The Disability Resilience Network is designed to lift all disabled people beyond the vital debates on equality, diversity and inclusion to the raging issues of society through disruption, innovation and resilience.
The goal of the network for disabled people is the inclusive economy.
It is about disability but it is even more about adaptation and coping in response to loss.
In this approach everyone has something to offer and something to gain.
It is a network because you don't have to be anywhere other than where you already are.
To act in the interests of disabled people you can simply join the network.
Philip J Connolly - DRN Founder
our Disability Anthem
We've released our first disability anthem song called Disability Winners.
We are very excited about its potential and would love YOU to share it with the world!
Purchase and share the song where all money generated goes straight back into the DRN project.
To purchase the track click on the link above and make a donation to:
Disability Resilience Network
Account: 34305160
Sort: 30-99-50
Lloyds Plc.
Disability don't dis us or take our status
Disability it’s time to make a fuss
Disability let’s put it in reverse
Disability let’s test the inverse
Whatever it takes we are by your side
Shock wave riders you decide
To be accepted is our quest
Resilience is our test
Oh - what do we sound like? X 2
We sound like winners
And we will sound like winners x 2
Whoever we are
We’re disability winners!
Resourceful: we can find another way
Challenge us: we can find more reasons to stay
Necessity’s the mother of invention
We have so many mothers, we’ve so much intention
Support us to make our contribution
Train and give us prosthetic fabrication
Then we can add to resource distribution
No time to hesitate in plastic substitution
Oh - what do we sound like? X 2
We sound like winners
And we will sound like winners x 2
Whoever we are
We’re disability winners!
Don't speculate, or denigrate we want to relate
It’s not the story of just one person but of people, we can no longer wait
We have new stories to compose, and old ones to depose
It’s not the story of just one person but of people, we can no longer wait
And we will sound like winners x 2
Whoever we are
We’re disability winners!
Lyrics by Philip Connolly Founder of DRN
Music by Martine Waltier
Mastered by Olly Field
Join the
network
The Disability Resilience Network invites and needs you to participate in all sorts of ways.
From volunteering, skills sharing, donating funds and offering services this membership allows the network to grow and support each other in this new community.
Fill in the 'sign up' form to be part of our network!
The team
Philip J Connolly
Philip J Connolly is the founder and President of the Disability Resilience Network (DRN). He has worked professionally as an advocate in the disability sector since 2000, specialising in employment. He is qualified in teaching, construction and environmental management. He has worked in policy and campaigns for Living Streets, RNIB, Disability Rights UK and Leonard Cheshire Disability. He is partially sighted and also has Parkinsons Disease.
Philip has a vision of disabled people and those with a long-term health condition being both resourceful and a resource to each other. He asks people to bring their own vision and attributes whether a technical skill or altruism to the network and share these with others, to form collaborations and then to create or innovate practice. He invites members and supporters to imagine that their vision has already taken hold and that they are already successful. He recognises that many disabled people wish to use their energy and time to communicate the coping strategies and adaptation techniques learnt in response to the challenges of their condition and offers the network as the place to do this.
He is motivated to establish a community with the power to resolve its own challenges or where and when it cannot, the power to influence decision makers to act in disabled people's interests. In the DRN, he says "You are not required to be an angel but to want to be on the same side as the angels.
Angelika Welzel-Connolly
Angelika brings with her fast experiences both personal and professional to the role of DRN committee member. On a personal level, when Angelika developed epilepsy in her late 20s her life changed on many levels and she had to learn to adapt and be resilient, especially as her son was still quite young. Professionally Angelika worked with disabled people in various roles for charities and statuary service providers over 20years.
She started from being a PA to a Project support and development officer working with people with learning disabilities and autism to working in a mental health resource centre as a coordinator with people with severe and enduring mental health problems. Other roles included working as a community advocate, supporting self-advocacy groups and in the last 10years as a dementia advocate and founder of Dementia Dialogue a training provider and consultancy. At present Angelika is working with the Royal Borough of Greenwich to develop and create dementia-inclusive communities. She is also currently studying for a PhD Doctor in Dementia studies at the University of Stirling.
She is excited to be part of the Disability Resilience Network and is looking forward to contributing and collectively taking action to raise awareness of disabilities and health conditions.
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Dave Gregson
Dave worked for over 20 years in front-line health and social care in both management and front-line care as a support worker, also Dave has worked and volunteered for a range of community and voluntary organisations that included supporting accessibility for people with disabilities.
Dave founded and ran the non for profit company Important To Important which focussed on neurodiversity, workplace bullying, mental health, and community events between 2020 and 2022, now combined with his writing project Dave Gregson Writes.
In addition to being neurodiverse himself, with a late diagnosis of autism in 2018 he faced a long period of lack of understanding and workplace bullying, he was dismissed from his job with a large national disability charity in 2018, however, he won a legal case against them in 2020, which lead him to be involved with much of his work and the privilege and honour of joining up with the DRN.
Dave is also an author of both children and adult fiction genres and many of the issues that he is involved with and cares about are reflected in much of his writing.
Clare Fairbairn
I am a Dyspraxic SEN specialist Teaching Assistant, Setting Manager, Teacher of English as a Foreign Language and former Bookshop Manager. I spend my spare time playing/writing music and building electric guitars.
