Families Supporting Families in Newcastle, New South Wales | Community organisation

Families Supporting Families

Locality: Newcastle, New South Wales

Phone: +61 417 431 562

Address: Hunter Region 2300 Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.familiessupportingfamilies.com

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• Community organisation
• Disability service

25.01.2022 A member has a Leckey Horizon Stander to give away- it does not have a charger, but is working with current charge. Hip Belt Size 2. Pick up from Waratah. See photos below. Please dm Fiona Wood if interested.

25.01.2022 Don’t forget to book for our Sports Party at Hunter Sports Centre, Glendale on Saturday November 28th at 1pm. This is a great opportunity for families to catch up and have some fun, after what has been a very stressful time. Thank you to Lake Macquarie City Council for generously supporting this event as part of their COVID-19 Recovery Program. ... This party is for children with additional needs and their siblings aged 4 to 18 years. Children will spend 1 hour in the gym with an instructor, to enjoy the trampolines, ropes, games, bars, beams followed by time in a seated area for party food. Hunter Sports Centre have procedures in place to manage all aspects in a COVID-safe manner. Numbers of participants will be limited. One parent/Carer will be required to stay onsite at all times to supervise their children. Booking for this event is via TryBooking: https://www.trybooking.com/BLKAY

22.01.2022 Today marks the start of #naidocweek2020, a time for all Australians to come together to acknowledge and celebrate the true history of this country a history which dates back thousands of generations.

19.01.2022 This assessment will be very helpful as many children present differently in the specialist rooms than at home.

19.01.2022 Due to Covid 19 restrictions, Variety are running their Christmas Celebrations a little differently this year and hosting the very first Variety Xmas Toy Drive-thru! This will be held on Wednesday 25 November from 3pm to 7pm at McDonald Jones Stadium. Local children who are unwell, disadvantaged or have a disability are eligible, but registration is essential as numbers are limited. Use the link below to register with Variety.

18.01.2022 Congratulations to Chris Nikic on becoming the first person with Down syndrome to finish an IRONMAN, proving without a doubt that Anything is Possible!

07.01.2022 Some good news for people with a disability in the NSW BUDGET. Disability Advocacy services are to receive funding to continue providing support for the many people with a disability who access these services every year, including people who do not receive the NDIS or any other support.

07.01.2022 Starting from 17 November... free School to Work Webinars for Students with Disability More information on the website https://www.ric.org.au/events/

06.01.2022 It was so good to be back supporting our Carers with a fabulous speaker in Kirsty Russell who spoke about her experience as a Carer, what can happen when you don’t practice self care & tips towards introducing self care into your everyday life. Thanks to Stockland CARE Grants for their generous support of this event & Kirsty of Inclusive Parenting for speaking.

06.01.2022 Don’t forget to book in for our seminar Finding Positivity & Support as a Carer presented by Kirsty Russell. A local carer and parent advocate with lived experience as a Carer, Kirsty will share insights and strategies to help you find more positivity and support in your caring role. Come along and enjoy morning tea and meet other carers. All welcome to this FREE seminar on December 8th at Central Charlestown Leagues Club from 10am to 12noon. Please RSVP by 6th December t...o reserve your place via https://www.trybooking.com/BNDDD Thank you to Stockland CARE Grant Program for their generous support of this event.

06.01.2022 Inclusion Australia have launched a new Everyone Can Work website to provide information about employment pathways for people with intellectual disability.

05.01.2022 This is so true of many of our children especially those that are higher functioning, this is a valuable resource in making those providers & educators understand our children (& many of us adults) more accurately.

05.01.2022 You are invited to our Sports Party at Hunter Sports Centre, Glendale on Saturday November 28th at 1pm. This is a great opportunity for families to catch up and have some fun, after what has been a very stressful time. Thank you to Lake Macquarie City Council for generously supporting this event as part of their COVID-19 Recovery Program. ... This party is for children with additional needs and their siblings aged 4 to 18 years. Children will spend 1 hour in the gym with an instructor, to enjoy the trampolines, ropes, games, bars, beams followed by time in a seated area for party food. Hunter Sports Centre have procedures in place to manage all aspects in a COVID-safe manner. Numbers of participants will be limited. One parent/Carer will be required to stay onsite at all times to supervise their children. Booking for this event is via TryBooking: https://www.trybooking.com/BLKAY

05.01.2022 A great time was had by all who attended our Sports Party at Hunter Sports Centre yesterday. It was great to have this opportunity to get together and have some fun - especially post-COVID. A huge thank you to Lake Macquarie City Council for funding this event. Thank you to HSC staff members Hayley and Jess for your help and to Louisa for organising this fun outing!

