STANDING Tall in Hamilton recently received $8556 in funding for the ‘We Are Not Alone’ program which they hope will build the skills and confidence of volunteers in the community.
These volunteers work closely with young people and give them tools and language skills so that they are more accessible, inclusive and engaging for young, disabled people.
Program manager, Dee Barrera, said Standing Tall will work with the Youth Disability Access Service (YDAS) to bring Together: Access and Inclusion Training sessions to south-west Victoria for their volunteer community.
“We will open the training to all volunteers from our organisation, STiH, as well as the volunteers that support youth at Standing Tall in Heywood, Warrnambool, the Local LLEN, and the Southern Grampians Shire Council L2P Driver Training Program,” she said.
“All these volunteers will have the chance to benefit from this training, and allow them to better engage with disabled young people in our community.”
The training will cover - assumptions about disabled young people, how to ask questions (and practise doing it), the models of disability (different ways to understand what it means to be disabled), language and disability.
STiH currently has many mentors in their program, as do Standing Tall in Heywood and Standing Tall in Warrnambool, and all provide weekly support for students as they navigate the challenges and complexities of their tween and teenage years.
Ms Barrera said being in regional Victoria, accessibility to disability education, resources and services is limited, and having the opportunity to bring training into the region for volunteers to help build their skills and capacity is an important part in addressing the lack of access.
“Our mentors support students with disabilities who often experience added challenges in navigating their schooling experience,” she said.
“We have seen a number of student referrals where students have identified neurodivergences, such as Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dysgraphia, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAD) and intellectual Disability (ID).
“Our current training program does not cover disability awareness topics. This funding would give the opportunity for any volunteer mentor in our program and others in the region to better support the needs of their mentee, strengthening the impact of the program and positively benefitting students’ school experience.”
