Every Australian Counts
This month, staff at Jewish Care joined over 50,000 Australians supporting the ‘Every Australian Counts’ campaign for a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) by sharing in a ‘DisabiliTea’ morning tea.
Enjoying their DisabiliTea
The NDIS aims to change the way people with a disability, their families and carers are supported in our lucky country – transforming the way services are funded and delivered so that people are able to access much needed support with dignity, choice and self determination.
Says Bill Appleby, Jewish Care CEO, “We encourage broad communal participation in this critically important public awareness campaign ‘Every Australian Counts’. This is a once in a generation opportunity to fix what is fundamentally broken. What is effectively a funding lottery administered by individual states that do not have the tax base to pay for it. 4.5 million Australians have a disability of some kind. Of these, 760,000 people under 65 years of age have a severe or profound disability, meaning they always or sometimes need help with a core activity or task. This is not a sector issue but moreover a whole of society issue. Australia needs to change its attitude and work towards creating real inclusive communities so that every Australian can realise their potential.”
Jewish Care plays an integral role in providing support to individuals with a disability in the Jewish community through the provision of a number of services and programs designed to support inclusion.
Jewish Care is the only Victorian registered disability service provider offering services uniquely for the Victorian Jewish community. Disability services at Jewish Care focus on providing tailored support to those with a disability including respite services, housing and home support, employment services, all abilities sports programs, mental health programs as well as the provision of case managers who provide individual support.
“We endorse this campaign as it fundamentally challenges us to collectively think about the sort of society we want our children to live in,” Appleby adds.