05.01.2022 This year’s International Day of People with Disability theme is Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 ...World. For us, this theme means a world where our community are able to embrace their autistic identity, where their experiences are validated, and where their support needs are met at school and beyond. Disability inclusivity means celebrating the full diversity of autistic experiences, including autistic girls, women and gender diverse individuals. Victorians: Disability Inclusion and the Autism Education Strategy are massive reforms for autistic students with disability. They will provide additional supports for schools, students and families. At Yellow Ladybugs we are most excited about the Strategy acknowledging the specific vulnerabilities and needs of autistic girls and gender diverse autistic students, and the commitments to improve levels of support. It is really significant to have this acknowledgement for the first time. We welcome the Health and Wellbeing’ pillar of Strategy, which opens the door to developing programmes and resources to support the mental health of autistic girls at school. As a neurodivergent led organisation, we look forward to partnering with the Department, to share our experience and insights, and to encourage supports to be meaningful, authentic, and empowering. We welcome the commitment to more funding to provide access to more specialist expertise in autism across the system, including training and PD, and consider it critical that this involves autistic expertise. We want to highlight that we will use our position on the advisory panel to encourage the priority of the autistic voice in any delivery and development of training and try our very best to ensure this funding is used to create meaningful impact The Autism Education Strategy and the Disability Inclusion reforms will mean that more autistic students will receive individualised support. We anticipate the new strategy will widen the net and help capture more students who were previously ineligible to receive individualised supports - including autistic girls, and students with a more internalised presentation - and that’s very much needed. We now have a clear framework and clear commitment to a strengths based approach to supporting individual students. This approach of identifying the strengths and needs, and the adjustments and accommodations schools can make will significantly benefit autistic girls and their families, who have missed out on this type of individualised support for too long. Autistic girls have been largely invisible in our schools for too long. We are excited about the reforms, and committed to continuing our advocacy mission and working in partnership with DET, and with our community of autistic girls, young people and their families We are very proud to be launching the Supporting Autistic Girls at School Website today, developed together with the Department, and we are also working on a new resource to develop IEP Goals for autistic girls. We are excited by the opportunity to build upon these projects and to develop new tailored resources which will not only assist teachers and schools in supporting autistic girls, but will empower the autistic girls and their families to advocate for their individual needs. You can visit autisticgirlsatschool.com.au now, and share it as much as you want. Links : About todays announcment: https://www.education.vic.gov.au//Autism-Education-Strateg New Website www.autisticgirlsatschool.com.au What are the priorities or strategy pillars The Strategy Pillars The pillars represent priority areas of focus for schools and the education system to direct effort to address the issues facing autistic students and meet their educational aspirations. The pillars are based on international best practice and stakeholder input. The pillars are: 1. Promote and celebrate autism inclusion and diversity at the whole-school level 2. Build the capability of school leaders and staff to meet the educational needs of autistic students 3. Involve the student, families and experts in collaboratively planning for students' education 4. Support autistic students' health and wellbeing 5. Support autistic students' individual education needs 6. Strengthen accountability and transparency for students with disability. In addition to the direction provided by the pillars, the Strategy also includes new and expanded initiatives to assist the learning needs of autistic students. The Diverse Learners Hub The flagship initiative of the Strategy is the establishment of a new Diverse Learners Hub (Hub). The Hub will be a centre of excellence supporting system-wide capability building of education workforces to equip them to meet the educational needs of students with neurodevelopmental differences, with a focus on autism. The Hub will: Provide front-line coaching to school leaders, equip health and wellbeing staff to provide evidence-based, multidisciplinary resources and guidance Develop further resources to strengthen supports for autistic students Ensure the needs of diverse learners are consistently addressed in line with the Strategy pillars, by working with relevant areas across the Department Make its services and supports accessible across regional and rural Victoria, such as through online provision. This will ensure all schools have access to the Hub's capability-building expertise no matter how small or remote The Hub will be established in 2021. Additional Initiatives The Hub will be supported with a number of other initiatives to assist the learning needs of autistic students, including: Professional learning initiative for teachers to complete post-graduate studies in inclusive education, including through the Autism Teaching Institute Professional learning modules - expansion of Inclusive Classrooms modules on autism providing further professional development for school staff I CAN mentoring program - I CAN will provide targeted emotional/social support and mentoring for autistic students at 100 government schools Disability Friendly Schools - New Bully Stoppers resources to promote a supportive and inclusive approach to preventing bullying of students with disabilities, specifically including autistic students Collaborations with key autism partners - Funding for key advocacy organisations, such as Amaze and Yellow Ladybugs, to develop resources for autistic students and their families to work in partnership with their school to achieve better outcomes for autistic students Improved Student Support Group and Individual Education Plan resources for schools to provide more consistent and high-quality support for autistic students Autism Education Advisory Group of experts that assisted in the development of the Strategy will be retained to assist with further work to guide implementation and further refinement of the Strategy

03.01.2022 Today, being International Day of People Living with a Disability, we recognise the triumphs, struggles & strengths of everyone that disabilities affects. Celebrate how far the world has come towards inclusion, the job here isn’t complete yet & look forward to the day that our loved ones are free from discrimination & hardship.

03.01.2022 So great that this resource is now available, twp support services with loads of knowledge & experience with clients with Autism are tye creators.

01.01.2022 In case you missed the recent story on The Project which focused on the extremely high rate of school suspensions involving students with learning difficulties or disability. This story highlights the urgent need for change in schools and better training of staff to support and include ALL students.