ACT ILC Grant Recipients Announced

The NDIA announced the list of organisations who will be funded under the Information, Linkages & Capacity Building (ILC) program in the ACT over the weekend. It seems that more small, local organisations have been successful than we may have originally anticipated. Looking at the list of recipients, it looks like ILC is being used to focus on smaller creative and innovative projects. This is encouraging given some concerns in the sector that ILC, as the last vestige of block funding, may have been used to fund a select group of providers and organisations to stay afloat on a Business As Usual approach.

The successful projects show clear themes of using technology, reaching outside the traditional boundaries of the disability sector, and building capacity and supporting Participants to make their own decisions more informed, more researched and more consumer-focused.

With the ACT several years into NDIS rollout it remains to be seen if this approach will extend to ILC Grant rounds in other States & Territories, but the early signs are encouraging.

The NDIA is yet to announce the outcome of the National ILC funding round. 

SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS - GRANTS OVER $10,000              

• ACT Deafness Resource Centre Inc: $124,470.00
  • The program is designed for those with hearing impairment to attend the ACT Deafness Resource Centre for one to one consultation to provide support, information, linkages and referrals and is accompanied by an annual Hearing Awareness Expo.
• ACT Disability Aged and Carer Advocacy Service Inc: $322,637.73
  • Creating systemic change to ensure that the ACT Health Care System is more inclusive of people with impaired decision making ability.
• ACT Playgroups Association Inc: $86,755.76
  • Developing an inclusion support program for community playgroups to enable young families with disabilities (either adult or child) to facilitate access to local community playgroups.
• Advocacy for Inclusion Incorporate: $94,114.91
  • Developing and delivering a justice orientation process to support individual people with disabilities to better understand and participate in their current justice process through self-advocacy skill building, and experiential learning techniques.
• Clickability Proprietary Limited: $150,000
  • Clickability Scale-Up – roll-out to the ACT in 2017 including delivery of community capacity building workshops on consumer rights for people with disability in the ACT.
• Down Syndrome Australia: $202,060.00
  • DSA will address the need for ongoing access to resources, peer support and quality information by leading a consortium of State and Territory Down syndrome Organisations to deliver the Information for Life project
• First People’s Disability Network: $95,000.00
  • This activity is to inform and educate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability and their families as well as the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in the ACT about what is meant by the term 'disability'. This will be delivered by utilising a peer to peer model led by Aboriginal people with disability who have disability and/or a close personal association with disability.
• Imagine More Ltd: $400,000
  • Supporting people with developmental disabilities and their families to live inclusive, typical and valued lives
• Koomarri: $64,589.70
  • Establishing a peer support network of people with mild and borderline cognitive disability (not eligible for the NDIS) and their supporters who may be unemployed, socially isolated, at risk of criminal justice involvement and homelessness.
• Multiple Sclerosis Limited: $94,648.00
  • To be hosted on the MS Ltd website, Get Your ACT Together is being developed as an interactive tool that provides tailored, local advice for symptom management, so it suits exactly what people need on each occasion.
• Rebus Theatre Incorporated: $74,069.08
  • Open Doors Open Minds will be a series of interactive, disability-led capacity-building workshops for Community Organisations.
• Self Help Organisations United Together Inc: $123,000.00
  • Development of a virtual support network, uniting support and self help groups across the ACT on a virtual platform, allowing them to have access to all the resources they may need, including support resources, policies, procedures, governance documentation and road maps to developing and maintaining a support structure.
• The Deaf Society: $229,001
  • Researching the barriers to accepting and seeking help for hearing loss. The research will inform the development of a progressive, impartial e-support service that includes an interactive website.
• The Disability Trust: $71,598.32
  • Presentation of a weekly radio segment on ACT commercial radio station 2CC, with information for and about people with a disability, their parents/ carers and families, disability support organisations and the wider community, and an integrated monthly newsletter.
• Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn: $333,798.87
  • Marymead Autism Centre – providing a suite of strengths-based, person-centred services developed by experts for individuals/families living with Autism Spectrum Disorder including new diagnosis support, linkage/referral to other supports, and NDIS pre-planning support.
• Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn: $157,000.00
  • Kids Companion Program - providing social support, mentoring, participant-driven peer-based activities and projects for young people with a disability (not on an NDIS plan), their siblings, and young people who care for someone with a disability (including psycho social disability).
• Volunteering and Contact ACT Incorporated: $200,000
  • Providing one-to-one support for people with a disability, in particular mental health consumers, to co-design an individualised support plan with a volunteer mentor.
• Wellways Australia Limited: $138,204.00
  • Training volunteers to work alongside people with psycho-social disability and assist them in building a strong network, increase community participation and to develop a sense of belonging within their community.

SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS – GRANTS UNDER $10,000

• Arthritis Foundation of the ACT Inc: $9,900.00
  • Assisting people with arthritis to: better understand, manage and reduce the impact of their disability through access and utilisation of information and resources; developing relationships; confident decision-making; increasing targeted and mainstream community participation, toward a normal life. Participants will then form a cohort for ongoing support and connectedness.
• Marymead Child and Family Centre: $9,932.00
  • Delivery of the Autism Centre's Dungeons and Dragons - Virtual Life Training Group. Coordinated by a qualified teacher and a volunteer, participants will use their imagination, problem solve, and cooperate with others, developing skills and confidence enabling them to participate in, and contribute to, the community.
• People with Disabilities ACT: $9,800.00
  • Develop and disseminate information resources for people with disabilities in relation to mainstream services and the Commonwealth Disability Strategy including e-bulletin, website and social media.
• Person Centred Support Pty Ltd: $8,500.00
  • Disseminating information about disability, mainstream and community services at grass-roots level using targeted languages- Cantonese, Vietnamese and Arabic to inform and connect people with disability, their carers, guardians, family and friends from these CALD groups in ACT.