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Funding to rise for rural disability business services

December 01, 2005

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A national conference at The University of New England has seen the announcement of Federal Government funding increases for business services in rural and remote areas provided by workers with a disability.

The Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Kay Patterson, who flew to Armidale yesterday to speak at the National Best Practice in Disability Conference, announced the extra funding during her address. “Business services have a special dual role in providing both employment opportunities and support for people with disabilities,” she said.

The package includes a rise in the supplementary funding for disability business services in rural and remote areas from $700,000 in the past 18 months to a projected $2.4 million in the coming year.

Senator Patterson said the additional funding was part of a support package aimed at helping to maintain the future viability of services located in rural and remote Australia. “An estimated 120 services located in rural and remote areas will benefit from the funding,” she said, “ which will see services receiving between $15,000 and $60,000 more per year in recognition that businesses in remote locations face higher operating costs. Disability business services can decide what will best serve their business needs. As long as the funds are used to benefit the business service employees, they can use their funding for a range of purposes – for instance, providing a bus service for workers in areas with poor public transport or a marketing campaign targeting local businesses.”

Among several other aspects of the package are grants of up to $75,000 to help disability business services build new alliances across the sector.

Kevin Mead, the General Manager of Challenge Armidale (the organisation that has convened the conference to celebrate its 50th anniversary), welcomed the announcement. He pointed out that Challenge Armidale, which provides services (including employment) for people with an intellectual disability in and around Armidale, coordinates a seven-member New England North West Disability Services Group. “Our group is a pioneer in the forming of business service alliances,” Mr Mead said. “As such, we will probably be among the first to receive one of the new government grants.”

Mr Mead said he believed that the New England North West region was "a centre of innovation for disability work", and that Armidale, as a centre of educational excellence, was an ideal location for a best-practice conference. Challenge Armidale and UNE signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year as a basis for broadening the relationship between the two organisations. (This relationship includes the employment of some Challenge clients on the UNE campus, and UNE's use of Challenge services such as paper recycling and mail packaging.)

About 160 delegates from around Australia and from New Zealand are participating in the National Best Practice in Disability Conference, which concludes today.


Media contact: Kevin Mead, General Manager, Challenge Armidale, on (02) 6772 1799 or 0418 221 167, or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here is available at:
http://photodatabase.une.edu.au/albums/userpics/10002/MINICHIELLO%20PATTERSON%20MEAD.jpg
It shows Senator Patterson at the conference with (at left) Professor Victor Minichiello, Dean of UNE’s Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies, and Kevin Mead, General Manager of Challenge Armidale.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 1, 2005 01:35 PM