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An optimistic future for disability employment: young advocates facilitate the NDIS Jobs & Skills Forum
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The NDIS Jobs and Skills Forum was held on Wednesday 17th August 2022. It was called by The Honourable Bill Shorten, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and brought together people with disability, service providers, unions, peak representative bodies and more to talk about the future of disability employment, the NDIS, and the disability workforce. This article has been written by five young people from CPActive and Children and Young People With Disability Australia.
When we all came together two weeks ago, a group of passionate young advocates, we had no idea what to expect from the NDIS Jobs and Skills Forum. Disability rights campaigner Elly Demarchelier flagged from the start that we were about to experience something that might be ‘messy,’ but also very
important work – and that’s exactly what we got at the Forum. With a surprise visit from Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese, a strong presence from Minister Bill Shorten throughout the day, and collaboration
between different groups and sectors, the Forum left us feeling hopeful for the future of disability employment, leadership, and the NDIS.The five of us each facilitated a stream of discussion at the Forum, including about ‘pathways to employment’, ‘models of employment’, ‘workforce supply’, and ‘workforce quality’. It was a valuable day full of discussion, collaboration, networking, and problem solving. Here are just some of the experiences we had on the day:
I am a Juris Doctor (law student), legal intern and board member, with previous project experience in tertiary education. I am a part of CPActive NextGen, a youth advocacy movement run by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. I have helped facilitate a couple events for them and they asked me to represent the Cerebral Palsy Alliance along with Meret Hassanen at the NDIS Jobs and Skills Forum.
My breakout group discussed Workforce Quality to ensure that the NDIS and other sectors should deliver a diverse and inclusive ecosystem of supports that are responsive and evidenced-based to ensure that capable and prepared individuals can feel confident accessing the right support at the right
time. My group also identified that there is no clear solution as this issue is complex and requires a multi- faceted approach to making change.The experience I gained from facilitating the breakout session was invaluable and took me completely out of my comfort zone as I had never done something of this magnitude before. I’m confident that given more opportunities like this, I will only get better and more confident in my abilities as an advocate and speaker/facilitator. Whilst this event as a whole was quite daunting, I really enjoyed meeting people from various different sectors that in other circumstances would rarely cross paths. This event really felt
like a ‘call to action’.My hope is that we continue to have the ‘messy’, thought provoking discussions with industry leaders and that people with lived experience of disability are invited to the table and are treated with the respect, dignity and equality that we deserve and that our voices matter.
I’m a filmmaker with cerebral palsy and I am part of CPActive NextGen, a youth movement run by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. I have helped facilitate a couple events for them and they asked me to represent the Cerebral Palsy Alliance along with Declan Lee at the NDIS Jobs and Skills Forum.
Our breakout group discussed Workforce Supply to ensure that the NDIS has enough employees to meet the needs of people with disability as well as a larger percentage of employees with disability. Our group’s 10 year vision was to see people with disability make up 15% of the NDIS workforce (agency
employees, allied health professionals and support workers) by 2032.My experience of facilitating with Kay was fantastic. Our group had rigorous discussion about needing to distinguish between different sections of the NDIS (e.g. support worker and allied health professional) to accurately determine workforce supply requirements.
The best thing about the forum was having people from so many different backgrounds in the one room
discussing the best way forward for the NDIS. I hope that future discussions take a similar form as I believe it’s the best way to improve the sector.Kay, Children and Young People with Disability Australia
As a young, queer and autistic person with a lived experience of physical disability and chronic illness, I
have first hand knowledge of the difficulties people with disability face in gaining meaningful employment and I am passionate about improving employment outcomes for young people. Currently I
work at Children and Young People with Disability Australia as the Youth Connection and Opportunity
Officer and as an Equity Projects Officer (Disability) at Edith Cowan University in Boorloo on Whadjuk
Noongar land. Having previously been involved in employment advocacy with CYDA as a co-chair of the
Youth Disability Employment Services Reform Working group, I was keen to expand the ideas and change-making conversations in this space with other passionate young advocates, people with disability, peak bodies and service providers to improve employment outcomes for people with disability.I was fortunate to be involved with this powerhouse team of young advocates who each bring a wealth of knowledge and passion into this space, especially Meret who co-facilitated our group on ‘Workforce Supply’. Workforce supply is a key issue in the NDIS space affecting the ability for the workforce to support and engage people with disability. Our group was predominantly composed of service providers and peak body representatives who discussed their experience with the red tape and outdated processes that prevent the development of a stable workforce. A career in the NDIS needs to be professionalised, it needs to be respected, paid fairly and have opportunities for career progression. People with disability need to be involved in every step of the process through employment in the NDIS, training new graduates on how to best meet our needs and through rigorous co-design of safeguards to ensure that the NDIS provides quality and meaningful opportunity for people with disability.
