Trustee
Joe Powell
Joe was appointed the National Director (now Chief Executive) of All Wales People First in 2012 as part of a nationwide recruitment campaign to appoint someone with lived experience of living in learning disability services to head the organisation. Prior to this Joe had lived in autism care services for eleven years and had to fight to get out of a system that defined him as being limited because of disability. With a more enlightened social model approach, he no longer needs support, has a job, his own house in the community and is a contributing tax-payer.
“I believe that with a human rights approach to the social model of disability, such as BIHR take, many other people with learning disabilities can make the same relative progress. I believe that supporting human rights is in the interest of all people in the UK. Human rights are the key to ensuring all people feel valued and included and we meet the economic challenges of a society which keeps so many people needlessly excluded from the mainstream.”
You can watch Joe speaking at our 2020 Human Rights Day reception, discussing how he has used the Human Rights Act to support people with learning disabilities in Wales during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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