My Supports has been chosen by almost 1,500 NDIA participants across five states — now is a good moment to reflect on how we started and the vision that inspired us.
My Supports was founded in 2015 by people with a disability and their families. The founders — Jim Cairns, Rex Baker, and Terry Mader — saw the NDIS as an opportunity for people with a disability to play a greater role in designing and delivering services.
They believe this will lead to better, more innovative services, due to the experiences and insights people with the lived experience can bring. With this a foundation, over the last four years, My Supports has developed into a different type of NDIS service provider — as seen to the right.
We continue learning and developing, but as we approach 1,500 clients being supported, we are extremely thankful for all our clients willing to try something new, and all our staff who have worked so hard to make our common vision a reality.
We are a Disabled People and Families Organisation (DPFO) — we bring the lived experience of disability into our services. Nearly 40% of our staff have the lived experience of disability, which helps bring a more client-focused culture.
We work via small, local Neighbourhood Teams. We support via local people bringing local connections and contacts. This makes us flexible, and clients have their choice of Support Worker — with full safeguarding and supervision.
Innovation — we are pioneering in-community support options, as an alternative to support in an institutional environment. We provide support to live in-community for all abilities, including people with complex and high needs. We also assist with in-community housing-support options — SIL innovation and ILOs.
Developing People, Supporting People
As we grow and learn, we continue to evolve, and over the last few months we have seen a number of organisational changes. What we are proud to see is that My Supports is developing and promoting our own people to take on new roles and challenges. Here are three examples:
Xander de Haan (WA) has become a Coordinator from his role as a Support Worker.
Peter Alsop (NSW) has become a Coach from his role as a Coordinator.
Jemima Parker has joined the Leadership Group as Regional Coach from her role as a Coach.
