Current Projects
Learn of Thomas and Swick Mining’s experience of using customised employment to design a win-win employment arrangement.
Gray shares their experience of using job design. This positive employment process has seen Gray thrive in open employment.
Meaningful and paid employment – Link Employ Adapt Project (LEAP)
Microenterprise has been a catalyst for some to broaden what could be. This project uses DISCOVERY to go beyond microenterprise and develop pathways to meaningful and paid employment. With a highly innovative approach it is developing new knowledge and resources to enable employers to overcome internal systems that reduce inclusive employment.
Funded by the Department of Social Services, this employer capacity building project offers resource and support to individuals with disability as well as small and large employers. View the projects’ inspirational videos to hear how customised employment methods deliver impact.
Our team can support:
- people with disability, their families and supports to use the highly innovative tools and resources found in the Job Design Tool kit.
- employers with education and support for your hiring managers, to rethink approaches and overcome barriers to sustained employment
School to Work
Funded by the Western Australian Department of Communities, the two-year School to Work Transition Project, aims to produce a set of online tools and resources to support final year students in their transition to employment. Established in January 2021, the final tools launched in February 2024.
The tools have been developed in partnership between Valued Lives Foundation, Leeming Senior High School Educational Support Centre and Castlereagh School.
My Home My Design -Making Individualised Living Options Real
Established in December 2020 and ending in June 2024, the Making Home Real project provided practical support to put the ideas and tools from the My Home My Way project into practice. Making Home Real offered free navigational support to people with developmental disability and their families to develop their unique vision for a home.
There were many pathways to living in a home your way. For some, an NDIS Individualised Living Options (ILO) pathway package was the preferred option. To support people who chose this pathway, the project’s online toolkit included practical tips and tools to assist with NDIS ILO design and package applications.
The project was a collaboration with Valued Lives Foundation and other members of the National Alliance of Capacity Building Organisations (NACBO). To learn more, read the end of project evaluation report.
My Home My Way
It is often believed that the only option for people with developmental disabilities is to live in a group home once they leave their family home. Over many decades, people with disabilities and families have challenged this belief. They have shown that people, even with complex needs, can live in their own home.
Starting in November 2019 and due for completion in June 2024, this project aims to review, refresh and draw on resources available on the My Home, My Way website.
The site contains many online tools, often written or produced by people with a disability and their supporters. These resources assist in enabling each person, no matter what their needs, to live in their own home with a range of tailored supports.
Creative and Digital Arts
The Good Life - Creating Digital Tools
At Empowered Connections our peer mentors and family leaders, know that sharing stories with someone with similar experiences is powerful and helps people learn and feel less alone and more connected. People who have shared experiences can offer invaluable support to others about to embark on a similar journey. For many individuals and families, grassroots Peer Support by people with lived experience can be the most important and effective form of getting assistance.
Funded by Lotterywest the project builds on the success of the Empowered Connections Peer-to-Peer Network and the priorities identified by Network leaders. The project will work with people with lived experience to create online tools and a digital platform to share lived-experience knowledge and support people with disability, their family members and allies to access practical information and supports to build and sustain fulfilling community connections.
For more information, contact the Empowered Connections team.
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