My hope for the future of the NDIS is that we continue to have these conversations in good faith in a solutions oriented way. Bringing together the many facets of the sector regularly to have open dialogue
about how we can be doing better is key to creating better outcomes for people with disability and providing space for advocates to get involved.Margherita, Children and Young People with Disability Australia
I’m first and foremost a queer, young migrant young person with a disability who day to day dips my fingers in a whole heap of advocacy, study and work pots. I’m a law student living on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land, as well as primarily working for Women With Disabilities Australia as well as a series of other disability advocacy organisations in diversity and inclusion. I’ve been strongly connected with
Children and Young People with Disability (CYDA) who contacted me to with the opportunity to facilitate part of the NDIS forum. I couldn’t wait to meet my fellow facilitators but furthermore the people I’ve been doing work with at CYDA for the last year. In facilitating my room “Models of Employment” I used my own lived experience while drawing out that of others, as well as the work experience that was present in the room.I had a whole heap of disabled people in my room and I was incredibly excited to hear from them, as well as have the service providers present listen to what they had to say & their first thought processes. I had two amazing supporters Kristen and Jean who helped visualise our thoughts – another way to be more accessible and creative in our discussions.
I want to see more meaningful involvement of people with disabilities in all areas – not just a one off forum with a select group of people but continuous consultation, including with young people. The future is not needing to ask for a space at the table because it already exists!
Ebe, Children and Young People with Disability Australia
In my day job, I work to prepare and support tertiary education equity and inclusion strategy: when Children and Young People with Disability Australia contacted me with the opportunity to facilitate at the NDIS Jobs and Skills Forum, I was extremely keen to put my lived and professional experience to good use. I am a young person with lived experience of disability, and I also have a strong passion for promoting education access for all people with disability – in discussing my session’s topic, ‘pathways to
employment’, education, training, cross-sectoral collaboration, and employment service reform were all
concepts that we covered.I really enjoyed working with such a diverse range of people – it’s not often that you can get a room full of disability representative organisations, disability advocates, service providers, and employment services to come to a consensus on things! It was a great opportunity to meet new people from inside and outside of the sector, including incredible leaders like Elly Demarchelier, Christina Ryan, and Dougie Herd.
In the future, I really want to see a concerted effort from the Government to transition away from
segregated employment: we need a national plan to create mainstream, open employment opportunities
that are inclusive and supportive of people with disability. Universities have a huge part to play in this,
both to support the skills development of people with disability, but also to educate employers to
engage a more diverse workforce and to provide the research base and theory to help mainstream
employers build their capacity to support this.Next steps
We are looking forward to collaborating in the future and seeing how the recommendations we proposed to Minister Shorten influence his contribution to the Jobs and Skills Summit in September. We are committed to holding our representatives accountable, and to focussing on collaboration as a pathway to change.
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Happy Disability Pride Month!
Learn moreWritten by Hannah Diviney, author, activist and client of CPA.
Hannah writes a regular column for CPA exploring her journey with cerebral palsy and activism – head here to check out previous blogs and hear Hannah on Cerebral Conversations podcast.
Hi friends!
This month I’m using my column to celebrate. What exactly am I celebrating, I hear you ask? Well, July (most well-known for wintery Christmas celebrations, at least here in Australia) also happens to be Disability Pride Month!!!
If you didn’t know that, by the way, it’s OK. I didn’t know it existed until a couple of years ago and I’ve been disabled for over two decades now. You’re not living under a rock. Disability Pride Month is barely recognised at all on the global stage, and only really exists within disabled communities that have gathered online in spaces like Twitter and Instagram. They might occasionally spill onto the streets of towns and cities, hosting small events for people with disabilities and their allies but that’s about it.
I reckon most people would stare at me with a blank face if I asked them what they were doing to recognise, celebrate or support Disability Pride Month. In fact, when I told my Mum it was Disability Pride Month, her immediate response was; “Why do we have a separate Pride Month for disabled people?” When I looked at her confused, she clarified; “Shouldn’t Pride Month (celebrated in June) embrace all members of the LGBTQIA+ community including those who also identify as disabled?”
