Research & Development Awards 2023, Acquisition International | 5 Community Skill Development Company of the Year 2023 - Australia To begin, could you tell us more about Access able Connections and how it came into existence? Access able Connections was initially established in 2017 by its current three directors, my husband, myself and a third business partner who had a vision and a goal of creating a community services business that strived to provide person centred support services of the highest possible standard to those in need in our community. All three of us come from a background of community services, each specializing in different sectors which was essential to get everything started in the early days. Our name Access able Connections was created during a brainstorming session where all directors wanted people in need to have Access to services, to be able, no matter what abilities an individual may have, and to provide Connections to appropriate services for individuals. Access able Connections currently employs close to 50 people, all of whom bring their own lived experiences and knowledge and provide services to close to 300 people across Australia. Tell us more about your role. What do you feel are the most important parts to what you do? I am a NDIS Plan Manager, which is someone that has financial responsibilities over a participant’s NDIS plan. Keeping up with sector and award changes ensures that my role always keeps me on my toes. Working with NDIS participants and their families is the most enjoyable aspect of my role, especially when we have been able to break down some of the psychosocial barriers impacting people accessing their community and appropriate support services. We have been privileged to be involved with some extremely isolated families in the Northern Territory who have never accessed services or had access to services. It is very heartwarming to see their quality of life change in a positive way and their enjoyment with having new formal and informal connections. I do have a passion for Youth Services and have been known to step in and physically support those that have struggled within the foster care and youth support systems. Having worked in Child and Youth services for many years, as well as having children of my own, it has definitely inspired my desire to help these young people navigate through the many challenges they face. What are your core values and mission. How do these improve your services? Our core values at Access able Connections are that our service users are not a number or a statistic, but an individual that has a right to quality of life and have access to services. Our mission is to provide the highest quality of support to people with a range of options to suit all individuals. Furthermore, how do your support workers cultivate an environment of excellence? Having a large team of support workers enables us to provide different skills and personalities to suit each occasion of service and work towards achieving the individuals’ goals in a customised manner. Keeping each support worker informed of progress via technology and team meetings ensures all supports are on the same page and have a common understanding of what it is we are achieving. During induction of all staff, they are made aware of our company’s mission and values. This is also where we can identify if the person is going to be the correct fit in to our Access able Connections team. We provide a newsletter to all of our staff each month highlighting particular achievements of our participants and congratulating our staff for their involvement. Team meetings are a great opportunity to reinforce our values while also providing the opportunity for the team to discuss new and innovative methods of service delivery or barriers that have been identified that hinder progress of goals and values. Now that we’re coming to the end of 2023, how do you reflect on the past, and what are your plans for the years to come? We still have quite a bit of work to do to achieve our goals of growing and becoming known in geographical areas that are currently lacking in service provision. We will continue to grow our team in these areas as well as locally to ensure Access able Connections has a strong presence and continues to be a preferred service provider to many. Contact: Mel Monaghan Company: Access able Connections Web Address: https://accessable.support/ Access able Connections services range from social support for adults and children, personal care for those with mental and physical disabilities, aged care, and everything in between. It offers Plan Management and Support Coordination services for NDIS participants, and even brokerage services for those who may not be covered by a NDIS package such as supervised visits and youth house support. With Access able Connection’s services spreading through Grafton and the surrounding areas, we wanted to catch up with the company on its success. Here we interview one of Access able Connection’s Directors, Mel Monaghan, as it secures its title in the Research and Development Awards 2023.
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