November 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Sam speaks to Kathryn Carey from Impact Institute about their recent Melbourne Disability Expo which wrapped up on Saturday 22 November, as well as the other work Impact is doing in the disability space.
You'll also hear from Moonee Valley City Council's Kelly Armstrong, she tells us about an upcoming event in Flemington to mark the lead up to International Day of People with Disability on December 3.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:21):
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host, Sam Colley.
S2 (00:31):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:38):
When you sort of think you can't you can't go on.
You can't run harder, you can't swim faster. You can't
get out of bed in the morning. You can't do
these things that, in fact, you probably can.
S2 (00:48):
Welcome to the show. This week I catch up with
Katherine from impact. Now, they were involved in the recent
Melbourne Disability Expo, which wrapped up on the weekend. We
get some reflections from Katherine, as well as some of
the other work that impact is doing in the disability space.
(01:10):
You'll also hear from Kelly from Moonee Valley City Council.
They've got an event coming up on Saturday in Flemington
to mark the lead up to International Day of People
with disabilities, taking place on December 3rd. I hope you
enjoyed this week's episode of Talking Vision. Kicking off the
(01:38):
show this week, we chat with Catherine Carey from Impact Institute.
I began my conversation with Catherine by asking to get
some reflections on the very recently concluded Melbourne Disability Expo,
which took place last weekend.
S3 (01:57):
Yeah, look, um, we always love going to Melbourne. Melbourne's
one of our favourite venues. It was it was a
little bit chillier down in Melbourne than it has been
in Sydney. Uh, but nonetheless it was still a great
couple of days. Uh, we had close to 5000 people
come through over the two days that the expo was open. Uh,
(02:18):
we had a host of sort of stage presentations, performances,
you know, workshops running all the time. Uh, lots of
people listening to to those talks and sitting down and
watching the performances. We always love the performances. Just giving
children the opportunity to perform in a professional space on
a professional stage is always lots and lots of fun.
(02:41):
And of course we interviewed and had with us our
Expo ambassador, Rhiannon Tracy. Um, who, for those of you
who don't know, started a spinal cord rehabilitation and wellness
center after suffering a spinal cord injury herself on her
just before her 21st birthday in Bali, she sort of
dove into the the shallow end of the pool, not realizing, um,
(03:05):
that that was the case. And she's worked over the
last 12 years to bring an organization called The Next
Step to Life in Melbourne, and that's an amazing organisation.
She's also done lots and lots of other things. She
was one of the first models or the first model,
I think, to walk the Melbourne Fashion Parade in a wheelchair,
and she's got lots and lots of other achievements to
(03:25):
her name. She's an influencer and she's got her own
makeup brand and you know, she's an absolute go getter. Um,
and lots and lots of fun as well.
S2 (03:33):
Yeah. For sure. No, she's absolutely kicking. Lots of goals
in different places. Very exciting to hear about all the
work she's continuing to do in the disability space now
in terms of impacts, work in the disability space. This
is by no means a new aspect of what impact does.
(03:56):
You've been running these sort of expos for quite a
while now, out of interest for, um, our side of things.
And our listeners might be interested to know how many
years has impact been involved in these expos and putting
them together?
S3 (04:13):
Yeah. Look we first got involved in 2014. We were
asked by an organization called NATO, which was a, you know,
a relatively small to medium size organizations. They're much bigger now, uh,
who'd been putting on with the help of council and
a couple of other local organizations, a small expo out
in Penrith, in western Sydney, out in the outskirts of
(04:34):
western Sydney. And it had just sort of got to
the point where, you know, especially with the NDIS coming in,
they just no longer had the people power on board
to be able to run an event like that. Events
are expos, in particular large scale expos. They're no mean feat.
They take a lot of time, a lot of effort.
