Celebrating self advocacy

Chris 0:00

You're listening to the summer program on 3CR. I'm Chris, and I'm from Have a Say Bendigo.

Auntie Jane 0:10

My name's Auntie Jane, and I'd like to begin by paying my respects to the wondery people and to the stolen generation, people off this land where we are meeting upon today for its elders and past and presents, and even for the self aggressor, people who have passed away and who are still here today on Aboriginal land.

unknown speaker 0:32

Thank you for money, Jane, we recognise the self advocates who have worked tirelessly over the years for the right to equality and human rights for all.

James 0:47

Welcome to another raising our voices on the three CR, 855 AM. We are run by people with a disability who give people with a disability a voice on the airways, nothing about us without us. My name is James. I am part of Reinforce and rainbow rights, and also an AMIDA committee member.Today, we are joined by members of a self advocacy group.

Janet 1:26

Hi, my name is Janet, and I'm from power in culture and ethnicity, and we are a group made up for and by people with disability from non English speaking backgrounds, like multicultural communities with disability and we care about stopping racism and Disability Discrimination in Australia, so that's what we do. Hi, my name is Jack. So our group is our rainbow rights self advocacy group, and our group is a for people with intellectual disability in the LGTB IQ community.

Chris 2:20

I'm Chris, and I'm from, have a say Bendigo. We talk about people problems, and we also have guest speakers come in to talk about NDIS and what changes are happening. And we also organize in an asset data disability that's all,

Amanda 2:40

Hi folks. My name is Amanda, and I'm a long time committee member [?] of Reinforce. My name is Amanda [?Andranda]. I am one of three foundation members for Reinforce, and Reinforce has been there and done that in the past. And I believe there's a history book about Reinforce. I think we were the first self advocacy in in Australia and and we've been overseas. It was 40 years ago this year, in July, since reinforced went to America, but everything back to front there. And we have monthly committee meetings. And we just started up a big issues group run the last three, four months, and we've had about banks back the NDIS and a few other subjects, and that brings back problems and papers with intellectual disability face. I wonder if it's the first time in Australia that group like that existed and was poor people and we went out. Did talk, I could talk. I could talk about this. There's a time limit. Thank you.

Paul 4:17

Hi, I'm Paul. I'm the gear worker for New Wave Gippsland, West Coast and South Gippsland, and also a member of New Wave rainbow pride. So our group's ran by and for its members who have either an intellectual disability or cried brain injury, who live either in bass coast or South Gippsland area. So things we do, some of the things we do, we share information about our rights, we engage in the community. So we also raise awareness and advocate for ages in the community for people with a disability.

Sarah 5:04

My name's Sarah. I'm with the deadly First Nation. Shout out. And we are the first Australian people in Victoria. I think the whole of Australia haven't got one. We talk a lot about issues with the First Nation, people like people on the street, people just getting out of prison and all that. So it's all about that, how we can help people with disability and everything else.

Poppy 5:34

Hi. My name is Poppy. I'm from Brain Injury Matters. We are a self advocacy group for people with acquired brain injury. We provide peer support groups for people with acquired brain injuries, so that's people who've had stroke, tar accidents, any acquired brain injury as a result of a disease. And then we also try and educate the people about in the community about a quiet brain injury.

Romeo 5:59

I'm Romi a I'm from Positive Powerful Parents. It's a self advocacy group run by and for parents with an intellectual disability. We talk about child protection, parenting, stuff and self advocacy.

Beck 6:21

I'm Beck. I'm the representing for All Abilities group itself, West Victoria. Our self advocacy group is called All Abilities Advocacy. We talk about the issues that people what we face in the community, and we fight for accessible transport and jobs, accessible jobs as well and also talk about being the is...

James 6:47

how long has your self advocacy group been running?

Janet 6:52

For eight years. Our self advocacy group, Power in Culture and Ethnicity, has been running since 2019

Paul 7:06

Been involved from the third of April 1980 and that's when we started our first office at St Mark's Church Paul and fifth one. We've moved around Sid. But we based the Roth house. Yeah. Yeah, bass coast and South Gippsland group.

Jack 7:28

We formed in 2018 with Deadly First Nations Shout Out, plus, I'm with Rainbow Pride as well. Been going over 12 months and Gippsland Rainbow Pride, we just, it's going for three years as well.

Poppy 7:50

Brain injury matters has been running for like 25 years. We've started in 1999

Romeo 7:56

Positive Powerful parents is 12 years old. All ability advocacy. It's been running for around about 12 years.

James 8:06

What kind of things does your group do?

Jack 8:11

Rainbow rights do a lot of probably a couple of things we do, some pride march and mid summer festivals. So we do that probably during when the event happens.

Janet 8:27

Power in Culture and Ethnicity, we have a feast every day, every day, every day, every year. And so we, like we celebrate diversity there, and we talk about our stories. We also have a monthly meeting where we support each other and share stories about like, our experiences about racism and how we can not add to the problem, but help the problem of discrimination and racism together. We've also done some video about how to not be racist and what to do when you see racism. That's what we've done. We've also done like resources for multicultural communities around vaccination. We've run some training, so that's what we kind of do. But basically we're family to each other. That's what [?].

