AMIDA
Action for More Independence and Dignity in Accommodation
Annual Report 2013
Advocacy, Self-Advocacy, Rights, Accessibility, and Community Living for People with a Disability
1st Floor, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000
Telephone: 9650 2722 Fax 9654 8575
Email: amida@amida.org.au
Web: www.amida.org.au

AMIDA
Annual General Meeting
10th September 2013

AGENDA
10.00 Welcome
Present/Apologies
Endorsement of new members
Confirm Minutes of the Previous AGM
Chairperson's Report
Activities Report – AMIDA advocacy, SARU, ARG
Treasurer's Report
Chair is handed over to Returning Officer for election of committee members
11.30 Guest Speaker – Sue Smith, SARU – “Arts & Advocacy”
12.00 Lunch
1.00 Close of meeting

AMIDA
Annual General Meeting

Minutes - 11th September, 2012

Present: Norrie Blythman (Chair), Graeme Williams, Ainsley Smith, Timothy Elson, Jane Hauser, Christina David, Nadia Shaw, Mary Reid, Esther Harris, Luke Stone, Peter Waters, Michael Buckley, Lauren Rosewarne, Janice Slattery, Simon Chong, James Teekan, Cynthia Pilli, Amanda Hiscoe, Gab Reade, Koula Sarimichaelidis, Pam Geoghegan, Pauline Williams, Gabrielle Dickinson

Apologies: Daisy Serong, John Serong, Lisa Brumtis, Alan Burchill, Des McIntosh, Paul Ramcharan, Brenda Lacey, Colin Hiscoe
Norrie Blythman welcomed everyone.

Endorsement of new members:
Dr Lauren Rosewarne, Simon Chong, Timothy Elson, Christina David
“That the new members applications for membership be endorsed”
Moved – Cynthia Seconded - Luke Carried

Minutes of Previous AGM:
Read by Pauline.
“That they be accepted as a true and correct record”
Moved – Amanda Seconded - Jane Carried
Chairpersons Report:
Presented by Norrie
Peter congratulated Norrie as a great Chair, and the committee on a great year.
Moved – Peter Seconded - Amanda Carried
Act Resources Group ipad/iphone App:
Michael Buckley at ARG has developed a new application on the Disability Act, which he demonstrated.
Activities Report:
Pauline presented the Activities Report.

Treasurer’s Report:
In Brenda Lacey’s absence Norrie Blythman presented the Treasurer’s Report.
Moved - Peter Waters Seconded - Tim Carried
“That Barco & Associates be endorsed as auditors”
Moved – Janice Seconded – Peter Carried
“That Peter Waters continue as Public Officer”
Moved – Tim Seconded – Cynthia Carried

Elections:
The Chair was handed to Returning Officer, Esther Harris
Esther thanked AMIDA for inviting her to be Returning Officer again.
Esther declared 16 vacancies in accordance with the Constitution.
Nominations have been received from:
Christine David
Simon Chong
Norrie Blythman
Brenda Lacey
Nominations were called from the floor, and were received from:
Peter Waters
Tim Elson
Luke Stone
Graeme Williams
Lauren Rosewarne
“That the above nominations for the committee be accepted”
Moved - Cynthia Seconded - Janice Carried

Peter thanked Esther for attending as Returning Officer.
Launch of CD Raising Our Voices – 25 Years Strong
The artwork for the CD was created by Larissa Macfarlane, who presented the original artwork to AMIDA.
Amanda Hiscoe, as foundation member of Raising Our Voices, presented a framed original pamphlet from the first show, in remembrance of 25 years. Peter Waters, Jane Hauser, Janice Slattery and Norrie Blythman all spoke of the history of ROV.
The CD was launched and played at the meeting, and copies were distributed to everyone.
Cynthia suggested that the new committee consider contacting Radio National, Life Matters and Eastern Radio to do a story on Raising Our Voices.
The meeting closed at 12.00 and we then enjoyed a celebration lunch.