There's event management, there's marketing, and then there's the sales
(04:57):
piece as well. So we were asked to kind of
come on board and help them with their expo. And
what we saw when we did that was that, you know,
if this was relevant to a small, uh, cohort out
in western Sydney then, and I think it was one
of the disability ministers at the time. I can't quite
remember who said, you know, why aren't these everywhere? Why
(05:17):
aren't these events everywhere? And we really took that to
heart and took a little bit of time. But over
the next year or so, we've sort of we sort
of then mapped out a series of locations that we
thought these expos should run in, and we're now up
to something like ten different locations. And we're really proud
of the fact that we don't just go to the
big cities. You know, we do Melbourne, we do Sydney,
we do Brisbane, of course, but we also go down
(05:40):
to Geelong, for example. We're launching our Southeast Melbourne expo
in 2026, which is sort of down around that Cranbourne
Frankston sort of area down there, um, an area we've
been asked to go to a lot. You know, we
go to the Gold Coast and to Newcastle and other
smaller geographies as well. So we take the same format,
but we just replicate it and put it into all
(06:02):
of those different locations. And oddly enough, I've been doing
the maths and the maths of it are outstanding. I
think we're getting close to about 10,000 exhibitors that have
been through our doors over that time, and well over
a quarter of a million people with disability or their
families and carers, other people in the industry who've come
through our events over those what is now 11 years.
(06:24):
So yeah, it's been an amazing journey. Um, and in fact,
I joined the organisation, which is now known as Impact Institute.
And the very first project they handed me was the
Disability Expo. And so I've literally been there from the
ground up, and now we've got a team of nine people,
including myself, who pull these events together, which is which
(06:44):
is lots of fun.
S2 (06:46):
In terms of some new things that have been introduced
to either the most recent Melbourne Disability Expo or perhaps
expos immediately before that, what some been the reception to
some new things that impact has tried. And how have
(07:06):
those gone?
S3 (07:07):
Yeah. Look, our big initiative, um, with some with the
support of a grant by the Australian government was the
workability expos. And what we decided to do there was
and look to sort of backtrack a bit. Workability was
all around connecting employers and people with disability. And typically
in the past, those events, when they have run in
(07:28):
different places, they've really just been the sort of employment
service providers, your ads, um, so social enterprises that employ
people with disability only or what is now known as
I think it's Inclusive Employment Australia, those acronyms keep changing.
You know, the sort of service providers, the training organisation
and what we did there was we just really broke
(07:50):
the mould and said, no, we want mainstream employers at
our expos, and we've worked really hard over the last
12 months talking to Open Employers. Probably our biggest event
was actually our Sydney event where we had quite literally
we had about almost 20 open employers with us, and
that was everyone from McDonald's right through to PwC. So
(08:11):
it's not it was never just, you know, the big
retail giants that employ people with disability that everyone knows about,
you know, sort of Bunnings or McDonald's or Woolworths, your Coles,
that sort of thing. But recognising that people with disability
from across the entire spectrum, all ages, all skill levels,
including mental health, struggle to get employed at the rate
(08:34):
that people without a disability get employed at. And, you know,
the statistic is, is really not it hasn't really. It's
just starting to shift in the last census data. But
we've got a long way to go there. And in fact,
we've done an impact report on that which we're going
to release or send to the government pretty soon. So
I can't divulge everything that was in it. But those
events really did. People came away from those events, by
(08:57):
and large, with a much greater sense of what the
What pathways were for employment. And look, we did also
do a range of informational workshops and presentations as well.
And we found that people that attended those presentations and
then went on to sort of meet open employers really
came away with a lot more information and connection to employers,
(09:18):
which is absolutely great. But on the flip side, the
thing it did for a lot of organizations is it
allowed them to come into a space that they wouldn't
normally come to. They would normally, you know, recruit from
their offices, and it put them in that environment where
the two, you know, sides of it could really come
together and have conversations. And the feedback we got from
(09:39):
the employers was that actually, it was a fantastic exercise
in understanding what the needs of people with disability are,
because where else could you get that in a sort
of large format? How can you get lots of that
input in one go? Well, you talk to 100 people,
all of whom have disability, and quite a few of
the The organizations bought not only their sort of diversity
(10:01):
and inclusion managers and their hiring managers, but they also
brought their frontline staff so that those managers that would
be responsible for hiring people with disability often came. And
they came away telling us that, oh, you know, actually,
we now understand if we do this differently in our organization,
that would make a really big difference. So it was
a yeah, it was a really interesting, shared, shared journey there.