Chris 9:53

Well, we talk about a lot of topics about how to, like Jennifer self, we talk about abuse. We also touch a little bit about, like, not to actually call anyone names racism, like what Janet says. We have a lot of different people coming in to teach us whole, whole dip of things. And hopefully, one day we might hopefully Janet can come to Bendigo and talk about what she does, yeah, some of the things that we knew I press does. So we basically do a lot of networking in the community. We hold our own events. We've had a couple of expos in the past, and, yeah, we attend events as well.

Amanda 10:53

And Reinforce have a website, and if you want to find out more information about the route Reinforce, you can look on the website, and I don't know the exact address, but and we do have lots of thing each month, and we've got ourcommunity meeting once a month, big issue groups, and we have sometimes do go talk some different people get involved in filmmaking or video making, whatever they call it. But one more information, where we're based, second for Russ has 247 Flinders Lane, yep. And we do have pamphlets, whatever [?] Reinforce to come up. We make you welcome, with you always

James 11:53

Good information. Thank you.

unknown speaker 11:57

Yeah, we do videos, makeups and everything else. Plus we we do a lot of other things, but something happened about that first nation. We'll do a YouTube as well, so it's lot on there as well. And plus, we go and do a lot of things like light art gallery shows and things as well.

Poppy 12:19

So Brain Injury Matters has six metropolitan peer support groups. So our peer support groups meet up weekly in the community. They tend to be attached to neighborhood houses, and we have discussion groups in our neighborhood houses, and then we meet in the community, so it might be in a coffee shop. So we're really about connecting people who've got acquired brain injury so they don't feel isolated by themselves. We've also do some community education. So we've run some workshops with people who got acquired brain injury to educate support workers and health professionals on what it's like to have an acquired brain injury. We also got some groups in the regions as well. We've got a Bendigo group and in aubur wadonga, and we're hoping to expand our groups if foundational support comes through.

unknown speaker 13:21

Self advocacy, we've done story writing, we've also done some new resources. I think that's all I can remember.

So what our group does? We have our advisory group, a little advisory group. We meet every Wednesday on the library and on Zoom. We work with the Shire and Warrnambool around access and transport. We are also run forums around self advocacy and rights, and that's pretty much it. So yeah,

James 14:05

who can join yourself advocacy group?

Anyone can join the people who have to be who has that intellectual disability and who is a part of the LBGT IQ community, but that have to be only over the age of 18.

Janet 14:22

To join Power in Culture and Ethnicity, you need to have a disability, and you need to be from a non English speaking background. Anyone who's got a disability can join ever so many go. reinforce has his free membership, and since reinforces somebody fits a group for people that have an intellectual disability, and membership is free, free. Come and get it. It's free.

Paul 14:58

Anyone over the age of 18, who either live in Bass Coast, in South Gippsland, can become a member of New Wave, and they gotta have intellectual disability.

Sarah 15:12

To joined at deadly First Nation Shout Out, you must be a First Nation person to join.

Poppy 15:19

Anyone who's got an acquired brain injury, or brain injury from birth over the age of 18, can join Brain Injury Matters.

Romeo 15:28

Positive. Anyone that has an intellectual disability can join.

Beck 15:38

Anyone who has a disability living yourself in [?West] Victoria can join the All Abilities.

James 15:45

How much does it cost to join your self advocacy group group?

Sarah 15:50

It is free to join deadly First Nations Shout Out. Don't cost you nothing.

Romeo 15:57

At Positive Powerful Parents it doesn't cost anything in to join our group.

Poppy 16:03

Brain injury matters is free to join.

Janet 16:06

Power in Culture and Ethnicity is free to join.

Jack 16:13

Rainbow Rights is free to join.

Amanda 16:15

Reinforce is free to join, but you've got to fill a membership form.

Chris 16:20

Yeah, Have a Say Bendigo is free to join.

Beck 16:23

All Abilities it's free to join us.

James 16:27

Yeah, Amanda?

Amanda 16:32

Just one thing I forgot to tell you - before you become a member of Reinforce, Reinforce way is, if you want to get our newsletter comes out every three months, and if you're a member of Reinforce meant you want that, put Yes on the... membership form, and yes, you will get a Letter, and that's even three years. What Reinforce done? I hope it's on our website.

unknown speaker 17:12

Disabled people are worth every bloody piece. I'm okay with money on the supports that we need. There's more than 400,000 people who should be on the DSP butter on job seeker instead. The only way to provide meaningful support is stronger grassroots movements. These institutions are never going to be our Savior. If everyone was the same, it would be a born old world we live in. We need to do a lot of work in this country around shifting community attitudes towards people that don't fit the white, able, straight, cisgendered person.

3CR ID 17:51

3CR, stay tuned. Stay radical.

unknown speaker 18:06

You are listening to the summer program on VCR. We are going to take a break now and listen to the National Self Advocacy Anthem by the Outsiders.

Song 18:20

You, us all around Australia, people keeping up the fight Many Faces, different places, fighting for our rights, housing, jobs and transport is what we know best, remembering what will help us not cause us more distress. Self Advocacy, hear our voice, see our ability. We want equality, self advocacy,hear our voice, see our ability. We want equality. We are making our own choices. We've been saddest for too long. Stand up for what you believe in together. We are strong. Lift up all our voices. We can hit the hearts. We want you to join us. Support disability rights, self advocacy, hear our voice,see our ability. We want equality,self advocacy, hear our voice,see our ability. We want equality. We can work together.Other. We can work together. We can write the wrongs. We can write the wrongs. We do this together. We do this together. We can all be strong. We can all be strong. Listen to our story. A story makes us proud, make everyone her sleep pink, sing our story loud. Self Advocacy, hear our voice,see our ability. We want equality. Self Advocacy, hear our voice, see our ability. We want equality. Self Advocacy, hear our voice, see our ability. We want equality. Self Advocacy, hear our voice, see our beauty. We want equality.

unknown speaker 21:38

The song you just heard was the national self advocacy anthem by the outsiders.

3CR announcement 1 21:49

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unknown speaker 22:45

Today we are talking about self advocacy groups, what they do and who they are for. Before the break, you heard the names of some self advocacy groups, what they do and how long they have been going for. We are here more information about these self advocacy groups. What is the best thing about being part of a self advocacy group?

Jack 23:18

The best thing about rainbow rights group is that we get to sort of vote on a subject we disagree and agree. So we have like a vote as a group, we vote on whether we should do that one, and we do like a yes or no. It's amazing how a group of you know the rainbow rights of like friends and family, like a part of a family group, and we discuss of what we want, and if we do not disagree, we usually take a vote, and the majority of that vote will go on to that subject, and we'll do that one instead.

The best thing about being a part of a self advocacy group is that your group understands you like no one else go and you get to work together on a common goal, and it's fun at the same time, and you get to meet lots of different people that understand you but not probably don't understand the fullness of it, of being new, but they kind of understand you and that that's not the best part about to go is that to make friends and also to help organise in an access disability and also to organise to do, talk to other groups about what we do and how we can make the group bigger, being a part of and fix the group, and you can learn new skills, new knowledge,and get to do things you go out with, with friends, and you work together as a team. Boy oh boy.

Amanda 25:30

Reinforce has got a good book out, and that issues on certain things we've done in the past, that there's a future we don't know what's sitting there at our back door next week, type of stuff. So yeah, and you make friends. I've been friends with lot of, lot of, lots of people from beginning on. Still friends with friends now and reinforce been around for years and years, and we get funding from the government that we've got to do with the government [?says rats].

unknown speaker 26:07

The best thing about being part of a group is that we're all working on common goals, you know, friendships, all that sort of stuff that everyone said previously.

Sarah 26:19

The best thing about Deadly First Nations Shout Out, we and we talk about different items, and we do a lot of things together, and we have great friendships. So I think that's the best thing about Deadly First Nations Shout Out... when you're in a group, you got friends for life.

Poppy 26:41

I think the best thing about being a part of Brain Injury Matters is the connections that people make all our peaceful groups, and we found really close friends, and it becomes a real social networks for people that's really important for so many people living in the community that might feel quite isolated because of disability, and we've given an opportunity to connect with other people and hopefully develop friendships.

Romeo 27:05

At last, best thing about being part of Positive Parents is we're getting our stories out there to organisations and the lovely parents that we'll meet along the way, the best thing is having a voice, but working together for common goals and trying to make a difference in The communities we live in.

unknown speaker 27:39

So yeah, can I just say one more thing? I like being a part of self advocacy group and knowing self advocate because nobody knows how it feels to have your human right not uphold, like, another self advocate.

I just love being with you guys and working together. You're good. Kenneth, yeah, I'm finished. Yeah, I'm all good. Have you seen me? I'm fine. I'm just...

You're crying. I know you, Janet...

Janet 28:27

I just love being with you guys and working together. Well, that's good. I love it too.

James 28:34

Thank you, Janet, if you have just joined in, we are raising our voices on 3CR, 855 AM. Today, we've been talking about self advocacy groups, where they are due and who can join. If you would like more information about any of the self advocacy groups you have heard about today, please emailR, O, V, at A, M, I, D, A, dot org, dot A, U. or join us on Raising Our Voices Facebook page. We will put links on this page to the self advocacy groups. Thanks for listening to Raising Our Voices on 3CR, 855 AM. We are run by people with disability, and we give people with disability a voice on the airways. Thank you for listening to all the episodes on raising our voices. Stay tune for more disability news next month.

unknown speaker 30:00

You've been listening to a three CR podcast produced in the studios of independent community radio station three CR in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, go to all the w's dot 3CR dot org dot AU.