Chairpersons Report
Norrie Blythman
This year AMIDA is 32 years old. And we are getting better and better each year.
The federal government continues to fund us through the National Disability Advocacy Program. We have also received funding from the State government for the SARU (Self-Advocacy Resource Unit).
The Raising Our Voices Radio Show continued into its 26th year with a variety of stories and people involved. The radio show continues to be important to our committee and to our members and the wider community, bringing information and entertainment to listeners.
We continue to be part of the peak body for advocacy organisations in Victoria, Disability Advocacy Victoria (DAV), with Norrie Blythman and Gabrielle Dickinson attending as AMIDA representatives.
This is our 5th year as lead partner in the SARU - Self Advocacy Resource Unit. The four partners are Start Community Art, AMIDA, Reinforce and Brain Injury Matters. For AMIDA, our role has included managing the finances, employing staff, attending meetings with the funding body and being represented on the Project Management Group. The SARU continues to be a very valuable service! From 13 groups when we started there are now 27 self-advocacy groups.
This year AMIDA became involved in three new projects. The first is looking at supported living for people with an intellectual disability; the second is developing a celebration of 21 years since the closure of the institution, Caloola. The third project is entitled ‘Good Group Homes’ and is looking at ways to enable community visitors to look for the good practices within the homes they visit, including production of a guide booklet. Our goal as always is to improve the lives of people with a disability.
AMIDA has done a lot of work this year on improving the quality of our work. We had to carefully look at how we work and make sure we are doing all that is required to provide a great service to people with a disability. Many of the people we worked with gave us feedback and we thank them for this. To check we are doing a great job AMIDA
was audited this year and after much work now has a Certificate of Registration that AMIDA operates a National Disability Advocacy Program complying with the Disability Advocacy Standards for the provision of systemic, individual, self and family advocacy.
Finally, I would like to thank the other Committee members for all their efforts and support throughout the year, and also the workers for the great work they have done. Thanks also to David Craig for his help with our strategic plan and Gillian Meldrum for her advocacy work and researching our committees training needs.
Norrie Blythman
Chairperson

AMIDA acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government
AMIDA also acknowledges the support of the Commonwealth Government.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Norrie Blythman Chairperson
Graeme Williams Vice Chair
Brenda Lacey Treasurer
Peter Waters Secretary/Public Officer
Christina David Resigned 11th June
Simon Chong Committee Member
Tim Elson Committee Member
Lauren Rosewarne Committee Member
Kay Forstner Committee Member
Luke Stone Committee Member (Co-opted)
Kay Forstner Committee Member (Co-opted)

AMIDA WORKERS
Gabrielle Dickinson Housing Rights/Coordinator
Pauline Williams Housing Rights/Coordinator
Pam Geoghegan Housing Rights Advocate
Gillian Meldrum Housing Rights Advocate
Koula Sarimichaelidis Administration/Finance
Gab Reade Radio Technical Producer
Mary Reid Project Worker CRU Rights
Jane Hauser Peer Educator/Advisor
Amanda Hiscoe Peer Educator/Advisor
Nadia Shaw CRU Rights support worker
Self-Advocacy Resource Unit
Sue Smith SARU Project Worker
Jacqui Ward SARU Project Worker
Jan Coles SARU Project Worker
Dean Dadson SARU Project Worker
Heidi Peart SARU Project Worker
Michael Buckley Film maker and Project Worker ARG
Lisa Brumtis Actor/Peer advisor
Colin Hiscoe Actor/Peer advisor
Peta Ferguson Peer Advisor
Neil Cameron Peer Advisor
Larissa MacFarlane Peer Advisor
Andrew Maurice Peer Advisor
Activities Report – 2012/13