(10:25):
And we're really, really keen to do that. Again. It
will require, of course, some additional funding from the government
as an initiative, um, for a little bit longer to
get it off the ground. Uh, but yeah, we're talking
to government about having that rollout across our expo program
again for 2026. So watch this space.
S2 (10:44):
Certainly now we've had quite an extensive chat about the
Expos there, the disability Expos and workability expos. But Catherine,
if there's one thing you would love our listeners to
take away from today in regards to the work that
(11:05):
Impact Institute does over the whole spectrum of things, not
just the Expos, but the organization wide work that is
going on. What is one sort of main thing you'd
like our listeners to take away?
S3 (11:23):
Yeah. Look, I think, um, the one thing that we
really pride ourselves about is that we like to be
a place where people with disability can get an opportunity
to further their own careers. So we put a lot
of time and effort into providing spaces for people with
disability to come along, to talk, to present, to do workshops,
(11:47):
to be our ambassadors. And of course, they're all paid positions.
We bring in volunteers, but we pay them as well.
We bring in dance troupes. We pay all the dancers.
Every single person who comes into our expo in any way,
shape or form in that regard is paid. It's a
paid gig. We don't expect people with disability to do
(12:08):
these things for free. Why? Why on earth would we?
Why would they do that for free? You know, they've
got value, they've got important information to share. And one
of the things I really love is the fact that
some of these people have come through, you know, they've
started as a small speaker and they sort of quite nervous.
And we just see them grow year after year on year. Um,
(12:29):
and we've had several of them that have gone from,
from sort of, you know, an initial speaking gig with
us and come back, you know, maybe three, 4 or
5 years later and joined us as an ambassador in
their own right. And, you know, they've gone on to
have speaking careers, which is absolutely fantastic, or we've been
able to shine a light on them as speakers and
get them additional additional work. Kerry Lee Gokul, who I
(12:51):
spoke to at the Brisbane Disability Expo, she was our ambassador.
You know, she is an amazing person. She is a
trained solicitor. She's an excellent speaker. And the the way
she spoke was really I mean, I hate to use
the word inspiring because, you know, that's that's sort of
a bit tainted, but.
S2 (13:09):
It is a bit.
S3 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah. She really taught me anyway or sort of
gelled with me, you know, and this is what I
find in my own life. And so there was sort
of this resonance for me around when you, when you
sort of think you can't, you can't go on, you
can't run harder, you can't swim faster, you know, can't
get out of bed in the morning. You can't do
these things that, in fact, you probably can. And you
(13:31):
just need to get on with the job. And so yeah,
that was a really important message for me. And I
think it, you know, it resonates with the audience. These
people are often rock stars in their own right. We've
had Ronan Sousa, everyone will know from love on the
Spectrum and Doctor Dinesh Palipana, who again, you know, is
very widely known. And literally they get off the stage
and they've got a queue of people waiting to see them.
(13:53):
So that's lots and lots of fun. But we always
it's very much a community style event. We support all
of the disability media that is out there. We pay
all our performers and we're we're very staunch on that.
And I think that's really important that they don't feel
like they have to do their thing for, for no fee.
That's that's just not fair in my mind anyway.
S2 (14:15):
No, it's certainly true. And if people would love to
find out more about the work that impact is doing,
and perhaps register or find out more about the upcoming
expos or other events going on for the rest of
this year and into 2026. What's the best way for
(14:36):
them to find out a little bit more and get
in touch?
