We are delighted to announce that the Association of Disabled Professionals were the winners of RADAR’s People of the Year Human Rights Awards for “Doing Careers Differently”.

The Doing Careers Differently Award 2009 recognises the ADP’s commitment to supporting disabled people to achieve their full potential with regards to employment and self employment.

The glittering Awards Ceremony was held on 30th November 2009 at Battersea Evolution and was attended by Jane Hunt, the Chair of the organisation, Kath Sutherland, Development Officer and Kirsty Sutherland-Cash, the Personal Assistant to the Development Officer.

Jane Hunt who collected the Award from Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said:

“This is a tribute to the ADP Executive, staff and members who have served us so well. We also acknowledge the contributions made by Sir Peter Large and Sue Maynard-Campbell, who must be remembered as they were deeply involved.”

Kath Sutherland, Development Officer, commented: “The Award is recognition of the many years of hard work and support provided by the ADP to ensure that disabled people are acknowledged for the many skills that they have. We hope that we are able to secure funding to continue our work in the future, as we receive thousands of enquiries every year but have very limited funding. The Award reflects our dedication to provide a practical, common sense approach to enable the very many disabled people who contact us to gain and retain employment commensurate to their abilities or to choose self employment as a viable option if they wish to do so.”

Liz Sayce, Chief Executive of RADAR, said: “The Association of Disabled Professionals has for many years been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that disabled people progress and develop careers, rather than being marginalised by a laser-like focus on work, any work, at all costs. Such an approach wastes talent and is ultimately counterproductive; challenging it is crucial to ‘Future Proofing Equality’, and the Association of Disabled Professionals are truly deserving winners of this Award.”