Action for More Independence and Dignity in Accommodation Inc. Advocacy, Self-Advocacy, Rights, Accessibility, & Community Living for People with a Disability Annual Report 2019 1st Floor, Ross House, 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000 Telephone: 03 9650 2722 Fax 03 9654 8575 Email: amida@amida.org.au Web: www.amida.org.au 2 Annual General Meeting 1st October 2019 AGENDA 10:00 Register Attendance 10:20 Present/Apologies Endorsement of new members Confirm Minutes of the Previous AGM 10:30 Chairperson's Report 10:40 Treasurer's Report - Present audited report - Confirm auditor - Charitable status motion 10:50 Activities Report – AMIDA advocacy, SARU, Projects 11.00 Nomination for and Election of committee members 11.30 Special Presentation of Opening Doors 12.30 Close of meeting and Lunch 3 AMIDA Annual General Meeting 9 October 2018 Level 4, Ross House 247 Flinders Lane, 3000 Minutes 1. Meeting Opened The meeting opened at 10.20am with Peter Waters appointed Chairman 2. Acknowledgement/Welcome to Country Jane Rosengrave gave a Welcome to Country 3. Present-Apologies Present: Pauline Williams, Peter Waters, Carmel Laragy, James Teeken, Amanda Millear, Luke Stone, Lisa Brumtis, Justin O’Brien, Judy Bourke (minute Secretary), Janice Slattery, John Slattery, Jane Rosengrove, Melanie Keely, Julie Brasington, Amy Lasslett, Colin Hiscoe, Robyn McKenzie, Brenda Penaluna, Chris K, Kathy Apologies: Colin Franks, Greg Axten, Bronwyn Trickett 4. Minutes of Last Meeting Motion: That the minutes of the 2017 AGM be accepted. Moved: Amanda Millear; Seconded: Norrie Blythman Carried 5. Membership Applications Robyn McKenzie’s membership application was received Motion: That Robyn’s membership be accepted: Moved: Luke Stone; Seconded: Julie Brassington Carried 6. Annual Report Annual Report 2018 was tabled: Motion: That the 2018 annual report be accepted. Moved: Jane Rosengrave; Seconded: James Teeken Carried 7. Chairman’s Report Peter Waters delivered his Chairman’s Report. ? He spoke of the great progress of AMIDA over the years and commented on the growth of projects over the years. ? He recalled staff who had left (Gabrielle Dickinson and Jacqui Ward) and remembered those who had passed (Esther Harris and Andrew Daly). ? He welcomed new committee or increased committee involvement, and thanked all present, the Committee and AMIDA workers for their contributions. 8. Treasurer’s Report 4 Carmel Laragy delivered her Treasurer’s Report. ? She told the meeting that the AMIDA income was over $3m all allocated to advocacy and self-advocacy. A small amount of approx $12,000 has been invoiced but not yet paid. There is a surplus of approx $79,000. ? She commented that although the financial position is strong and has grown over the past year, we should not be complacent. She acknowledged that some of the NDIS funding is short term which can impact the finances. ? She thanked Pauline for her work on securing funding. The Treasurer’s Report was tabled. Motion: That the Treasurer’s report be accepted. Moved: Peter Waters; Seconded: John Slattery Carried Motion: That AMIDA appoint new Auditors, Collins & Co for the 2018/2019 financial year: Moved: Carmel Laragy; Seconded: Amanda Millear Carried Brenda commented that under requirements of the Charities and NFP rules, AMIDA’s eligibility was reviewed and nothing has changed to affect AMIDA’s status. 9. Activities Reports were made by: 1. AMIDA Pauline spoke of the various aspects of AMIDA’s work: ? systemic advocacy work, and referred to some submissions and outcomes; ? the Raising Our Voices radio show continues, and mentioned the 30th anniversary CD is still available; ? individual advocacy has provided 1221 people with advice, information and referral, and provided 183 individuals with direct advocacy; ? she mentioned some of the issues for NDIS advocacy. These include that the NDIA won’t give plans to advocates even with the participant’s consent; the NDIA sometimes requires advocates to give their date of birth which is a privacy issue; there is no NDIA protocol or communication process; all advocacy agencies are at capacity; many second NDIS plans are being cut back; a gap is emerging as DHHS closes and some NDIA services are insufficient; there is no dedicated funding for pre-planning; there is a lack of clarity on SDA; ? AMIDA newsletters and the website continue to be produced and updated. 