I laughed. To me, Mum’s question unintentionally highlighted just how far we have to go. For the record, in case anyone else had similar thoughts to my Mum, Pride Month is about celebrating the diversity of and finding pride in your sexuality and gender identity, irrespective of what other marginalised communities you exist in, while Disability Pride Month is about celebrating the diversity of and finding pride in your life as a disabled person, no matter what your body or your brain has been through.
For a lot of people both within and outside the disabled community, the idea of celebrating your disability and being proud of it is impossible to comprehend. Not so long ago, I was one of those people. How could I celebrate something that made my life so difficult? That robbed me of so many things people my age experience with an ease my body and brain can only dream of? Why would I celebrate something that the world said made me less?
It’s only in the last couple of years, since becoming a proper advocate and being welcomed into those spaces, that I’m learning to feel proud of my disability, a process I imagine would have been infinitely easier if there were other disabled people I could see living the life I wanted to. The road to disability pride is one many of us travel without a map, because we’ve never seen it before.
We have to teach ourselves how to replace pity, shame and anger with joy, wonder and curiosity. Breaking out of the grip of internalised ableism that tells me I am worth less, less capable, not deserving of love or other good things – and an avalanche of other insidious thoughts – will take me a lifetime. It hasn’t and won’t be easy or linear in any way. But it’s happening. Slowly.
My disability has complicated my life tenfold and taken a lot from me, but it’s also given me a hell of a lot. The chance to be everything I never saw and to see my childhood dreams come true. To build a platform made from words, which you all know I see as my superpower. It’s brought people I’ve spent a lifetime searching for, into my world, people I now couldn’t imagine my life without. So, while I’m definitely not all the way there, my pride in who I am is growing. And yours will too – you just have to stop trying to break yourself to fit in a box that wasn’t meant for you. Hang in there.
Happy Disability Pride Month!
Love, Hannah x
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Meet Tamsin Colley: Australia’s youngest ever track and field Paralympian turns her sights to education
Learn moreWhen Tamsin Colley arrived for the 2016 Paralympic Games she was the youngest member of the Australian team, turning fourteen in Rio.
It’s an achievement most of us only dream of. As an athlete living with cerebral palsy, it also made Tamsin an advocate, a role she was eager to take up.
“I was the youngest ever Australian to compete in athletics at the Paralympics,” says Tamsin. “I was lucky enough to get support to participate in sport from a young age and want to ensure other people receive the same opportunities.”
With the Paralympics under her belt at such a young age, Tamsin’s focus turned to her high school studies, ready to bring her determination and drive to excel at this next challenge.
But she was in for a rude shock. The support and encouragement that had helped her reach the Paralympics was excruciatingly hard to find in the education sector. Whilst some individual teachers tried their best to accommodate her, it became clear the system was not geared towards supporting people with physical disabilities.
Tamsin Colley (centre-right) and her school friends, taken before leaving for Rio 2016 Paralympics. “People making the decisions about disability provisions knew little about what support we need,” she says now.
“In sport, it’s obvious when someone has a disability they are working with. It can be less obvious in school. My cerebral palsy is mild, but I still write slower, and they just didn’t understand what I needed.”
In an article for the Canberra Times, Tamsin recounts her Higher School Certificate exams. It was an uphill battle to get the support and extra exam time she was entitled to. The examiners were not trained in the ExamWriter software she used, causing Tamsin to lose some of her answers and valuable time to complete her exams. For every mistake a misadventure claim was filed, and each was rejected by someone who had never met her.
Tamsin beat the odds and is now studying Exercise Physiology at the University of New South Wales. But she never forgot the uphill battle to academic success – and she’s demanding our education system does better for students like her.
“Sport seems light years ahead of academia because it provides opportunities to excel. The education system doesn’t. It struggles to give us the most basic support,” Tamsin says.
“If I hadn’t had support from my parents, it would have been a lot harder and probably I wouldn’t have gotten as I did. I really recognise my privilege in having tertiary educated parents to advocate for me and navigate the bureaucracy. Not everyone has that.”
Tamsin’s vision for a more equal education system begins with agency, choice, and a voice.
“Recently I started university and unlike at school, they actually met with me and discussed my needs, which was great. In the HSC they don’t meet the person. They can’t differentiate between who needs support the most, even in the classroom too.