My professional experiences bring almost 12 years of suffering disability discrimination and raising awareness on Dyspraxia. My life is driven around educating and raising awareness of all types of disabilities and workplace bullying.
My time as a charity Bookshop Manager developed my organisational skills and knowledge of employment law, which make my appointment as Acting Secretary ideal. With a background in economics and data analytics, this role enables me to organise and analyse data for the Network whilst also being a first responder to government consultations.
As currently the youngest member with an acting position, I bring a different approach to the network, alongside a stronger comfort surrounding social media. I am excited to continue my work with the Disability Resilience Network and hope to use it to continue my work raising awareness on all
types of disabilities.
Nigel Niles
I have varied local government and education sector experience, working with adults and young people of different backgrounds within an Inner London setting.
I have been teaching General Science at the secondary school level for nearly 15 years to a variety of students with various academic abilities. Over the last two years I had the privilege of experiencing the amazing multi-agency effort that goes into children with SEMH/SEN needs through a nurturing curriculum.
I am looking to pursue a new direction with the mentoring, pedagogical, planning, organising, and time management skills I have gained.
I consider myself an educator in the wider sense; I strongly believe in the power of education for its own sake and believe people are missing out on an important aspect of a very human experience. The joy of trying something new is often hidden by the social subordination of learning to earning, narrowing our focus on who we are, how we live, and why.
I see the Disability Resilience Network as an exciting opportunity that anyone can take part in, to be not just what you bring to the table, but open to what you can learn from sharing your own experiences. As a lifelong Asthma sufferer, I myself have only recently begun to appreciate the breadth of "hidden" disabilities within our society and the resilience required for people just to take part in everyday activities.
One of the neglected areas is small organisation that nurtures and inspires its members with no strings attached, not defined by money making. As DRN's volunteer Operations Manager, I want to push boundaries and make a difference. Perhaps we might even become the nucleus of something new!
![Martine [Color]-7_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f28590_97f52d4155a249618dddb19bbd72ea3b~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_0,w_2197,h_2173/fill/w_340,h_336,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Martine%20%5BColor%5D-7_edited.jpg)
Martine Waltier
Martine has supported DRN from the beginning and is the Web Designer and Tech Support. Her background is as a musician and she currently uses a variety of healing modalities to support individuals with their self-directed healing.
Growing up with a visually impaired father, Martine has had direct experience in understanding the resilience of people with disabilities. She has worked in various creative settings with people who have learning disabilities and uses her musical skills to connect individuals in playful and fun activities.
She has a background in information, advice and guidance within local government adult services and has worked within urban play and youth centres supporting young adults.
Currently her development in yoga and breathwork has lead her to lead retreats and workshops across Europe and her passion is to reconnect people with their natural beauty.
She continues to learn and engage in new ways of thinking and has a deep interest in all areas of society where people are marginalised and misrepresented.
Our Focus
Disruption
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Innovation
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Resilience
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Artist residency
Poet and Creative in Residence.
'J' Ahmed
"Licensed to rhyme
For the good of mankind".
'J' is a talented poet, artist, rapper, innovator and friend from Salford. 'J' writes on all matters which are concerned with the human condition, often writing poems on race and equality related issues and those issues rarely broached in and around mental health.
"I've always believed I have a responsibility as a poet to use my art to ardently promote positive change in the world. But, my work now goes deeper than that - I believe the art form of poetry to have dynamic and as yet unexplored healing properties. I try, therefore, to actively promote the practice of writing poetry almost as much as I continue to avidly write and explore, alongside others, this valuable process... Poetry is change - poetry is growth - poetry is healing "
DISABILITY RESILIENCE
network for change
POEM BY 'J'.Ahmed
It is the very longest road
This road we tread for change.
And, this road
Is one which throws us
Curve balls -
Please maintain;
The strength which you
Will surely need
To move us to a plane
Where people are more equal,
Treated more the same.
This test of our resilience
Called life,
Well it began
Way way back in history
From the genesis of man -
The struggle for amoeba
To rise up from the seas
To claim the lands of all the world
To become who we now be.
Evolved to this society
With each our part to play,
We represent the struggle
And we struggle every day.
It is from birth
That we progress
To surely find a way -
Falling before walking
Then striding through our days.
And this Is our resilience,
This unseen golden gift.
The quality
Which helps us rise
And gives our friends a lift.
It is the strength that holds us
Firmly to our course
And keeps us striving onward
A potent Natural force.
Coupled with the ability
To truly self reflect,
We understand the value
Of changes we affect.
We are a force for reckoning,
We are a force for change,
We are the unified
Who cannot see things
Stay the same.
This universe is ours.
We are the stars that shine.
The cosmic laws of governance
Have helped us to refine.
See just like all known energy
We are set to change
From one form
To another
If we only use our brains.
And remember,
What we leave behind
Pays testament to us.
Our loving living memories
Live on when we are dust.
We are each original,
Some lead and some will follow -
Always so creative
In our quest for new tomorrows.
The path for the disabled
Requires resilient minds,
Our burden is our gift
And we must always
Strive to find;
Ways of adaptation,
Ways to help us be
Enabled to be able
For this will set us free.
Please join us on our journey
Whomever you may be.
Please dont be defined
By your disability.
We tread this path
In our own shoes
And never tread the same
But wherever we are coming from
We tread this path for change...