Disabled People of Clare - DPOC - Ireland

About the DPOC

The Disabled People of Clare (DPOC) is a Centre for Independent Living controlled and managed by people with disabilities. A Centre for independent Living (CIL) is a place where people can get answers, find support or contribute to finding solutions to difficulties they have encountered because of a disability.

The DPOC is affiliated to the National and International Independent Living Movement. We aim to empower and enable people with disabilities, giving choice and control over our own lives. We wish to demonstrate the abilities, achievements and heights that can be scaled by people with disabilities, when given appropriate supports and an equal place in society.

Our philosophy may be summed up as ‘Nothing about Us Without Us’.

The History of the DPOC
The Disabled People of Clare (DPOC) was founded in 1992 by disabled people as we believed that we did not have a direct say in the issues affecting our lives. These issues were many fold, including social services, education and employment, local and national government policy and legislation, societal attitude, family and community life. All of the founders had experience of the traditional organisations and felt that:

• We were not at the centre in terms of decision making
• There was no cross disability organisation
• We were not comfortable with the charity model

We set about identifying a critical mass of disabled people to agree our aims and objectives. We soon realised that there were many disabled people in Clare who felt we needed and wanted a self-representative organisation in the county.