Current Projects
Customised Employment and LEAP
The Link Employ Adapt Project (LEAP) is a Department of Social Services funded program that aims to create customised employment opportunities for people with disability that build on individual strengths, skills, and interests.
The team works closely with employers and people with disability to create customised roles that meet both their needs.
People with disability are supported to identify the interests and skills they can build on to create a role that matches their strengths and meets their needs.
At the same time, the team works with employers to:
- Deliver disability diversity and inclusion training (lunch box presentations, attend staff meetings or training events, resource foyer stalls etc)
- Provide tools and resources
- Facilitate work experience placements
- Support work placement
- Work with your hiring managers to rethink approaches and overcome barriers to sustained employment create customised job roles for people with disability that draw on their strengths and interests.
Contact us to find out more about how we can support you as a person with disability or employer. We look forward to working with you!
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, 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 choose 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.
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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