“Educating people in schools and just talking to us would make a huge difference.”
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Cerebral Conversations: Work/Life Brilliance with Marley Lyras-Hull
Learn moreMarley Lyras-Hull is a master juggler, Cerebral Palsy Alliance employee, and is currently studying her fourth degree – and she shares the secrets behind her drive on the Cerebral Conversations Podcast.
She’s raising three daughters, one of whom lives with a disability, and Marley herself lives with cerebral palsy. When there really are only 24 hours in a day, how does she get it all done?
Marley talks about how she juggles ALL the things, what inspires her, and her tips for other parents living with a disability or parenting a child with disability.
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CPA Intern Ananya: My Workplace Experience
Learn moreBy Ananya Choudhary
My name is Ananya Choudhary, I am sixteen years old with Cerebral Palsy. I am in my last year of secondary education and currently studying at Macarthur Girls High School. I am interested in technology and I like creating digital content such as social media posts, posters, flyers and many more. As I am growing and slowly entering the real world outside of school, I want to learn more about the work environment. I think that through work experience I will be able to learn about the work environment and how to use theoretical knowledge in the real world.
I got an offer to work in CPA’s Global Influence and Social Impact Department from 14th January 2022 to 28th January 2022. This department works in championing an inclusive society for those with cerebral palsy both domestically and globally and building the community through digital media like websites, emails, social media, blogs and many more.
When I started my work experience in CPA, in the first week I got to edit photos, create email banners and a guide on creating content and design. I found the photo editing and creating the email banners were simple but enjoyable tasks. These two tasks helped me to use my creative mind by experimenting with design elements. I initially found a guide on creating content and design task challenging. However, the knowledge of literacy and creativity that I gained from school assignments allowed me to create and present this guide for professional purposes. Through all these tasks I got the ability to enhance my creativity, organisational and time management skills. It also gave me the opportunity to present my work in a professional layout.
Since COVID-19 was at its highest peak in Sydney, I was not able to travel to the CPA office. This is a downfall because I didn’t get the opportunity to work in a team with the CPA staff and learn about their physical work environment. However, I was able to learn about the online work environment of CPA. I also got to learn how to communicate effectively through emails. This helped to enhance my online communicational skills as well.
Overall, throughout the first week of online work placement in CPA I got to gain many skills such as organisation, time management, execution of different content, creativity and effective communication through online platforms such as email. I also had first-hand experience in applying the learnings from school education to the real world. I hope to learn and gain more experiences in my second week and in the future as well.
My Tips on Work Experience
– Brainstorm what type of career you want to pursue in the future and look for workplaces that can help you to get an insight related to that career stream.
– Try contacting many workplaces to get the opportunity. If you don’t get any opportunity because of COVID-19 or any other reason, don’t lose hope and keep trying.
– Create a relevant resume as evidence for skills you have acquired, just in case workplaces need it.
– Be open to different opportunities as there is a possibility that it might not be an exact fit.
If you or someone you know is interested in work experience at Cerebral Palsy Alliance, you can visit the Student placement FAQ’s on the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Website and register your interest on the students page or you can email students@cerebralpalsy.org.au
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Resilience, community and representation – key lessons from CPA’s Paralympic Ticker Tape Parade
Learn moreThe amazing performance of Australian athletes with cerebral palsy at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics has inspired a new generation of young children with CP and similar disabilities. To celebrate the return of our Aussie Paralympians, CPA recently held a virtual Paralympic Ticker Tape Parade, pairing aspiring athletes with some of our most successful Paralympians living with CP for an uplifting evening of community and conversation.
Culture and communityKicking off the event were Christopher Pyne and Ben Atkins, represent Australia’s Para-football team, the Pararoos. They spoke to up-and-coming CPA athlete Matty Engesser, discussing the special bond that athletes with cerebral palsy have, and the importance of building and connecting our CP community.
