A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I left cold, wet and windy Scotland to migrate to Australia. I wanted to live near a beach and sit at peace under the warm southern sun.
It is still a surprise to me, therefore, that twenty-five years later I find myself living almost 2,000 feet above sea level, in the coldest damn capital city in Australia, about as far from a beach as a man like me can imagine.
I came to Canberra in late-2012 to join the senior executive leadership team that successfully launched the National Disability Insurance Scheme on 1 July 2013. I would have gone anywhere to help launch the NDIS. I felt privileged to contribute. And I’m pleased that I played my part.
I remained in Canberra because my partner, Spike, is a glass artist. Who knew this big country town has the best glass-making facility in Australia?
Spike. Obviously.
I’ve worked for Community Connections and My Choice My Support (separate but aligned organisations) for six and a bit years. Between the two, CCI & MCMS support over 300 NDIS participants and their families, mostly in the ACT.
We do good work. By which I mean that my colleagues,
coordinators and plan managers in CCI,
schedulers / support facilitators and disability support workers in MCMS, and
the managers in both organisations
do excellent work.
In sometimes unreasonable and challenging circumstances, the coordinators and plan managers of CCI assist NDIS participants to make the most of their frequently inadequate NDIS plans. My colleagues do their professional best to support people they work with to develop and achieve personal autonomy and greater agency; to make real in their day-to-day lives the ideals and principles of the NDIS.
My colleagues in MCMS work tirelessly to organize and provide that most misunderstood and delicate of skills – well-trained, high quality, empathetic disability support (at home or in the community). That support helps to empower people who have often been discounted or marginalised by a society that has not yet fully incorporated the human and civil rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.
So -- as my time with CCI / MCMS ends -- I want to thank the people I’ve been around for six years:
my colleagues at work,
the directors of both charitable not-for-profits (because without their voluntary commitment neither organisation could exist) and
the people we support.
I talk too much.
So, allow me to end with my all-time favourite quotes from other people.
Karl Marx wrote,
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in many ways. The point, however, is to change it.”
Charles Renee McIntosh (a Scottish architect, artist and designer) said,
“There is hope in honest error. None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist.”
And The Golden Rule gives all of us this helpful guidance.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
I suppose those three quotes explain me, in a way. At least they describe how I try to be ... as I make my way through this imperfect world. Imperfect as I am.
Our organisational purpose, however, is simpler. We do good.
At times the NDIS can seem large, distant, overwhelming. One in five Australians has a physical, neurological, sensory, intellectual and / or psychosocial disability. 650,000 of us have an NDIS plan. There are nearly 200,000 service providers. About 400,000 people work in the ‘industry’. And it costs about a gazillion dollars of taxpayer's money.
But at its core, the NDIS is quite a simple idea that brings incalculable benefits to all Australians; not only to NDIS participants.
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs."
A reciprocal arrangement to which we all contribute. We all give and receive in mutually beneficial ways. Within a rights-based framework.
It's what some people might describe as a non-zero-sum game. If it's entered into with good intentions and respect, we all win.
Locally-focused organisations like Community Connections and My Choice My Support sit at the centre of the big idea that is the NDIS. They can add real value to participants' lives through relationships that flourish because of the work of people like my colleagues. Those relationships – between people with disability who need support and people employed by CCI, MCMS and other good providers – represent the essence, heart and soul of the NDIS.
I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to be part of that work.
So, thank you. And goodbye.
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