2. SARU Julie and Melanie spoke of the Parenting Project, Positive Powerful Parents: ? Hand in hand has been a 6-8mth metro and rural project, meeting parenting groups, producing 100+ kits for distribution to, and aiming to 5 produce a report for Child Protection and involvement in training of Child Protection workers; ? Banners made with parent groups were shown to the meeting; approved with congratulations; ? Song written by parent groups in conjunction with a singer-songwriter was played to the meeting; the process of writing a song was described; the song will be recorded next week and available on CD; it will be available for 3CR; ? Julie spoke of building trust with partners and training groups; a story she wrote has gone into the Child protection Manual; ? A question from the floor (Amanda) asked if anything had changed with DHHS; Julie said DHHS were still negative but the Manual and song may help change; Melanie agreed there was no change yet but the NDIS is influencing other parts of government; another question (Peter Waters) was if NDIS was helping parents with disability get access to their own kids and the answer was not yet. 3. Voice at the Table project: Amy outlined the project for people with ID or ABI to participate in meetings and then get on Boards and government bodies; ? There have been 40 graduates so far, and some of these have gone on to be co-facilitators; a participant’s YouTube AV was played (Colin); and AV of report Nothing About US Without Us (Julie); ? 50 organisations have requested the 10 Top Tips; ? Funding is until mid-2019; ? The meeting congratulated the project’s impact. 10. Elect Committee for 2019 ? 4 committee members are half way through their 2 year term and not up for re-election: Peter Waters, Norrie Blythman, Luke Stone, Amanda Millear. ? 12 committee vacancies now exist with nominations received from: Lisa Brumtis, Robyn McKenzie, Carmel Laragy, James Teeken, Justin OBrien. ? Nominations were open from the floor but no more nominations were made. ? The 5 nominations were declared appointed as no voting was necessary. ? Pauline stated that up to 7 vacancies can be filled during the year. 11. Next Meeting ? The next Committee meeting will be on 13 November at 10.30am in Meeting Room 1.3 on the first floor of Ross House. The room will be open from 10am. ? Office bearers for the 2019 Committee will be appointed at that meeting under AMIDA’s Constitution. 12. Meeting Closed The meeting closed at 11.30 am after Chairman invited everyone to stay for lunch. 6 Chairpersons Report - Peter Waters It seems like it was only yesterday that we were all sitting here celebrating another year and here we are again. The last year has been challenging and yet rewarding for myself as Chairperson and I hope you all feel the same way. May I congratulate AMIDA and all our projects in yet another stellar year. We seem to keep getting bigger and better. When I joined AMIDA back in the early 90’s we were a 2-person operation with a budget of about $70,000. At the end of June 2019, we had an income of $3.8 million, and we employed about 40 people in various roles. So you can see we have grown and we still continue to grow. But, may I add, a lot of the work AMIDA and SARU conduct is helping small groups to grow, such as Rainbow Rights, and Positive Powerful Parents who spoke at last year’s AGM. We are like an incubator where the chicks that hatch are self-advocates and self-advocacy groups. May I go on to congratulate firstly AMIDA and its workers. Thank you to you all for your dedication and hard work. SARU keeps growing and improving. Thank you to all the staff as I believe SARU is an essential part of what we try to do. Congratulations must go to one of our projects called Voice at the Table as this project won a Victorian Disability Award for Excellence in Creating Inclusive communities. May I also say, please don’t forget our other wonderful projects who may not have won an award but are still great in in the eyes of many. You can read about all our other activities further on in this report. Without getting morbid, yet again this year we lost 2 members in Ray Groves and Rosy Fuhrmeister. Ray was a member of our committee for many years and his passion seemed to be radio. Raising Our Voices was Ray Groves in the 90’s as he was on the show at least 4 times a year. Rosy was one of those silent members many of you received support from but she didn’t blow her trumpet about it. To both these members my words are, “Look down on us with pride as we continue to do the work that your passion was all about. Rest in peace to you both”. Finally, let us all leave here with a passion for the next year as we the newly elected committee will continue the journey of AMIDA and all it has to offer. Let me leave you with my motto, “If we believe, we will succeed”. Peter Waters Chairperson of AMIDA AMIDA acknowledges the support of the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments 7 COMMITTEE MEMBERS Peter Waters Chairperson Carmel Laragy Treasurer Norrie Blythman Secretary James Teeken Committee Member Amanda Millear Committee Member Luke Stone Committee Member Lisa Brumtis Committee Member Justin O’Brien