Systemic Advocacy
Supported Living
In AMIDA’s view despite the fact that Australia has signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability, we are very far from complying with it. A number of the articles in the Convention relate to people being able to live in the community. Article 19 is the right to live independently and be included in the community, choosing where you live and who you live with. In Australia there is no real choice for most people with a disability requiring support. Group homes and Institutions for people with a disability are places where around 15,000 Victorians with a disability live in order to receive needed support. With thousands waiting for a support service, people are forced to accept any vacancy that is offered. For this reason and many others, AMIDA has endorsed the Shadow report on the UN Convention which lists all the ways Australia fails in its obligations. We continue to lobby for more person centred support provision and housing, which is managed separately from support.
This year we partnered La Trobe University in research into supported living for people with an intellectual disability. The aim of the research is to find out how people who are living independently in the community are supported, what the barriers to good support are and what successful support looks like. Hopefully this will lead to better support and community living for people with a disability so they can have an improvement in their lives.
Closure of Institutions
We have been assisting the Office of the Public Advocate to plan an event commemorating the closure of the institution known as Caloola 21 years
ago. This will be an opportunity to call for the closure of the remaining institutions in Victoria and to highlight the successful lives in the community that many former residents have led since the closure. We plan to hear from some of these people and to see some
of their stories from the Hidden Lives art installation which will be on display.
Improving Supported Accommodation
According to both the Disability Services Commissioner and the Office of the Public Advocate reports of abuse in residential services have been increasing. Together with Reinforce we met with the Public Advocate to discuss ways we could prevent abuse. She was happy to let services know about peer facilitated rights education that both AMIDA and Reinforce provide, as this empowering information can help prevent abuse. AMIDA is also proud to endorse the new IGUANA protocol developed by OPA. The Interagency Guideline for Addressing Neglect and Abuse (IGUANA) provides services with best practice steps to go through should abuse or neglect occur in services.
AMIDA is also represented on a steering group researching ways that Community Visitors can encourage positive support by staff in residential services. This is being done in conjunction with OPA and La Trobe University.

