People First is an organisation run by and for people with learning difficulties to raise awareness of and campaign for the rights of people with learning difficulties and to support self advocacy groups across the country. People First promotes the social model of disability. This is a way of thinking about disability that says it is society that needs to change to include disabled people. We should not have to change to fit in with society. We are against the medical model of disability, which is the view that being disabled means there is ‘something wrong’ with you. Doctors and teachers and other professionals put labels on us marking us out as different form everyone else. It is these labels which get in the way and stop us taking part the same as anyone else, for example people labelled as having a learning difficulty get sent to special schools and then on to day centres when what we would really like is to get a job; we get put in group homes to live with other people with the same label, with whom we didn’t choose to live, when we would prefer to live on our own with support or with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Who is People First for? People First (Self Advocacy) welcomes support and interest from everyone but only people with learning difficulties and self advocacy groups run by people with learning difficulties can join as full members with voting rights.

To provide general support to members when they attend the monthly meeting and perhaps occasionally when members go on outings. Needs volunteers to assist members to attend conferences and ‘away days’