Current Projects
My Home My Way Project
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.
Making Home Real Project
Established in December 2020, the Making Home Real project provides practical support to put the ideas and tools from the My Home My Way project into practice. Making Home Real offers free navigational support to people with developmental disability and their families to develop their unique vison for a home.
There are many pathways to living in a home your way. For some, an NDIS Individualised Living Options pathway package may be the preferred option. To support people who choice this pathway, the project’s online toolkit is full of practical tips and tools to support NDIS ILO design and package application.
This project is a collaboration with Valued Lives Foundation and other NACBO members, funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency Community Inclusion Capacity Development program.
Link Employ Adapt Project (LEAP)
The Link Employ Adapt Project (LEAP) is a highly innovative approach with a goal to expand Valued Lives Foundation’s Innovative Employment offering. LEAP aims to co-design a new service model, enabling medium to large size employers to job design.
Traditional approaches to employment have seen employers start with a job and then search for a worker to fit their needs. Job design (or job carving) is the inverse of this approach and instead starting with a person to discover their unique offerings and then with an employer to create a job that fits their unique skills and abilities. Job carving approaches are highly successful in seeing people with disability access open employment.
Funded by the Department of Social Services, LEAP is a two-year project to be completed in February 2025. LEAP aims to see 45 people with disability enter employment.
Digital Tools
Funded by Lottery West, this project will develop a set of digital tools and resources that empower people with disability to exercise their rights for complete access, meaningful engagement and genuine inclusion in the community.
This suite of digital tools will be developed as the result of an innovative co-design initiative, collaboratively designed with input from the disability community. Guided by the principle of ‘nothing about us, without us,’ the project is led by individuals who have firsthand experience with disabilities, working alongside a diverse array of community members, including those with disabilities, families, and supporters.
Central to our approach is the core belief that the most effective solutions arise from the very community they aim to benefit. Through co-design, we pinpoint the tools and resources individuals with disabilities believe would best help them overcome environmental and societal barriers to access, participation, engagement, and inclusion.
The project prioritises accessibility and caters to areas of interest highlighted by the disability community, all while respecting and celebrating diversity.
Promoting Leadership Podcasts
In a joint venture between the City of Belmont and Empowered Connections, we will be releasing a 6-part series, featuring people who live and work within the City of Belmont.
A talent pool of approximately 10 people with disability will feature across the series, talking about jobs, housing and questions about disability. The recording process will be orchestrated in collaboration with DRN1, who will expertly produce the podcasts.
Podcasts are due to be released in December 2023.
School to Work Transition Project
Funded by the Western Australian Department of Community Services, 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 will be 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.
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