Stories of interest

Early last year Ashleigh Izard was having a chat with VALID staff member Kylie Fisher about her goals and plans for the future. Her NDIS planning meeting was coming up and Ashleigh was still thinking about what she wanted to do with her life. Kylie could see that Ashleigh would benefit from support in making her decisions about what to do, and mentioned VALID’s Choice Mentor program.

Simone Stevens has been Communications Officer at VALID for two years. Simone is also a great self-advocate and has always wanted to be an advocate. Recently Simone was asked to support someone and learnt the importance of communication and regularly touching base with the client. 

Mark Thompson has been the facilitator of VALID's Ballarat Peer Action Group (PAG) since its formation in 2016. The fourteen members meet the fourth Friday of every month and are strong advocates for making Ballarat accessible for all.

From May 30th to June 1st 2018 VALID staff members Heather Forsyth, Zoe and Broadway and CEO Kevin Stone attended the Inclusion International's World Congress in Birmingham. The World Congress brought together people and organisations from all over the world to  learn from and inspire each other. 

Luke Nelson is a Community Coordinator for the Mainstream and Me project, which helps mainstream providers to be more inclusive for people with disability. In this article Luke talks about the Mainstream and Me project, and his experience of the 2018 Having a Say conference. 

I attended the Inclusion Australia National Open Employment Forum which focused on the importance of engaging mainstream employers to be more inclusive.

The local VALiD Peer Action Group have named Showbiz Cinemas as Ballarat’s most accessible venue.