Committee Member Robyn McKenzie Committee Member AMIDA WORKERS to 30th June 2019 Gabrielle Dickinson Housing Rights Co-ordinator Pauline Williams Projects Coordinator Pam Geoghegan NDAP Advocate / IT Bronwyn Trickett NDAP Advocate Koula Sarimichaelidis Administration/Finance Susan Brunton NDIS Appeals Advocate Judy Bourke NDIS Appeals Advocate Angela Horton NDIS Appeals Advocate Gab Reade Radio Technical Producer Brenda Penaluna Finance and Admin Systems Co-ordinator Self-Advocacy Resource Unit (SARU) Sue Smith SARU / ASAP Project Jacqui Ward SARU Jan Coles Transitions / Capacity Building Dean Dadson SARU / Transitions Sally DeBeche ASAP Project Melanie Keely SARU / Partnerships / Transitions Julie Brassington Peer Worker Partnerships Project Larissa MacFarlane Peer Worker Partnerships Project Michael McEvoy Voice at the Table (VATT) Amy Lasslett Voice at the Table Kylie Thulborn Capacity Building / Transitions Rebecca Rowe SARU/Transitions Charity Sims-Jenkins Capacity Building / Transitions Chris Chandler Capacity Building / Transitions Ben Corcoran Peer Worker Capacity Building Kathryn Aedy SARU Cathryn McKinney VATT - Voices for Justice Kathryn Bartlett Peer Worker Capacity Building Rachel Walters Peer Worker Capacity Building Glenda Smith Capacity Building 8 Lawrence Johnson Opening Doors Project Manager Eloise Arthur Partnerships Ann Van Leerdam VATT Cameron Bloomfield Capacity Building and VATT Rebecca Biddle Peer Worker SARU / Various Projects Jane Rosengrave Peer Worker AMIDA / Various Projects Francesca Lee Peer Worker ASAP / VATT Paul Drew Peer Worker Capacity Building Colleen Dehne ILC - Deafblind Victoria Heather Lawson ILC - Deafblind Victoria Michelle Stevens ILC - Deafblind Victoria Paola Avila ILC - Deafblind Victoria Trudy Ryall ILC - Deafblind Victoria AMIDA Activities Report July 2018- June 2019 We provide advocacy funded by two programs from the Department of Social Services, the National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) and the NDIS Appeals Advocacy. We provide individual advocacy, self-advocacy support and family advocacy. We also provide systemic advocacy to try to bring about positive change to policy and practice affecting large numbers of people with a disability. Key issues ? Lack of affordable and accessible housing and increases in waiting lists for public and community housing ? Violence, abuse and neglect in group homes ? Problems with the National Disability Insurance Agency including; o Time delays of 6 months or more for Internal reviews starting and then similar delays getting decisions. o Decisions seem random, support needs are not recognised even with specialist justification. o People are finding it harder to be approved access to NDIS o NDIS plans are being cut back after the first year and in following years with no justification. o Getting home modifications approved is very tough and making contact with the NDIA home modification team is impossible o Plans not provided to advocates and in some cases, not even provided to support providers by NDIA, even with consent from participant. o Lack of clarity about Specialist Disability Accommodation continues 9 Systemic Advocacy AMIDA advocates made numerous complaints to the NDIA, Ministers, Members of Parliament, and the Ombudsman. AMIDA is calling for improvements and we collaborated with others to advocate together on issues. The following include some of the submissions made; Department of Health and Human Services Draft Disability Action Plan - 18 Jul 18 Disability Services Safeguards Bill letter to MP Martin Foley – 7 Aug 18 Australian Building Codes Board VCOSS Consultation - 29 Oct 18 AMIDA Submission to ABCB - Accessible Housing – 3 Dec 18 Disability Advocacy Futures Plan 2018 - 2020 Office of Public Advocate - Preventing & responding to violence & abuse –12 Nov 18 First Peoples with disability and the Royal Commission - June 19 Royal Commission Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Terms of Reference survey – 28 Mar 19 Response to Disability Act Review – 28 Mar 19 National Disability Agreement Review - Jun 19 Outcomes of our Advocacy Building Regulations will now be reviewed and redrafted by 2022 Residential Tenancies Act changes have incorporated suggestions advocated by AMIDA such as better rights based process for tenants to have modifications made to rental properties. In most cases, advocates can now correspond with NDIA with consent from the participant provided by AMIDA. We have to keep complaining to NDIA management however as it still occurs that an NDIA employee will not communicate with advocates. Advocates now no longer have to give their date of birth. Tactically we are finding better results by going to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for NDIA decisions. NDIA delays at