Strong Voices

This is a big year for IHC as we turn 75.

That’s 75 years of staying true to our vision of great lives for people with intellectual disabilities. That’s something worth celebrating.

We’re an organisation that said people with intellectual disabilities should live in communities and families – not locked away. We said everyone deserves fair access to healthcare, education and proper support, the chance to earn money and pay tax, to follow interests and opportunities, to have a relationship, to good do things and to make mistakes. We still believe that.

IHC today does lots of the same things we have always done. We advocate to change laws and correct injustice on a national stage and provide information, connection and support in small communities.

But we’ve changed and grown. We are still a fiercely independent and much-loved charity, but we’re also a large-scale housing and disability service provider. Why? Because that’s what is needed.

When the institutions closed, we didn’t just celebrate, we bought homes in communities. Today people still live in shared homes where they are supported and encouraged get out and about to do the things they like doing and to be as independent as possible. We’re champions of the Enabling Good Lives principles, but for us it’s less about an hour here and there and more about providing quality 24/7 support. We have amazing staff who support people to have as much choice and opportunity as possible each day.

More than a decade ago, in 2010, we established Accessible Properties and that sparked some good debate about the impact of our property activities on our core focus, which is intellectual disability. We have since seen the advantages of a strong performance by Accessible Properties to the IHC Group as a whole. Accessible Properties manages IHC’s property portfolio, rents houses to tenants with intellectual disabilities, who otherwise find it hard to get affordable housing, and pays a dividend to IHC each year. When Accessible Properties began providing social housing we knew there were synergies as we continued to support people in need, but we had no idea how many people living in social housing have a disability. Our annual tenant survey shows that’s the case in more than half of the homes we provide.

We are still proud to ask for donations and remain driven by our unwavering mission. We are New Zealand’s charity for people with intellectual disabilities and will be here in good times and in bad.

What do we want to do with the next 75 years?

Gina Rogers

Editor, Strong Voices

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