Strong Voices

Kia ora koutou,

I’m now a couple of months into my role as Chief Executive of IHC, and I can say that this has been an exciting and humbling experience.

I am grateful for the opportunity to lead a membership organisation that is dedicated to supporting people with intellectual disabilities and their families to lead satisfying and fulfilling lives.

I was truly honoured by the warm and well attended pōwhiri on my first day, and have felt very welcome as I have travelled around the motu, meeting people in different communities including people we support, staff, families and members. I will be continuing my travels throughout the year and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

These meetings and catch-ups are key to the three initial priorities I have set for myself:

• To listen, first and foremost, and to learn about and understand the history of IHC.
• To connect with others inside and outside the organisation to gather a range of perspectives of our work.
• To work with everyone on prioritising resources and the effort spent on things that will have the most positive impacts for the people we support.

I believe that the strength of an organisation is its people, and that by working together we can be bigger than the sum of our parts. IHC has a broad base with a team including volunteers, donors, families, friends, other supporters and of course members. You are all important to our work and I will engage with you and update you on our progress on a regular basis.

I am also meeting key groups of people to advise my work. We are in the process of setting up a Chief Executive’s advisory group to ensure the voices of people with intellectual disabilities are meaningfully integrated with the IHC Group’s decision-making processes and wider sector systemic advocacy issues. I am very quickly learning about the complex disability sector from a wide range of angles, and am utterly committed to better understanding it through the perspectives and  experiences of the people we are here for.

Together we will continue the proud tradition of IHC, building on the foundation of the past 75 years to achieve even more for people with intellectual disabilities in the years to come.

I would like to finish by sharing one of my favourite whakataukī with you.

E hara taku toa i te toa takitahi, he toa takitini
My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective

Ngā manaakitanga,

Andrew Crisp
Chief Executive

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