By Victoria Stone-Meadows
City of Casey Council has made a move to help people living with a disability gain valuable workplace experience and skills to become more independent.
At a general council meeting on Tuesday 18 July, Councillor Amanda Stapledon raised a notice of motion that would see council become a job experience provider as part of council’s new Disability Access and Inclusion Policy.
The motion calls for council officers and Cr Stapledon to meet with disability education and support providers the Narre Warren Learning and Community Centre and Outlook Disability Services.
Cr Stapledon said she was aiming to set Casey Council up as a provider of workplace experiences for people in the community living with a physical or learning disability.
“What I want to see is council providing job placement opportunities for organsations like outlook to give them links for their people in job placements with council and outside of council,” she said.
“I envision it would work as a sort of work experience, but where people can learn some skills and gain real life work experience.”
Cr Stapledon said getting this project off the ground would not only be valuable for the people it was geared to help, but also it would benefit council.
“People living with a disability have so much to contribute, and this is fantastic way of enabling them to do so while gaining experience and confidence to launch into their own career,” she said.
“This plan also has benefits for the whole economy by adding to the wider economy and helping families with things like social isolation and deprivation of finances.”
“Isolation can bring about mental illness, so we want to get more people about and about and also give everyone an opportunity to learn about each other.”
While council is in the process of updating their policy in regards to inclusions and access for people with a disability, Cr Stapledon said now was the perfect time to get this project going.
“How much better would it feed into the council’s disability plans? We only have to look at the culture and policy moving forward,” she said.
“I am really proud of my fellow Casey councillors for supporting this, and officers are going to execute this well.
Council officers will meet with Outlook and the Narre Warren Learning and Community Centre over the coming weeks to discuss project options.