Tenancy Rights
We were invited by Youth Disability Advocacy Service to speak at a forum on housing held at the Arts Centre which was attended by 220 people with a disability and their families. Our federal funding allowed us to present information on rights in housing to 241 people in total.
We continued to expend our Department of Human Services (DHS) funding for our campaign to inform and empower people living in Community Residential Units. This funding has not been renewed for the new financial year, however AMIDA has made a commitment to continue the program for the time being from our own funds and continue to try to find a funding source for this successful program. Since the restructure of DHS and the abolition of the Disability services section, there is nowhere to apply for this type of funding within DHS. The Housing Know Your Rights presentations this year continued in group houses and day services following on from the mail out of around
1000 booklet/DVDs to all the Community Residential Units in Victoria. The DVD explains residential rights, how to ask for your rights and how to get advocacy support. Training has now been provided to an additional 122 residents bringing the total number of residents of CRUs who have participated in the training to 383. These people live at 85 different Community Residential Units and the majority of these sessions have taken place in country Victoria.
Raising Our Voices radio show
2012/13 has been our 26th year of supporting people with a disability having the opportunity to be involved in the Raising Our Voices radio show on 3CR 855am. This is a self-advocacy activity which gives people the opportunity to air their views, their own stories and also tackles systemic issues. The show goes to air on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 6pm and is supported by a dedicated team of broadcasters from Reinforce and AMIDA. Topics this year have included: Live Radiothon Interview with James about moving out of a Community Residential Unit into supported independent living. Raising Our Voices 25th Anniversary show with highlights of the past 25 years Interview with Bernie Carolan from Transport ticketing about MYKI Peter “Muddy” Waters talks to Ray Groves about his plan to ride his Scooter from Sydney to Melbourne Lisa and Lara from Brain Injury
Matters talk about Brain Injury Peter “Muddy” Waters returns triumphant from his 13 day
scooter ride from Sydney to Melbourne now known as Muddy’s Wacky Scooter Bash More fantastic audio from our new
25th Anniversary CD of Raising Our Voices Jane looks at some highlights from the 2012 Strengthening Advocacy Conference
A Community Visitor to Caloola, shares her experience of and the problems with institutions for people with an intellectual disability Is Melbourne really the most liveable city for people with a disability. We talk to Travellers Aid Australia about this More Highlights from the 2012 Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference
This year we also participated in an arts and advocacy program with people with a disability from Kirabati a group of islands in the Pacific. Many of the Raising Our Voices Team shared their skills and experience in using radio to raise issues. Thanks to everyone who participated and aired issues important to people with a disability. There are always many people with a disability directly involved in the planning, presentation and interviewing for the show. Thanks also to Gab Reade, our wonderful technical producer over the year. Thanks also to 3CR. Copies of the shows are available on CD. Shows can be listened to live on your computer if your radio doesn’t pick up 3CR. Just go to www.3cr.org.au We also have podcasts of the show on our new website www.amida.org.au . We produced a special anniversary CD to celebrate Raising Our Voices, 25 years strong on 3CR 855am. You can get free copies from AMIDA.
Information, Advice, Referral and Individual Advocacy During 2012/13 we continued to provide information, advice, referral and individual advocacy to people with a disability. We were able to provide information, advice and referral to 65 people with a disability and community organisations. 145 people were provided with information as part of education sessions from our federal funding. As previously stated, this year 122 residents in supported accommodation participated in an education session about housing rights. 34 people were provided with direct individual advocacy, family advocacy or self-advocacy support.
Disseminating information about AMIDA and improving access to AMIDA We again produced 4 newsletters. We have tried to include important information that we receive from government and the community as well as our own activities. Thanks to all the members who made contributions as these are most welcome. The newsletters are on our web site www.amida.org.au
AMIDA website continues to evolve so check it out as we will provide more up to date information on our work and useful information from the community – www.amida.org.au
The Self Advocacy Resource Unit AMIDA continues to support the SARU and the last 12 months have seen a lot of things happening.
As well as our ongoing project workers Sue Smith, Jacqui Ward and for a while Dead Dadson, SARU continued to employ Heidi Peart to provide self-advocacy groups with information on running Good Groups. The kits include activities that strengthen groups and the new good meetings kit that we prepared with Reinforce and Valid. Heidi also did Governance and Information technology training with some self-advocacy groups. We have had some great feedback from the kits including some great feedback from groups in China where Jacqui Ward has been working while on leave from the SARU.
The SARU has continued to employ Jan Coles to run training on the Disability Act for self-advocacy groups and this year we plan to deliver training on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The training will use resources already developed including posters, a DVD, a UNCRPD puzzle book, and a UNCRPD bingo game. With all SARU training, people with a disability from self-advocacy groups are employed to peer facilitate the training.
The Project Management Group continues to run a forum every two months and forum topics are decided by self-advocates and provide an opportunity to come along and talk about different issues and explore ideas. Forums have been held on the Evaluation of SARU and future SARU planning, the role of self-advocacy advisors, and issues in Public Transport.
The self-advocacy groups that SARU supports have been active in many ways but here are a few highlights;
Deaf Blind Victorians were supported by SARU to produce a DVD which they presented personally to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard during a meeting she had with the group.
Brain Injury Matters, with SARU support, successfully applied to the Health Department for funding to produce a “Hitchhikers Guide to the Brain Maze: a kit made by people with a brain injury for people with a brain injury”.
SARU worked with New Horizons to create anti bullying resources.
Disability and Diversity, with SARU and Start Community Art support, successfully applied for funding for an Arts project for self-advocates and disability activists to tell the story of the disability movement.
SARU worked with Reinforce to create a future plan for their group.
The Self-Advocacy groups have also been planning a state-wide network so the next twelve months should be an exciting time for self-advocacy in Victoria. www.saru.net.au
Act Resources Group (ARG)
Another of the projects AMIDA auspices for the Self Advocacy Re Born Consortium is the Act Resources Group. This group has, with its project workers, Michael Buckley and Dean Dadson, created information on the Victorian Disability Act 2006 and the rights contained in it, for distribution to the Victorian community. The resource development includes – many DVDs, and a new website. www.actresources.com.au . Work this year has focussed on a magazine for people with a brain injury and an interactive DVD game.

Treasurers Report
Brenda Lacey
AMIDA finished the financial year 2012/13 in a healthy position. Our reports are consolidated into one report as this is a requirement of Consumer Affairs. The reports show a net loss of $119,734 but this is because we have been funded in previous financial years for projects we spent money to operate this year. We have retained profits of $267,472 which includes grants that are being spent over more than one year and other provisions.
AMIDA continues to receive funding from the Commonwealth Department of Family, Housing Community Services and Indigenous affairs under the National Disability Advocacy Program. We receive funding from the State Department of Human Services through the Office for Disability for the Self Advocacy Resource Unit.
Overall the financial position of AMIDA, and the projects it supports, is a healthy one and we are in a position to meet all our obligations.
AMIDA - CONSOLIDATED ABN 32 993 870 380
Financial Statements
For the year ended 30 June 2013