|
Workshopping our way into the future
One of the fantastic opportunities the DPV Conference offers disability professionals is to get involved in workshops with experts and other professionals, share ideas and really discuss the circumstances of their organisations.
This year’s conference offered some fantastic speakers to discuss in more detail how to make a difference in the workplace.
On day 1, professionals attending the conference had five different workshops to choose from, including a further discussion of leadership with Dr Keith Suter, a session on engaging young people with Michael Smith and Tara Cantwell, ‘The Balanced Manager’ with Mark Riches, a leadership forum with Professor James Sarros, and finally a workshop with Paul McDonald from KPMG.
Tara Cantwell, who was actually a late replacement for Sharn Chisholm, said the challenges facing disability professionals was solvable, and the young people she works with show that the future is brighter than most people ting.
“I really can’t speak enough about the fact that education needs to start quite young. If we’re educating people in schools that kids with disabilities aren’t scary… if we work through that, at a really young age then that’s half our job done for us, and when you talk about employment for people with disabilities, that’s tricky, if you’ve already got kids with a great attitude they are growing up to be employers who are really comfortable with disability.”
Tara said she believes that the hesitation of young people to work in the disability industry is because of fear and lack of belief that they are capable of being responsible for and caring for someone.
“The greatest fear, when we survey school students at the local high schools, they say their biggest fears are about the unknown, so they don’t think they can do it, they have a whole list of attitudes in their head and they’re really worried that they are not going to be able to do it,” she said.
On day 2, there was even more of a range of speakers. In the first session, there was a choice between Danielle Fraillon from the Mettle Group speaking about relationships and influencing, Jacqueline Suares and Douglas Ball talking about the Disability Knowledge Network, and Robyn Cummings from The Spastic Centre, NSW.
Danielle’s workshop focused on the little things, including how simple gestures and body language can influence people.
“You can tell a lot about people just by their body language,” she said.
The second and final session for the day offered Richard Dent, 2007 Disability Professional of the Year, Dr Christine Bigby from LaTrobe University discussing ageing and disability, and finally, Dr Peter Gibilisco, winner of the 2007 Emerging Leader of the Year award, with his carer Debbie Mackenzie, to examine the flexibility of support workers.
The excellent congregation of experts, professionals and personalities at the conference is what made it so moving and inspirational.
Marcia Simons, who has attended the DPV Conference before, said that 2008’s speakers and workshops were the best yet, and there was plenty she had learned and could take back to the workplace.
“I think what was most interesting was the talk of change to the sector and how that is going to affect us. It has really opened my eyes,” she said.
|
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
Proudly Sponsored by:
