2026 T1 Session 1 - The Supports We Have

Todays session focused on reconnecting after the break and future planning. Participants shared their activities over Christmas with joyful discussions on the accomplishments of the children in their lives, travelling, decluttering, gardening and the perks of solar panels and batteries. 

Activities focused on thinking about the supports we have which began with a spotlight focus on Nichole and Lawson's journey. The sessions was Q+A interview like structure with questions guiding the discussions. Questions were deliberately open ended and enabled Nichole to authentically shape her journey. This approach is moving towards a more human centric and participant directed support. Placing participants in power positions to share their intellectual knowledge in disability enables them to reaffirm their views in disability and their journey with their child. It also enables a window to showing future disability advocacy leadership in the area if they wish. Dismantling of supports that treat participants as receivers as opposed to active agents is key to empowering carers. 

Nichole's sharing of her story enabled her to reflect on the philosophy behind inclusion which prompted discussions and contributions from other participants. The group arrived at the understanding that disability is a social construct. If we removed the label, we will begin seeing people as who they truly are and not be trying to see them as a deficit due to their particular abilities. Disability as a term creates a dichotomy of able and disabled. It creates division. Perhaps if we removed such as term and rephrase and redefine people, inclusion can be more successful.

Pamela summed it up well when she informed the group that she sees people with many abilities and doesn't use the term disability to describe someone. "People have many abilities". "If we use this term than we treat people better".

The group also discussed the hopes for the coming year. These revolved around goals to achieve for this year which were personal goals. When we first did the task last year in our initial sessions, a lot of the responses tended to be around having good health to sustain the journey of disability. 

The group also discussed the success of the Christmas hampers 2025 with Braddock and that continued success and engagement with the school community was something they would like to pursue as part of MyTime Penrith and for them to build their leadership experience and skills within the community.

Next session will focus on planning a community engagement activity with Braddock community in collaboration with the school executive staff. 

Thank you to Nichole for sharing her story. Knowledge worth sharing!