internal review stages can block access to the AAT. Raising Our Voices Self Advocacy Group - the radio show Some of the contribution to community awareness that AMIDA undertakes is the monthly 3CR radio show Raising Our Voices, which has been on air for 32 years now and is presented by people with disabilities, covering topics that matter to people with disabilities. Topics in the 18/19 year included; ? Renting and the Opening Doors project, ? Rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability, ? Public transport rights and the Sky rail, ? Travellers Aid, ? Living with Cochlear Implants, 10 ? Invisible Disabilities, ? Rights for people with disability in the LGBTIQ+ community ? Rights for people with disability in the Culturally And Linguistically Diverse community, ? Award winning women and powerful self-advocates ? Sporting opportunities for disabled people ? The SARU 10th Birthday achievements and celebrations ? Radiothon show These shows are on our you tube channel with links on www.amida.org.au And keep in touch via our Raising Our Voices Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/raisingourvoicesradio/ Information, Advice, Referral and Individual Advocacy Appropriate and timely advocacy is provided to all AMIDA advocacy service users, which is reflected in positive client feedback and satisfaction surveys and from the recent quality audit report by SAI Global. The amount and demand for advocacy support has outweighed our capacity. We provided information, advice and referral to 168 people and individual advocacy to 117 people. We also delivered information to groups of people. Disseminating information about AMIDA and improving access to AMIDA We produced 3 newsletters. The newsletters and lots of other information including our recent submissions are on our web site www.amida.org.au. Also, check out posts and events on our Facebook page. https://fb.me/AMIDAinc Opening Doors – Renting for all AMIDA was excited to receive Victorian government Information Linkages and Capacity Building funding in 18/19 to carry out the Opening Doors - Renting for All Project. This project has involved many people with a disability sharing their stories of renting. The films created provide useful information but also aim to raise awareness and break down the barriers and discrimination against people with a disability in the private rental market. A roadshow will take the films out for a tour in October and a Photographic exhibition is coming up at No Vacancy Gallery, Queen Victoria (QV) Building: 34-40 Jane Bell Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000 November 4th-10th, 2019. Later in 2019, a website containing the films will be launched at a catered launch at Foys Arcade. Level 6, 246 Bourke Street, Melbourne on International Day of People with a Disability, Tuesday 3rd December 2019, 11am. RSVP amida@amida.org.au. 11 The Self Advocacy Resource Unit (SARU) AMIDA continues to support the SARU with our partners Reinforce and BIM. There has been a lot happening at the SARU again this year. We continued to support and resource the self-advocacy groups in Victoria and the Victorian Self Advocacy Network. Self-advocacy groups have also come together to form the NDIS Working Group and SARU supported this group to have meetings with the CEO of the NDIS and the ILC to raise the profile of self-advocacy groups. Along with our core funding, we also received project funding from the Office for Disability, the Victorian Government NDIS Transition team and the NDIS. Additional funding also allowed us to carry out an Advocacy Futures consultation with selfadvocacy groups and to prepare a SARU strategic plan. SARU also refreshed our web site http://saru.net.au/ Together with additional projects, SARU’s support has strengthened self-advocacy groups who have been actively making a difference across Victoria building communities that are more inclusive and improving the lives of people with a disability. Funded Projects include: Transitions and Victorian Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) and Futures Funding The Transitions and Victorian ILC funding has enabled SARU to provide extra support to strengthen self-advocacy groups and to help make them sustainable into the future. Many self-advocacy groups have been assisted with information about grants becoming available from the NDIA, ILC and Futures funding and 7 were supported to develop submissions and were successful. SARU was also successful in the four Futures grants it applied for which we are rolling out in 2019/2020. One of the groups that benefitted from this funding was Deaf Blind Victoria. 