In 2023, the Committee for Ministry of and Among Deaf and Disabled People (CMDDP) was awarded funded to begin a programme of developing leadership training for a select cohort of disabled and neurodivergent people in the church.
Participants would come away with increased confidence and self-esteem, a new set of skills to equip them in their leadership roles, and prove role models for a more aspirational culture around discernment and recruitment.
The programme was called Enabling Leaders and right from the start, attracted a skilled cohort of lay and ordained applicants wishing to follow their felt calling to a greater exercise of leadership, within the context of their lived experience. Participants included wheelchair users, neurodivergent individuals, people with sensory impairments, chronic health conditions and hidden disabilities.
The Honeycomb Model curriculum
The Steering Group formed was composed of those with experience in constructing and leading training programmes within the church, and with lived experience of disability and neurodivergence. A curriculum was designed, centering on the image of a honeycomb, with topics to be studied through webinars and in-person conferences including Barriers, Strategy and Change.
After the successful conclusion of the first, pilot year, it was agreed to continue the programme.
In 2025, the second cohort met together for the programme's first conference at High Leigh in Hertfordshire, hearing from a variety of passionate and talented speakers and trainers, including a Paralympian skier! As the year of study and fellowship progresses, they will attend webinars, work through journalling and personal development tasks, and come together again in May and November.
In 2026, Enabling Leaders will open for its third year of this exciting leadership development programme.
Enabling Leaders 26 - Recruitment
As Enabling Leaders enters its third year, we are inviting potential participants to consider whether they feel that they are called to this programme of equipping for leadership.
Candidates must have lived experience of disability and/or neurodivergence, and have already shown their leadership potential within their own context. Both lay and ordained are considered for acceptance onto the programme; nominations to the Steering Group are by sponsorship from the DIocesan Bishop.
Contact the Disability Project team to find out more about the practicalities, or speak to your church leader to explore your sense of vocation to this.
You can also view the feedback and reactions from the first cohort by clicking on the video link at the foot of this page.
Enabling Leaders 2023-24 - The Pilot Project
Click here to see a short film featuring interviews with Enabling Leaders Steering Group members and with participants in the first, pilot year of the programme.