The Transforming Leadership Programme
We are looking forward to being part of Access All Areas: Making Work Accessible, which will take place on Wednesday 12 March 2025 at The Lowry.
The event will be co-hosted by DIY artist – leaders Amy and Charlotte alongside colleagues from Access All Areas.
You can attend the event in person or you can attend it online via a livestream. Tickets for the event are free and you can sign up for your free tickets here.
The event will share solutions from the Transforming Leadership programme for increasing employment for learning disabled and autistic professionals.
Areas that will be covered at the event include:
- Learning from the Transforming Leadership Programme
- Navigating payments and benefits
- Access to Work for learning disabled and autistic professionals
- Co-leadership of creative spaces
- Creative Support
The event is the culmination of two years of work on Transforming Leadership with seven disability arts companies from around the UK, where fourteen trainee leaders upskilled, built a network, and learned to navigate work as learning disabled and autistic professionals.
DIY leaders Amy and Charlotte will be chairing much of the event, including welcoming everyone and introducing the event, introducing speakers and introducing a video.
Alongside Georgia, they will also discuss their experiences of the support mentor relationship, and how it worked for them.
About the programme
Transforming Leadership was a two-year national initiative to develop learning disabled and autistic cultural leadership. The aims were:
- Sharing skills and best practise in co-directing and inclusive governance amongst all partners.
- Creating training and pathways for learning disabled and autistic leaders in co-directing and governance.
- Developing relationships with local arts venues to foster genuine inclusion and representation of learning disabled and autistic leaders.
The initiative was led by a network of eight Learning Disability Arts organisations: Access All Areas, Mind-the-Gap, DIY Theatre, Blue Apple Theatre, Unanima, Square Pegs, Prism Arts and Hubbub.
Getting ready for the event
We chatted with DIY Artist and Leader Amy, and DIY’s Creative Support for the Transforming Leadership project Georgia, about their preparations for the event:
“I feel nervous because we don’t know how many people are coming but I’m looking forward to seeing what questions the audience come up with” – Amy
“I’ve really enjoyed coming up with the script with Amy and Charlotte because we’ve put our own ideas into it” – Georgia
“We’ve put a bit of a twist into it as well. You’ll have to come along to our event if you want to know the twist” – Amy
“I’m excited to see Amy and Charlotte present because I know how much work they’ve put into this project” – Georgia
Want to join the event? Click here to book your free tickets!
Growing as leaders
It’s been fantastic watching two DIY leaders taking part and flourishing in this funded training opportunity. Charlotte Little followed a co-directing route, while Amy Carter focused on governance training. Have a read of how they found their training by clicking here to read Charlotte’s Leadership journey and here to read Amy’s Spotlight article!
Late last year, Charlotte also shared her experience with Disability Arts Online in a fantastic blog post you can read here.
I’m an individual but I’m an individual with a learning disability. As a director I want to be a strong director and I want to show that I can work with any actor – if they are disabled or non-disabled. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me. – Charlotte
