Australasian Disability Professionals establish NZ Chapter

13th January 2011

Media Release

Australasian Disability Professionals establish NZ Chapter

For the first time ever there will be an individual membership professional association available to all people who work in the “disability sector” in New Zealand. The Australian based Executive Board have asked consultant Robyn Klos to facilitate the establishment of the NZ Chapter of this professional association. Currently there are chapters in seven States in Australia. There is an Executive Board led by Dianne Wallace from Queensland and the Executive Officer Dan Kisumbi is based in Melbourne. One of ADP’s strengths is its use of virtual meetings to link members using Eluminate technology.

It is not a union nor is it an organisation for providers. It has been formed in order to provide support and professional development opportunities both to individual members and to the profession as a whole. Two initial meetings have been held in Hamilton during 2010 from which an interim committee of twelve people have agreed to progress the NZ Chapter. Emulating the diverse backgrounds of members in Australia, interested people here in New Zealand have come from the Education sector, Mental Health; Intellectual Disability and the Physical Disability sector. There is no specific requirement to membership other than the current employment is related to supporting disabled people.

Donna Mitchell, Wendy Neilson and Brennan Gracie have agreed to take on leadership roles and a number of the Interim Committee are working on a Communications Plan for the coming calendar year.

Individuals can join Australasian Disability professionals now via their website www.adp.org.au. New Zealanders can join using NZ dollars. Further information about ADP, its Code of Ethics, purpose etc are available on this website. There is a NZ Chapter page.

ENDS

© Scoop Media