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Campaign highlights disability awareness in Latrobe City

A series of advertisements currently airing on television, and a video about to be released, are helping to promote the contribution people with a disability are making to their local community.

By Latrobe City Council - 26th September 2003 - Back to News

Latrobe City Council’s Rural Access Project Officer, Mr Bill Lawler, said the advertisements are promoting the valued role people with disabilities play in society, rather than emphasising the disability that the people in the advertisements have. "The focus is on how the participation of people with a disability benefits the community and their work place," Mr Lawler said.

"The process behind getting the advertisements to air was just as important in the community as the actual airing of the advertisements because the ideas and involvement all came from local people," Mr Lawler explained.

"In April last year Latrobe City Council ran a forum called ‘We’re not going to ask what the issues are, we want you to be part of the solution’, in which members of the community got together to design projects that could help meet the needs of people with disabilities who lived in Latrobe City.

"From this forum there was a suggestion about producing a series of advertisements and a video which focused on making Latrobe City a more inclusive community. People who attended the forum and other members of the community then got involved in creating the advertisements and the video," Mr Lawler said.

The video, titled ‘Welcome to my inclusive community’, will be released next month. It will be used to promote disability awareness and for training purposes by local organisations.

"The video will be available for those who want to know more about building more inclusive communities and the valued contribution people with a disability make. The video will also be useful for organisations who are conducting training sessions on creating an inclusive working environment," Mr Lawler said.

Latrobe City Mayor, Councillor Graeme Middlemiss said that the advertisements and video are two projects that demonstrate Latrobe City Council’s commitment to making Latrobe City an all inclusive community.

"Promoting disability awareness through Rural Access enables discussions to take place in the community which focuses on what people with disabilities need and want. From these discussions, projects such as the series of advertisements that have just gone to air can be produced," Cr Graeme Middlemiss said.

"These projects directly expose the valuable work that people with disabilities are doing throughout the community."

Rural Access is funded through the Department of Human Services and is an initiative of the State Government in partnership with Latrobe City Council. Rural Access works with a range of groups and organisations throughout Latrobe City to help create projects that make the local area an all inclusive environment. Rural Access is currently running a variety of projects that all members of the community can get involved with.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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