Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference 2023
Other lifeboats in the ocean

Mon 4 Sept 2023 | 10am - 4:30pm

Keynote: Stuck in the doldrums 

Why aren’t the rights of people with disability embedded effectively in our universal service systems and mainstream policies?  What needs to happen for full inclusion to be real and ensure that the lives of people with disability are free from abuse and exploitation?  We need a fresh, strong wind to blow us out of these doldrums!

When

Monday 4th September, 2023: 11:40am - 12:10pm

Where

The Hall

Speaker

Facilitated by:

Melissa Hale, Manager, Disability Advocacy Resource Unit (DARU)

Melissa Hale is the Manager of Disability Advocacy Resource Unit auspiced by the Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS) and Disability Advocacy Victoria which resources and builds the capacity of the disability advocacy sector in Victoria. In addition to this, Melissa is an alumni and valedictorian of the 2021 Williamson Leadership Program with Leadership Victoria, … Continued Photo of Melissa Hale, Manager, Disability Advocacy Resource Unit (DARU)

Leah Van Poppel, Board Director, NDIA

Ms Leah van Poppel is a member of the NDIA Board, Chair of the Victorian NDIS Community Advisory and a member of the NDIS Independent Advisory Council (IAC). A highly-respected leader and disability rights advocate, Ms van Poppel was CEO of Women with Disabilities Victoria from 2018-2021. In this position, she worked to empower marginalised … Continued

Photo of Leah Van Poppel, Board Director, NDIA

Session Summary

Disability advocates support people with disabilities to realise their rights to access services and be included in the community. These rights are laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  Yet we find that discrimination, violence, and neglect is a much more usual experience for people with disability than full inclusion.

Why aren’t the rights of people with disability embedded effectively in our universal service systems and mainstream policies?  What needs to happen for full inclusion to be real and ensure that the lives of people with disability are free from abuse and exploitation?  We need a fresh, strong wind to blow us out of these doldrums!