MRC Northwest's Disability programs
Diversity and Disability (DnD)
Diversity and Disability (DnD) is a self-advocacy program for ethnic people with a disability run from the Migrant Resource Centre North West in St Albans. DnD supports people with disability from ethnic background to speak up for themselves and know their rights in society. The idea is to empower people with a disability to believe in themselves and in what they can achieve in their life.
For this purpose, DnD have monthly support groups with a facilitator and guest speakers coming to talk about important issues to participants. They also provide self-advocacy training for people with a disability from ethnic background to learn to advocate for themselves and others.
DnD are running an artistic support group called Discover the Artist in You, as a mean of using arts to empower people and build up confidence, through painting and drawing in different forms. DnD are also running a self-advocacy support group where participants learn about advocating for themselves and talk about issues related to assertiveness, human rights, transports, accessibility and service providers. Both support groups run regularly every two weeks.
DnD also regularly run workshops on specific topics of interest to ethnic people with a disability. For example, they have already successfully workshops on women and abuse, employment rights for people with a disability and dealing with everyday life conflicts. They also run a yoga class and an artist group every fortnight. Their workshops run every three months with a different topic for each session.
DnD has a steering committee made of 8 ethnic people with a disability who provide directions to me on the program. They have a promotional brochure which is available in 20 community languages, including Easy English.
DnD supports ethnic people with a disability but its services are open to all people with a disability.
If you would like to learn more about the service, please contact the Migrant Resource Centre North-West Region Inc. on telephone: (03) 9367 6044 or email dnd@mrcnorthwest.org.au
