As a disabled persons user-led organisation, we are dedicated to supporting disabled adults across Kent to live more independent and fulfilled lives. Getting our service offering right has always been a priority for us as an organisation and we put the needs of our clients at the heart of all that we do.
Over the last few years, we have been conducting in-depth research to investigate the public’s perceptions of our charity as well as gathering valuable insights into whether people understand what we do and who we are. The research was generously funded by a grant from the Fidelity Foundation with the support of Kent Community Foundation and helped us to understand how we can better serve the people we work with. It is with great pleasure that are now able to share a report of these findings with you.
Our primary goal at the outset was to gain a comprehensive understanding of how people perceive our charity, which was then known as Centre for Independent Living Kent (CiLK). We sought to gauge opinions on various aspects, including our core mission, our identity, and the areas in which we can improve to ensure greater relevance and visibility. We recognized the importance of aligning our brand with our community's needs and expectations, and thus embarked on this research initiative as a crucial step towards that end. A portion of our funding was allocated to collaborating with a Postgraduate Research Student from the University of Kent, Jonjo Brady. This helped to ensure the robustness and credibility of our study and his expertise validated the reliability of our research findings.
Undoubtedly, the global pandemic presented unforeseen challenges to our research plans. We had initially intended to engage in face-to-face conversations but were forced to adapt our approach. Like the rest of the world, we relied on various online tools, such as video calls and surveys, to connect with our community and gather perspectives. Although we acknowledge that face-to-face interactions often provide deeper insights, we are immensely proud of the efforts we undertook to overcome the obstacles and produce a comprehensive report. We would like to thank all those who provided their input into this research, responded to our survey and took part in the online focus groups we ran. We very much appreciate your time, particularly given the unusual and stressful circumstances of a global pandemic.
The insights gleaned from our research informed our brand relaunch, which was unveiled in April 2022. We discovered that, despite our best intentions, there was a gap in understanding regarding our charity’s purpose. In response, we undertook a strategic rebranding initiative to enhance our visibility and ensure that our mission and values were more readily recognizable. The result was a stronger brand identity that has helped us to create greater awareness and engagement of our charity so that we can reach more people and better serve our clients.
We invite you to read the report below which outlines the findings of our research and serves as a roadmap for Disability Assist’s future plans. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we strive to continuously improve our charity and the services we provide so please do feel free to share your thoughts with us.
Read the full report here: