Self advocates - stronger together

Aunty Jane 0:00
Hi everybody. 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 is still here today on Aboriginal land. [ ? ] We recognise the self advocates who have worked tirelessly over the years for the right to equality and human rights for all.

James 0:36
Welcome to another Raising Our Voices on 3CR, 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. Please introduce yourself and say what group you are from.

Janet 1:23
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 background. So multicultural communities with disability and we care about stopping racism and disability discrimination in Australia, so that's what we do.

Jack 1:58
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 2:17
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 international disability that's all.

Amanda 2:36
Hi folks. My name is Amanda, and I'm a long time committee member as well as treasurer of Reinforce. My name is Amanda [?]. 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 in 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 ways to put people and we were when it did talk, I could, I could talk. I could talk about this. There's a time limit. Thank you.

Paul 4:14
Hi, I'm Paul. I'm the [?dear] worker for New Wave Gippsland, West Coast and South Gippsland, and also a member of New Wave, Rainbow Pride. So our groups 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 think 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 changes in the community for people with a disability.

Sarah 4:59
My name's Sarah. I'm with the Deadly First Nations Shout Out - and we are the first train 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 5:30
Hi, my name's 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, car 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 5:56
I'm Romeo. I'm from these Powerful Parents. It's a self advocacy group run by and all parents with an intellectual disability. We talk about child protection, parenting, stuff and self advocacy.

Beck 6:18
I'm Beck. I'm the representing for All Abilities Advocacy group in Southwest 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 6:44
How long has your self advocacy group been running?

Janet 6:49
About eight years. Our self advocacy group, Power in Culture and Ethnicity, has been running since 2019 19,

Amanda 7:03
Been involved from the third of global 19, and that's when we started our first conference at St Mark's Church, Paul and fifth coin. We've moved around Sid but We're based at Ross house. Yeah,

Paul 7:20
Yeah, VSA South coast and South Gippsland group we formed in 2018.

Sarah 7:30
With Deadly First Nation Shout Out, plus I'm with Rainbow Pride as well. Been going over 12 months and get flying rainbow pride. We just it's going for three years as well.

Poppy 7:47
Brain Injury Matters has been running for like 25 years. We've started in 1999.

Speaker 1 7:53
[?] Powerful parents is 12 years old.

Beck 7:58
All Ability Advocacy, it's been running for around about 12 years.

James 8:03
What's kind of things does your group do?

Jack 8:07
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 8:11
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 videos 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 PC as well.

Chris 9:51
We talk about a lot of topics, about how to like, stand up for self. We talk about. Are abused. 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,

Paul 10:30
Some of the things that [?we knew a past] Coast 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 10:50
And Reinforce have a website, and if you want to find out more information about route reinforce, you can look on the website, and I don't know the exact dress, but, and we do have lots of thing each month, and we've got our community 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 Ross has 247 Flinders Lane, yep, and we do we have pamphlets, whatever Robert reinforce to come up with? Magnus. Welcome with you. Always good information. Thank you.

Sarah 11:54
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 12:16
So Brain Injury Matters has six metropolitan peaceful 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 Albury Wodonga, and we're hoping to expand our groups if foundational help comes through.

Romeo 13:18
Self advocacy... we've done story writing, we've also done some new resources. I think that's all I can remember.

Beck 13:34
So what our group does? We have our advisory group, or 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 14:02
Who can join your self advocacy group?

Jack 14:06
Anyone can join, the people who have to be who has that intellectual disability and who is a part of the LBTIQ community, but that have to be only over the age of 18 to join.

Janet 14:19
At Power in Culture and Ethnicity, you need to have a disability and you need to be from a non-English-speaking background.

Chris 14:34
Anyone who's got a disability can join Have a Say Bendigo.

Amanda 14:39
Reinforce has free membership, and since Reinforce's somebody fits a group for people that have an intellectual disability and membership is free, free, come and get it.

Paul 14:53
It's free - anyone over the age of 18 who either live in [?Basque Race] in South Gippsland can become a member of New Wave.

Sarah 15:06
And they gotta have intellectual disability joined at Deadly First Nations Shout Out. And they must be a First Nation person to join.

Poppy 15:16
Anyone who's got an acquired brain injury, or brain injury from birth over the age of 18, can join Brain Injury Matters.

Romeo 15:24
At Positive... anyone that has an intellectual disability can join right.

Beck 15:34
Anyone who has a disability living in southwest Victoria can join All Abilities.

James 15:41
How much does it cost to join, yourself? [?]

Sarah 15:46
It is free to join Deadly First Nation Shout Out, don't cost you nothing.

Speaker 2 15:54
At positive doesn't cost anything in to join our group.

Poppy 16:00
Brain injury matters is free to join.

Janet 16:03
Power in culture and Ethnicity is free to join.

Jack 16:09
Rainbow rights is free to join.

Amanda 16:12
Reinforce is free to join, but you've got to fill a membership form in, yeah.

Chris 16:17
Have a Say Bendigo is free to join.

Beck 16:20
All Abilities is free to join.

Chris 16:23
us. Yeah, my daughter, one

Amanda 16:29
This one thing I forgot to tell you before... as soon as you become a member of Reinforced way us, if you want to get our newsletter comes out every three months, and if you're a member for Reinforce and you want that put Yes on the...membership form, and yes, you will get a letter. And that's even three years. What Reinforces done? I hope it's on our website.

James 17:02
We are going to take a break now and listen to the song. The song is the National Self Advocacy Anthem by the Outsiders.

Song 17:26
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 silenced 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, sing our ability. We want equality. We can work together. We can work together. We can write the wrongs. We can light the wrongs. We do this together. We do this together. We can all be strong. We can all be strong. You listen to our story. A story makes us proud, make everyone who's sleeping, 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.

James 20:34
The song you just heard was the National Self Advocacy Anthem by the Outsiders.

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Janet 22:40
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 now hear more information about these self advocacy groups.

Jack 23:07
What is the best thing about being part of a self advocacy group?

The best thing about Rainbow Rights group is that we get to sort of vote on our 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.

Romeo 23:40
The best thing about being a part of a self advocacy group is that your group understands you like no one else goes and you get to work together on the 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.

Chris 24:39
And that's that's not the best part about is that to make friends, and also to help organise in an asset or disability, and also to organize to do talk to other groups about what we do. Issues and how we can make the group bigger,

Amanda 25:03
Being a part of advocacy group, and you can learn new skills, new knowledge and and get to do thing to go out with, with friends and you work together as a team. Boy oh. Boy Reinforce's got a good book after 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 and lots of people from beginning around, still friends with friends now, and Reinforce has been around for years and years, and we get funding from the government that we got to do with the government says rats.

Paul 26:02
That's so 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 26:14
The best thing about Deadly, personal shout out. We 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 that. We personally shout out when you when you're in a group, you got friends for life.

Janet 26:36
I think the best thing about being a part of Brain Injury Matters is the connections that people make all our peace. Support groups. People become really close friends, and it becomes a real social network for people that's really important for so many people living in the community that might feel quite isolated because their disability, and we've given an opportunity to connect with other people and hopefully develop friendships at last,

Romeo 27:02
best thing about being part of Positive the parents is we're getting our stories out there to organisations and the lovely parents that we'll meet along the way.

Beck 27:23
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. So yeah,

Romeo 27:37
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, Janet, yeah, I'm finished. Yeah, I'm all good. Have you seen me? I'm fine. I know you. Janet, I just love being with you guys and working together.

Janet 28:27
Well, that's good. I love it too.

James 28:30
Thank you, Janet, if you have just joined in, we are Raising Our Voices on the 3CR, 855 AM. Today, we've been talking about self advocacy groups, where they are do and who can join. If you would like more information about any of the self advocacy groups you have heard about today, please email R, 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.

Sarah 29:27
Thanks for listening to raise our voices on 3CR, 855 AM. We are run by people with disability, and we give people with disability to a voice on the airways, join us next month when we celebrate International Day of People with disability. Now stay tuned.

Poppy 29:51
Cool. 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 Ws, dot 3CR dot org dot AU.