Much of the support work behind this event and the steering committee came from two community development workers employed at the Greater Manchester Council for Voluntary Service (later called GMCVO), Dorothy Whitaker and Val Suffolk.
[11] One example of the ways of working of the GMCDP Steering Group was the organising of an open meeting called, Politics of Disability, 7.30pm Friday 8 February 1985 at the Health Education Centre, Hardman Street, Manchester (now Spiningfields).
The agenda-setting discussion was a few weeks earlier, 24 January 1985, between Kevin Hyett and Lorraine Gradwell while at the MDA club evening meet at Stretford sports centre.
[12] The Inaugural Meeting of GMCDP took place on Saturday 22 June 1985 at the County Hall of the Greater Manchester Council, at which point the Steering Committee ended and the first Executive Council was elected The meeting included a number of smaller discussion groups, including on education, access, and employment.
[14] An extract from the draft constitution in August 1984 states: "The Coalition aims to promote the full participation of disabled people in ensuring that they have the necessary facilities and support to live independently; to have control of their own lives, and to support all measures that seek to ensure that disabled people have the means to be fully integrated into society.
In 1982 in outline and then in 1984 in detail, the public transport planners in Greater Manchester proposed that a new tram network should be funded and built, which later became known as Metrolink.
By the summer of 1988 the principle of full access had been agreed and disabled people were invited to inspect a full-size mock-up vehicle and platform that had been built for consultation purposes.
Every entrance had steps, there was one tiny lift once inside, no accessible toilets, no hearing aid induction loops, no Braille signage.
However, disabled people were angry to find that this agreement had been broken when an exhibition of the Trades Union Congress was held in the town hall alongside the TUC's annual conference nearby.
Lorraine Gradwell, another GMCDP worker, had a letter published in The Guardian newspaper that morning calling on disabled people to support the protest.
[4] In 1996 a film (VHS tape) of interviews with members was completed, Thoughts and Reflections on the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, to mark the 10th anniversary of the organisation.
Disabled people who lived or worked in Greater Manchester could telephone an information line or ask questions by email to the project team.
[30] In 2010, GMCDP started a five-year Lottery funded project, Including Young Disabled People, and in 2016 this work continued, now being called Shaping Our Inclusion.
In 2010 Greater Manchester was chosen as one of the pilot trailblazer areas to try to implement a new way of combining the funding streams, known as the Right to Control.
These five councils in Greater Manchester and JobCentre Plus and disabled people's organisations met for three years to try to get a new way of person-centered working in place.
Many disabled people's organisations (DPOs) were forced to close as the years of austerity ate away at any reserves, and although GMCDP had to retrench and reduce staffing numbers drastically it did manage to survive the decade.
[32] In March 2014, the Coalition government announced its plans to close the Independent Living Fund (ILF) in June 2015 and transfer the responsibilities on to local authorities without protecting the budget, which GMCDP was convinced would lead to cuts because social care in England and the UK was already failing.
In 2017 Andy Burnham was elected as the metro Mayor of Greater Manchester and in 2019 he set up a Disabled People's Panel (DPP) with GMCDP to continue the dialogue.
She called it Manchester Firsts,[23] written in response to attending a disability history meeting held at a university which she felt included too many glaring errors.
[34] Catalogue files are created, and some of the boxes are put into secure storage at the Greater Manchester County Records Office (GMCRO).
An application for a grant extension that included a desired new building for the archive was submitted but not approved, and later in June 2005 Brian Hilton was employed on a temporary basis with GMCDP's own funds.
Later in 2016 staff in Archives+ ("archives plus") agree to take these organised materials into safe custody, adding to the previous boxes stored at the GMCRO.
With the materials in a more manageable state, GMCDP employed Linda Marsh on a fixed-term contract to start making a detailed catalogue of the archive prior to opening it to the public.