2010-11 Annual report - Amaze

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AssistingIndividuals & Familiesprogram with Carer’s Victoria, who have the taskof rolling out the program across the state.Information, Advice & SupportThis team provides a range of servicesto individuals and families (as well as toprofessionals - see page 10). In the 2010-11 year,the Information Officers, Family Counsellors andLibrarian provided the following:• InfoLineThrough the Infoline, the Trainingand Information Officerssupport individuals and familieswith advice, answers to generaland specific questions, informationfrom the Directory of Services andsecondary case consultancy. Statisticsfor 2010-2011 show that approximately 8,200contacts came through the InfoLine.• Attendance at Expos & ForumsWith support from other members of staff, theinformation and training services provided by theorganisation are promoted through attendanceat expos, conferences and forums right acrosssVictoria. Four expos were attended in the 2010-2011 financial year.• Training & EducationDuring 2010-2011, 16 information sessions weredelivered to community groups and organisations.Attendance at expos and forums, and providinginformation sessions resulted in approximately2,000 additional contacts.• Information MaterialsMembers of the team develop and reviewinformation sheets and other informationmaterials, providing items in English, as wellas Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD)materials. The team sent out 885 informationpackages throughout the year.• Family CounsellorsDuring 2010-2011, two part-time familycounsellors provided a range of services,delivering phone, email and face-to-facesupport to 1,900 contacts, and presenting familyinformation sessions on anxiety, mental healthand core management strategies to approximately200 parents and family members. The FamilyCounsellors also delivered sessions to primaryand secondary school students on understandingdifferences, which have proven to be successful.• Directory of ServicesThe internal database of autism-aware andautism-specific products and services has grownto more than 4000 listings across a broad range ofcategories.Calls to the InfoLine often require informationon where to get further services, whether it is anASD-specific paediatrician or a hairdresser whounderstands the needs of individuals with an ASD.The value of the Directory of Services to callerscontinues to increase as more entries are added.Victorian Autism Conference 2010In August 2010, the organisation ran the inauguralVictorian Autism Conference, and with around600 people attending in Melbourne and a further500 in 8 venues across Victoria, it was consideredto be a great success.Attendance was split between professionals andfamilies with a slight bias towards professionals.Feedback from all delegates was excellentwith many suggestions for topics at futureevents. From regional delegates, responsesabout the ease of attending without having totravel to Melbourne were very positive and anyreservations regarding the live-streaming wereovercome by the results, despite a few teethingproblems.Page 10 Autism Victoria trading as Amaze - Annual Report 2010-2011
This isA Brother & SisterBoth our children have been formally diagnosed withAsperger’s Syndrome, and our son (17) has ADD/HD andour daughter (14) the inattentive form of ADD. Both havesuffered from clinical anxiety and depression and PostTraumatic Stress Disorder, a direct result of the 2009Victorian Bushfires.Over the years, I have learnt that you cannot completelytransform a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.However, with a lot of love, patience and hard workand a good support team you can modify them to fit ina neuro-typical society as best as they can and preparethem to be responsible, contributing, independentadults.I started out wanting to revolutionise the world, raisingAutism awareness at a micro level, hoping that it wouldgrow, and grow and grow, changing some people’snarrow-minded prejudices against my children andother children on the Spectrum. It wore me down, as Islowly discovered no matter how hard I tried, the moreresistance there was with some people, that they simplydidn’t want to listen, hear what you had to say, or readthe information to be enlightened and to change. Theysaw the labels and not the real child, and sadly passedunfair judgement upon them. The positive from thiswas that it has helped build our children’s resilience,as it motivates them to work even harder and to provethemselves even more, that they are also valuablemembers of society.We were not fortunate to have an early diagnosisand early intervention which in hindsight would havebeen crucial for them with their social skills and verbalcommunication. With the Asperger’s they both havepoor verbal communication skills, as well as visualprocessing problems and Dysgraphia. Both childrenobjectively are highly gifted with the written word andcan both communicate extremely effectively in thismanner. Autism Victoria and Colonial First Bank’s mostgenerous donation of a laptop to our son last yearhas made a significant difference to his school work,especially his academic achievements and results as hehas become more fluent and articulate in expressinghimself and therefore people, especially teachers whohave been able to understand what he has written.Fortunately there are also some people in the worldthat genuinely do help and make a difference. AutismVictoria’s great support of both our children’s individualtalents, our son’s writing and our daughter’s writing andartwork have helped them build their self-confidenceand self worth, learning not to use their disabilities as anexcuse, to focus on their strengths and celebrate theirgifts and to work hard on the things that they are not asstrong in and to give everything a go, no matter how farout of their comfort zone it is.Life is a continual challenge, but we getover and move on from the bad andugly that can eat you away, and learnto celebrate the good no matter howsmall.“Autism Victoria’s great support of bothour children’s individual talents, ourson’s writing and our daughter’s writingand artwork, has helped them buildtheir self-confidence and self-worth.”Autism Victoria trading as Amaze - Annual Report 2010-2011 Page 11
Page 2 and 3: Autism Victoria,trading as AmazeOur
Page 4: Autism Victoria - 2010-20111500The
Page 9: AssistingIndividuals & FamiliesThe
Page 14 and 15: AssistingOur MembersA key goal for
Page 19 and 20: Thank you to our donorsThank you to
Page 21 and 22: Autism Victoria Staff& Support team
Page 23 and 24: The Board of GovernanceCatherine Wy
Page 25 and 26: Dirctors’ ReportOperating ResultT
Page 27 and 28: FINANCIALSSTATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIV

2010-11 Annual report - Amaze

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