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Connect - Summer 2007-08 (Issue 14)

Connect is Disability Services Queensland's official magazine. It aims to bring the disability community together by sharing information, news, events and developments on a wide range of subjects.

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To arrange for a printed copy of a specific issue to be posted to you, visit the Government bookshop.

The Summer 2007-08 issue of Connect contains the following sections and articles:

Welcome

• Welcome to Connect

  It is the start of a new year, a time to highlight the positives in our community. In this edition we take a look at people making a change in their own lives and the lives of people with a disability.

Meet our Minister

• Lindy Nelson-Carr

  Lindy Nelson-Carr is Minister for Communities, Disability Services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Multicultural Affairs, Seniors and Youth. Connect asked the Minister about her vision for the portfolio.

Reducing red tape

• Single form marks new era

  People with a disability will benefit from a simpler and fairer approach to accessing assistance, with the introduction of a single application form for support.

Behaviour Support

• Strive for the best

  An international recruitment drive is underway to attract quality staff for the innovative Specialist Response Service (SRS) and the Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Support.

Sport

• Set the wheels in motion

  Katie Coleman admits it is a cruel irony that the injuries which left her with a pronounced limp — and in a wheelchair on bad days — has also opened up a whole new sporting career and led to an avalanche of new friends.

DSQ Act

• Mary makes big impact on small screen

  Seeing beyond the disability is Mary Albury’s motto. As one of the speakers on a new DVD informing Queenslanders about the Disability Services Act 2006, Mary lives and works her motto. She prefers to focus on similarities with others, rather than differences.

Employment

• Up front at the checkout

  There’s a line-up at Craig’s checkout whenever he’s operating the scanner. His genuine nature and interest in people make him a natural on the supermarket’s ‘front line’.

Community living

• With a little help from my friends

  From her new purpose-built room at Youngcare Apartments, Shevaune Conry reflects on the journey from a residential aged care home into a pad of her own.

• From aged care to appropriate care

  Aged care facilities are for older people, but there are many younger people with a disability sharing their world for a lack of a workable alternative.

Shared visions

• Visionaries get together

  The 2007 Shared Visions regional forums heard from some inspiring people across regional Queensland. Here, Connect catches up with Marlena Katene and Tracey Geaghan, who shared their views and ideas through presentations at the forums.

Arts

• Outside the box

  With nine exhibitions under his belt in the past two years, Travis Mitchell’s achievements are many. Participation in the group show ‘Australian Outsiders’ in Paris highlighted his arrival on the arts scene.

Carers

• Photography gives greater exposure to the world

  A course in photography has broadened Matthew Lys’s perspective and interests while giving his mum and carer, Carmel, an insight into her son’s world.

Education

• Tilling new skills on the farm

  There’s nothing as satisfying as a hard day’s work. For a group of schoolboys getting their hands dirty at Beelarong Community Farm it is also, literally, loads of fun—and it’s opening up career pathways in horticulture.

Programs

• Taking it to the kids

  With his wheelchair as his ‘powerful tool’, Mark Farrell takes the message of caution to school children in the Hervey Bay area.

In brief

• Quavering on success

  You don’t have to be a super band like U2 to raise awareness about issues and inspire people to give money to a worthy cause.

• Bouncing ideas off mentors

  They have the power to vote you in or out — they are the blokes from the Challenge and Achieve Men’s Group.

Visions

• A Connect feature on the views of people within the disability sector

  Judy Mayfield, Chief Executive Officer Share Bayside Inc.