Community Education from Maynooth College. He also has higher Dips. in Disability Studies and Arts European Mentoring.
Peter lectured at St. Angela’s College (NUIG) and has written-up QQ1-Level 8 & 9 Modules promoting a need for a Emancipatory-Advocacy way of thinking & practice for & with disabled people. In the mid 1990’s Peter established THE WORKHOUSE, a disability consultancy company involved in equality/mentor/arts training in Ireland, Europe and Asia. In terms of linking social model led disability equality with effective practice on the ground, Peter was a Community Support Consultant with Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency (DESSA) and Development & Policy Worker with Forum of People With Disabilities. He is also a writer/dramatist, documentary & film maker. Peter also enjoys extreme trekking and has two children Deirbhile & Oisin and lives in Co. Leitrim.
ONSIDE Health & Housing Officer
I joined ILMI in June 2019 as the Disability, Health and Housing officer with the ONSIDE project. Professionally, my background is in teaching and research and for several years I taught courses on film, media and literature in university. I have worked as an equality awareness consultant, an editor and as a reviewer for several international journals. I hold a BA in English and Philosophy, a MA in Film Studies and a PhD. My research focussed on how films represent and construct disability and impairments.
As a disabled person, I understand, and appreciate, the importance of the social model and how it has transformed our lives, our thinking and our fight for equality, but yet I am aware there are still challenges for us to meet as a collective. Disability equality is part of the wider equality movement, it is a matter of human rights, and we can achieve real and permanent change together. It is an exciting time to be part of independent living and disability rights movements.
Fiona Weldon joined ILMI in November of this year and has over 30 years of experience in working in the Disability Sector. All of her work is motivated by the reality of the effects of segregation, exclusion and non-disabled professionalism. Henceforward promoting the need for a Rights Based Model of Support to people that are labelled disabled (as opposed to our current resource based model of support that is dominated by both the Medical Model of Disability and the Charity Model of Disability) that is driven by both the Social Model of Disability and the Philosophy of Independent Living as professed by the Disabled People’s Movement.
Fiona’s initial work in this sector involved setting up a local Independent Living Service offering Personal Assistance to local disabled people that wanted more choice and more control over the human supports that they needed to assist them with their daily living tasks.
Fiona holds an MA in Disability Studies, Diploma’s in Community Development, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Counselling Skills. She also holds Certificates in other subjects including Advanced Facilitation, Equality Studies, Social Care, Reality Therapy, Assistive Technology and Supported Self-Directed Living.
Fiona has worked for the National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) in Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in Dublin City University. Her work here involved evaluating/researching and/or delivering evidence based Bespoke Training Programmes that purposely intended to enable disabled people to believe in themselves to want better lives. This work has both travelled nationally and internationally.
VOICE Community Development Worker
Paula started working with ILMI in January 2022 as a Community Development Worker for the VOICE project. She identifies as a proud disabled woman and advocate since discovering the social model of disability when she attended ILMI’s 2019 AGM.
She has a Joint BA from Maynooth University, A HDip in Drama Education from Griffith College, Dublin, and she is studying Disability Equality in St Angela’s College Sligo.
She is very passionate about the social model of disability and the importance of disabled people’s lived experience through a social model perspective to bring about positive social change.
She understands the importance of online spaces that help build community and empower disabled activists to create social change as she is an active member in ILMI, also.
She wants disabled people to feel confident and in control of their lives and ensure that they are reaching their full potential in their communities.
VOICE community development worker
I first heard about the independent living movement in the early nineties when I attended an event organised by a group of Dublin-based disabled activists. My public health nurse volunteered with the Irish Wheelchair Association and had seen a poster.
I was living with my Parents in the countryside at that time and it was life-changing for me to hear disabled people articulating what I had felt intuitively i.e. Disabled people had the right to self-determination and to pursue the same aspirations as their non-disabled peers. Prior to that meeting, I hadn’t heard about the concept of Personal Assistance and it was the missing link I had been waiting for.
After graduating from UCC with a degree in social science, I worked in CORK CIL for approx. 20 years where I saw the significant and positive impact that Personal Assistance made in disabled people’s lives. The PA Service is one part of the jig saw that makes independent living possible. There is an interconnected importance of housing, personal assistance, transport, and an accessible physical environment in terms of achieving independent living. For those elements to be in place requires a commitment to and understanding of the social model of disability.
I also worked with Northside Community Enterprises as a CE Supervisor, supporting long-term unemployed people to gain the skills to access mainstream employment.”
ILMI Policy Assistant
I joined the ILMI team in January 2021 as policy assistant intern. My role involves working alongside James Cawley, policy officer on various projects and research.
Over the last year I have participated in many projects and groups such as ILMI’s housing network. The ILMI housing network was designed to assist disabled people to become active and effective members of their HDSGs. As the National housing policy for disabled people 2022-2027 was launched, it is important to have disabled peoples’ voices at the table.
It is really exciting time to be working for a DPO like Independent Living Movement Ireland whose vision and mission is an Ireland where disabled people have freedom choice and control over all aspects of our lives and be seen as equals in society.
In 2018 I graduated with an B.Sc. honours degree in Applied Biology and Biopharmaceutical Science from GMIT. As a very proud Disabled woman who faced some of the barriers encountered by many disabled people. It is personally very rewarding and fulfilling to work for an organisation who embraces the social model of disability and be a part of such a dynamic hard-working team.
I believe it is fundamentally important that disabled people are involved in a meaningful, authentic way in all facets of Society with our contributions valued and our rights respected.