12 VSAN In the first half of 2019 VSAN did an NDIS survey and wrote a report which Susan Arthur shared with the NDIA Intellectual Disability Reference Group (IDRG). VSAN also had a networking lunch where all of the groups came together and shared news and ideas about the work they are doing. The Partnerships Project The 3 partnership projects continued in 18/19. The Positive Powerful Parents Self Advocacy Group (PPP) partnered with the Parenting Research Centre to make some resources and information for child protection workers. The project made the Parent Voices Kit. The kit included the Hand in Hand report, 2 films called ‘Keeping Families Together’ and ‘Working with Parents with Intellectual Disability’ the Safe Story Sharing booklet and PPP info. The kit was sent to every child protection office in Victoria. Brain Injury Matters (BIM) made an app for people with brain injury and launched it in March 2019. The ABI Wise App is the first App of its kind in the world, made by people with brain injury for people with brain injury. This App is for all mobile devices and contains heaps of information about how to live well with your brain injury or stroke. It features weekly tips - from people who know best - on how to make your brain injury work for you not against you. There are also personal stories of ABI, guided meditations, important ABI dates and useful contacts and organisations. For more information: https://www.braininjurymatters.org/abi-wise/. Diversity n Disability (DnD) researched the best way to grow self-advocacy for people from ethnic backgrounds. DnD have partnered with the Shepparton Ethnic council and the Ethnic Community Council of Victoria to do this. DnD made Self Advocacy and Diversity (SAnD) – a model for self advocacy and diversity. DnD are now doing parts of the model with the Ethnic Community Council Vic. 13 Capacity Building Grants The Capacity Building grants provided three self-advocacy groups with funding to support them with awareness raising and other activities including group building and planning. The three groups who received funding are: Rainbow Rights Self Advocacy Group New Wave Self Advocacy Group All Abilities Advocacy South West Voice at the Table (VATT) Voice at the Table (VATT) provides practical information to ensure people with cognitive disabilities have a real and equal Voice at the Table. We have had a wonderful year! What have we achieved? Together we have: ? Co-designed and delivered 4 training courses for people with cognitive disabilities. ? Trained 43 people with disabilities in how to speak up on boards, committees and advisory groups. ? Employed 10 people with cognitive disabilities as VATT facilitators 14 ? Supported VATT graduates to run a peer led Monthly MeetUps and connect our community ? Assisted graduates to apply for boards, committees and advisory roles ? Made videos and resources that can be found on YouTube and our website voiceatthetable.com.au ? Trained over 200 staff from community and public sector organisations in Inclusive Meeting Practice and Consumer Participation. For all our teamwork, we won a Victorian Disability Award for creating inclusive communities! Congratulations to all VATT Graduates and project staff. More info at: voiceatthetable.com.au Australian Self Advocacy Project The Australian Self Advocacy Project (ASAP) received funding from the NDIA to set up a National Self Advocacy Website. We met with selfadvocacy groups around Australia to find out what self-advocates wanted on the website and how to make the website accessible for everyone. The groups said they wanted videos and easy to understand information on the website. The website was launched mid 2019 https://www.voicestogether.com.au/ 15 Treasurers Report – Carmel Laragy For the 2018/2019 financial year, AMIDA continued last year’s success with an income of over $3.8 million. We have spent all of this on providing advocacy and self-advocacy resourcing to people with a disability. A small surplus of $12,619 from last year was discharged this year to bring the accounts back into balance. We have a very healthy equity of $66,553, and have accounted for all our liabilities including worker entitlements. The financial report shows that AMIDA has grown as an organisation in the last year. Most of this funding has been provided on a short-term basis to finance various projects. For example, AMIDA received funding from Victorian Government bodies The Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Disability for the Capacity Building, Futures, Transition and Information Linkages and Capacity building projects. In summary, the 2018/2019 financial report indicates AMIDA is in a strong position to meet its financial obligations for the subsequent financial year. We have reviewed our activities during the year and as our activities have not change during the year, we continue to be eligible for charitable and deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.