NAIDOC Week 2021 was the occasion for many inspiring events and one of those was the launch of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander NDIS Resources, developed by the Exceptionally Complex Support Needs Program team.
‘These resources have been designed and developed by our wonderful ECSN team member, Leah Saltner, who is an Aboriginal woman from the Bindal and Birriah Traditional Owner groups and also a South Sea Islander woman,’ said Kate Jacka, Mercy Community’s Townsville-based Regional Manager for ECSN & NDIS Support Coordination.
The resources consist of a set of postcards and NDIS Plan Fact Sheets, and are designed to be used when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, or working alongside people who would benefit from information delivered in this way.
‘The aim here was to create culturally safe resources that provide a much more appropriate format in which to build understanding of what the NDIS plan can do and what it is,’ said Kate.
‘Feedback from the sector and from many of the Support Coordinators we engaged with was that there are no culturally safe resources, support or tools available,’ she said.
‘This is a huge gap within the NDIS sector. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be disadvantaged within a system that is not catering to their needs and allowing them to have the same opportunity to develop capacity and build their knowledge in a culturally-safe way that works for them.’
‘We see this as a step in the right direction to try and fill that gap, and provide a tool for all of us to utilise as we work towards equity within the system. Maybe this can be one small way, in our everyday, that we can play our part in Healing Country, and Healing Nation,’ said Kate, at the launch of the resources during NAIDOC Week.
Mercy Community’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander NDIS Resources are available on our website for you to print and/or use as you please:
www.mercycommunity.org.au/exceptionally-complex-support-needs-program-ecsnp/
