History of Lifestyle Connections

CHANGING TIMES: 2013 – 2018
The highlight of 2013 was Colleen
Dolan receiving the ‘Order of
Australia’ Award (OAM) in the
Australia Day Honours list for
service to people with a disability.
An OAM is the highest recognition
for outstanding achievement and
service, and Colleen’s selfless
dedication and devotion to people
with disabilities earned her this
deserving recognition. Our Service
was so thrilled and proud of our
humble founder - a hero to so
many families - we will always hold
her in awe and the highest regard.
In 2013 we celebrated our 20th year anniversary with a huge cake at
our AGM. Also that year, the free Community Leisure Cards were
launched. Leisure Connections auspiced this project and was heavily
involved in creating the Cards cooperatively with several Cairns
services to assist people to discover/participate in community
activities, thereby reducing social isolation and developing
relationships and valued roles in community.
Our move to providing lifestyle support in addition to community
access meant that 2013 was one of the busiest years to date for Staff
and Committee, with operational and governance updating whilst
continuing to provide quality service to all stakeholders. The most
significant changes were re-wording our Mission Statement and
Constitution, dropping our target age to 16 years, and providing 24-
hour residential support to one Service User. Our Support staff
increased to 36 in 2013 and then to its maximum yet of 58 in 2017.
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