Manningham Council is delighted to announce the appointment of 15 community members to its new Disability Advisory Committee.
The new committee will provide advice to Council on how to understand and respond to the needs of people with a lived experience of disability, and support the community to be accessible and inclusive for all Manningham residents.
Manningham Mayor, Cr Andrew Conlon said the new committee will have its first meeting next month and is part of Council’s commitment to supporting a more connected and inclusive community in Manningham.
“Council is committed to developing policies and initiatives through meaningful engagement with those with a lived experience of disability. Their collective voice and feedback are essential to an accessible and inclusive Manningham for all,” Cr Conlon said.
The appointment follows an expression of interest process to include members with a diverse, lived experience of disability. It will capture individual perspectives including from those with mental health issues, those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, are blind or have low vision, have physical and intellectual disabilities, as well as those on the autism and ADHD spectrums.
Membership criteria were developed to maximise authentic representation and provide a voice for the many perspectives in the community. For example, committee membership will be compromised of 75 per cent of people with lived experience of disability, and the remaining 25 per cent as carers of a person with disability.
The appointed community members will serve as members of the new advisory committee through to 2024.
Manningham Council is committed to an inclusive and accessible community for all residents including those with disability, their families and carers.
The new Disability Advisory Committee supports the priority areas and actions contained in Manningham’s Council Plan 2017-2021 and Healthy City Strategy 2017-2021. These include: supporting an inclusive, diverse community; a community that values and embraces its diversity; and the delivery of a range of initiatives that increase the social and economic participation of residents living with disability.