“You need to find that special thing for a team to succeed, whether it be in football or athletics. With [the Pararoos], the drive, the determination, the spark was already there, it was just a matter of moulding and developing it. When we come together as Para-athletes we’ve all been through the same sorts of things, we’ve all faced challenges throughout our lives that able-bodied people don’t have to face, and that gives us a special connection”
– Chris Pyne
“We’re in such a fortunate position as athletes with CP that we have direct contact with our mentors, our inspirations, the people we look up to. If you can take anything away from this call – reach out to the current Paralympians. We were all once a 9, 10 or 11-year-old aspiring to get to the Paralympians or that World Championship. We’ve got the team spirit built in, it’s just taking advantage of that, and getting that advice and helping hand”
– Ben Atkins
Resilience and determination
Lakeisha Patterson had to overcome a difficult 18 months of injury, illness and lockdowns to make it to the starting line at the Tokyo Paralympics. She went on to win gold in the women’s 400m freestyle. She said that resilience was all about finding the “creative solution” to a problem:“We’ve all got to overcome obstacles and it can be difficult to see past them at times and focus on the road ahead, but I think I’ve definitely learned [that] there’s always another way around situation… It’s just about giving things ago and finding that creative solution.
I believe when you are faced with challenges, you have three choices: you can either let it destroy you, let it define you or let it strengthen you, and I think I’ve definitely let all of these circumstances in my life strengthen me. They pushed me to become this better athlete so it’d be able to be able to get to Tokyo”
– Lucky Patterson
Matt Levy, a five-time Paralympian, also shared the importance of staying focused, in conversation with young CPA athlete Aaryan Shah. He spoke about how making the most of the experience.
“Getting ready for an event I really try and remember why I’m there in the first place. There can be self-doubt, you can second-guess yourself, I try and remember all the training and hard work I’ve done to get to that point. At the end of the day, racing is the most fun part of what we do and it’s really less than five minutes compared to years and years of training”
– Matt Levy
Setting goals and achieving success
Evan O’Hanlon is one of Australia’s most successful Paralympic sprinters, having won five gold medals. In Tokyo he won bronze in the hotly-contested T38 100m event at his fifth games, and he spoke with up-and-coming 14-year old track star Sybella Warton about the importance of setting goals:“My process for going coming up with goals over the last probably 15-20 years has been to look around at what hasn’t been done and try and go and achieve that. So when I started in athletics, I said to myself, ‘no one’s run under 11 seconds as an athlete with cerebral palsy for the 100 metres – I want to go do that.’
So I set my mind on it and I started breaking up that goal into tiny little amounts that were more achievable – those tiny steps turned out to be 0.36 of a second, which I need to improve by, divided by 365 days and [broken down to] 0.001 of a second – and that meant that every day when I woke up I just needed to improve by that little amount and I’d be able to get my gold.”
– Evan O’Hanlon
Amanda Reid, who became the first Indigenous woman to win a cycling gold medal at Paralympics after triumphing in world record time in the 500m time trial C1-3, also spoke about the importance of breaking goals down into smaller, achievable steps. Amanda, who first represented Australia in the pool at the 2012 Paralympics before switching to cycling, said her strategy was to set herself short-term, medium and longer goals – such as winning a gold medal or breaking a world record
Representation and the gift of being differentMaking a special appearance to round off the evening was Katrina Webb-Denis, who won gold medals at three consecutive Paralympics and is one of Australia’s best-loved athletes with CP. Now retired, Katrina was part of Channel Seven’s commentary team in Tokyo. She shared how much it meant to her that Paralympics was now getting the recognition it deserves, and also how CP has been her “biggest gift”:
“I just had the most incredible gift of being in Tokyo, where I interviewed Lucky and Matt poolside on behalf of Channel 7 and they were one of my favourite moments ever. To be a part of the media on the other side was extraordinary, because I know when I was an athlete I would have dreamed to have channel 7 waiting there and they never were. To be able to represent that as a Paralympian to be there in those extraordinary moments means so much to me.
“Cerebral palsy has been my biggest gift. My message is that this difference has been the thing that has powered me in so many different ways. It’s taught me to be strong, resilient, a problem-solver, it’s taught me how to have empathy and love for other difference… it’s great to be different.”
– Katrina Webb-Denis, OAM
Amanda Reid, Ben Atkins, Christopher Pyne, Evan O'Hanlon, Katrina Webb-Denis, Lucky Patterson, Matt Levy, Paralympics, Tokyo 2020
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Window of Opportunity campaign: stories from the launch
Learn moreCerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood, and behind every diagnosis is a story.
Right now in Australia, there’s no standard program for screening babies for CP. That’s why the Window of Opportunity campaign exists: to advocate for a national Baby Movement Screening program for every child born, or BaMS for Bubs.
