Achieve Australia’s leadership in the sector

We plan to launch new day program activities during 2022 designed with and for people aged 16 to 25 with cognitive disabilities. The new range of activities is based on what we learned during 2021 through our My Life Co-Design Program.

The research phase of the My Life Co-Design Program included 30 interviews with young people, parents and carers, schoolteachers, and others. Some interviewees then joined the workshop phase in late 2021 where ideas were developed and tested. 

This project provides a meaningful opportunity for young people to be involved in the conversation from the beginning, as they shape the program based on what they want to learn about and experience. This approach may also include opportunities for people with disability to deliver services to their peers.

This fresh approach may also include opportunities for people with disability to deliver services to their peers.  The My Life Co-Design Program has significantly raised the bar for how we bring inclusion to life for the people we support. 

Achieve welcomed the Quality Champions Program team to our operations in late 2021 and at the same time introduced an initiative unique to Australia.

Quality Champions work in pairs - a person with disability in the role of Quality Champion and a person without disability in the role of Quality Champion Partner.

The pairs visit clients in their homes to discuss the services they receive and co-write a report based on this feedback with their recommendations for improvements, which are taken up by our frontline staff.

The Champions re-interview our clients at a later date to ask if the improvements are meeting their expectations.

Quality Champions is based on the well-established Quality Checkers program in the UK. Achieve was involved in a pilot program in 2018. We used the learnings from the pilot to develop a program tailored to our clients.

We are working with Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) provider, Inclusive Housing Australia (IHA), to increase the availability and quality of disability accommodation that promotes inclusion.

For example, land has been purchased at Casino in the Northern Rivers as the site for a purpose-built home for clients in the region. We have been speaking to clients and families and IHA about features the new home should include and there is a lot of excitement about the possibilities.

Future Housing is also exploring new housing options for clients in Sydney including providing opportunities for those wanting to move from a group setting to accommodation suited to 2 housemates with more private amenities.

Bringing inclusion to life for our clients is our passion and purpose but we want all people with disability to experience belonging as welcomed members of society.

To do this, Achieve Australia established a new foundation in 2021 to take part in and fund research and innovation to dismantle barriers to inclusion.

The Achieve Foundation is focused on 2 key areas that impact inclusion – housing and supports and community attitudes and mindsets. The Foundation is also building a coalition of like-minded collaborators that includes people with disability, academics, researchers and philanthropists. Achieve Australia and Inclusive Housing Australia are part of the coalition. We will work with the Foundation to test new models of service delivery and other innovations designed to create a more inclusive society.