At the launch event the CPActive community heard from four parents about their child’s journey to diagnosis and treatment. These are their stories.
Kylie
Kylie’s daughter Anika had a stroke shortly after she was born. At the time, it was devastating for her family, but Kylie says it was also lucky in a way, because it meant her health and development was closely scrutinised, and she received her cerebral palsy screening at only a few days old.
By 6 weeks, Anika was receiving intensive occupational and physical therapy.
“We know through having done our own research how incredibly important neuroplasticity is in babies and children, so I really do think that that early start for her has made a world of difference,” Kylie says.
“We went from having a little girl who had no idea she had a right-hand side of her body – we would have to pick up her arm and shake it – to now a little girl who has worked very hard over the last four and a half years, that she is able to do just about everything that a little girl should be doing at that age.
“That early intervention, as far as I’m concerned, has set her up for a life that she should have.
“I can’t believe there are so many kids who slip through the gaps because they don’t get that opportunity.”
Eden
Eden knew early on that her son Kingston wasn’t like other children. For months she was told that all children do things in their own time, that there was nothing to worry about.
But when Kingston’s first birthday arrived he was not hitting the same milestones other babies his age were, like sitting up independently, and Eden’s anxiety reached a fever pitch.
Finally, as Kingston was receiving his one-year vaccinations, the paediatrician remarked casually: “I think he’s got CP.”
“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” says Eden.
“I felt anger and disbelief. I just didn’t understand it. It wasn’t the world that I had ever thought that he would be in. I actually had no knowledge of CP at that time and everything that popped up [in my research] was very, very scary.”
In the months that followed, Kingston finally received his CP screening and assessment.
“Absolutely every baby in Australia born needs to have early screening… It’s so important for our future because that would have saved me. It would have given me peace of mind, at least knowing what path I was taking from 6 months onwards, not waiting, not every day pushing him… hoping that he would walk at 10 or 11 months and it just never happening.”
Eden has this message for the Federal Government:
“It is our duty of care to help create a better future for our children. We need to use science and health education to prevent any misleading diagnosis.”
Marelle
Marelle’s daughter, Katie, is 44 now, but when she was born early screening wasn’t heard of.
Like many parents, Marelle knew Katie wasn’t typically developing, but struggled to have her concerns taken seriously by medical professionals.
“We were told all along the way that she was a slow starter, that we just had to wait and see,” Marelle says now.
“I spent 9 months searching for an answer to what I believed to be a problem with my baby. I had a gut feeling from day one that there was something not quite right.”
After taking Katie to see two more paediatricians, several GPs and a chiropractor, they were finally referred to a cerebral palsy specialist, where Katie was diagnosed almost immediately.
Katie is now living happily in specialist accommodation and close to her family. But forty years later Marelle still feels the pain of her family’s struggle to get Katie diagnosed.
“Perhaps if there was such a thing as an early screening program life could have been different for Katie,” she says.
“That window of opportunity that we talk about was lost for her. There was nothing in that 9 months for her. Had somebody taken up her cause and sorted out on day one, when a mother says there’s something wrong with my baby, there could have been a different outcome.”
Anne
Grace hardly had a heartbeat at 35 weeks, meaning that even after she was born her mother Anne was always on the lookout for health complications.
“I really knew from the night Grace was born that it would be a different journey… I was always looking for things, milestones that Grace wasn’t hitting,” Anne says.
After “a diagnostic odyssey” they finally arrived at Cerebral Palsy Alliance, when Grace was 18 months old.
“We tried to make up for lost ground with really intensive therapy,” says Anne. “It wasn’t as early as what it should be by a long shot, but I was searching for a measured approach for helping Grace develop.
“My wish is that families don’t have to go on those sorts of journeys because… we really did miss those early years. Grace has done extraordinarily well… but I really feel that we lost those critical early days and weeks and months.
“When we were on our journey there was this concept of protecting the parents, and I really don’t understand that concept. I think that the earlier parents know and can be supported in the early stages of this journey… is the best start you could hope for.
“My message is the earlier [CP is diagnosed] the better… I wonder where we might have been if we could have put our energies into supporting Grace and really understanding Grace’s needs much earlier than what we were able to.”
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We are so grateful to Anne, Eden, Marelle and Kylie for courageously sharing their stories and driving home why the Window of Opportunity campaign is so important for us.
If you have a story of your own, please share it with us at our Share Your Story page.