S3 (14:40):
Yeah. Look, if you Google Impact Institute, we should come
up at the top of your search engine Impact Institute.
Com.au is the website. There's lots of information. So Impact
Institute actually runs these very large scale disability events. But
we also have two other quite large parts of our
business which we work with on a daily basis. One
(15:00):
of those parts of the business is impact advisory, where
we help non for profit organisations measure and evaluate their
social impact, and that's a really important thing, especially if
you are a non for profit, because you do need
to be able to articulate what are you spending your
money on and are you really making a difference in
the world. And the other part of our business is
(15:22):
marketing and communications. And again, that lends itself to how
do you communicate. What type of services you provide. And
you'd be surprised when we put a microphone in front
of people sometimes at the expo. And we ask them,
you know, what's unique about their organization? They'll say, oh yeah,
you know, we do this and that and, and we'll say, oh,
just like, you know, so and so organization. And they'll
often say, yeah, just like that. And I think, no, no,
(15:44):
you want to know, you know, what is different. What
is unique about your organization. How do you stand out
from the crowd. So that's that's the sort of other
part of the business that sort of dovetails in with
the disability expos, and they're on our website. And then
there's a tab called Expos on the website. So if
you go to the Expos tab, you'll find all of
the events are always listed there. There's a prospectus. You
(16:06):
can have a look at that if you're wanting to
come along just as an attendee. If you look on
the website, you'll get the names of all of those events.
And then each event has its own individual website for
an attendee. So Melbourne Disability Expo again, if you just
Google Melbourne Disability Expo, we will come up the top, Sydney,
Gold Coast etc. etc. but if you're looking for one
stop shop and try and figure out everything that we
(16:27):
do do and it is quite broad, it's impact. Institute.
S2 (16:30):
Com.au that's Catherine Carey, their head of events and senior
account director at Impact Institute. I'm Sam Kelly and you're
listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio associated stations
(16:51):
of the Radio Reading Network and the Community Radio Network.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Katherine. If
you missed any part of that chat or you'd love
to hear it again, Talking Vision is available on the
podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia library.
(17:12):
You can also find the program on the Vision Australia
Radio website. Simply head to radio Dot. That's V radio
all one word. And now back to the show with
Kelly Armstrong from Moonee Valley City Council. I started my
(17:32):
chat with Kelly by asking about the Pathways to Inclusion event.
S4 (17:38):
Sam, we've got this event happening on Saturday the 29th
of November at the Flemington pub in Flemington. We've got
an Expo style event happening where we're offering the opportunity
for people with disability to come along and learn about
what are the local opportunities for them to participate in
the local community. Hoping to support their physical and mental
(18:02):
well-being and also build their capacity around what's available. And
we have some workshops people can get involved in. Um,
we have hands on workshops that will address circus skills.
So people want to be learning to spin plates and
do a bit of juggling. We've got a couple of
those workshops happening, and then we've also got a writing
(18:23):
workshop with the esteemed Eliza Hull, who's also a singer
and has written a few books herself. So she's got
a two hour workshop that will give people an opportunity to, to, um,
try out their skills in capturing their experiences and stories.
And on that note, we've also created a space in
the event where people can share stories where they've felt
(18:46):
included in Moonee Valley or in other parts of their life. Um,
so we have a few of our disability advisory committee
who have shared some of their own experiences that'll be
available for people to learn about. While I'm mentioning the
Disability Advisory Committee, they've been instrumental in driving this event.
We're really lucky to have such an engaged group of
(19:08):
local residents with disability. Yeah. So, um, a couple of
them will be emceeing the event. So this is another
way of offering an opportunity to build capacity. So for
our disability advisory committee, they'll be doing the emcee function. Uh,
we'll be celebrating disability pride. So encouraging people who are
attending to share what they love about their disability. Um,
(19:32):
this is all really helpful for council to understand in
the work that we do in advocating for inclusion of
people with disability in the Moonee Valley community.
S2 (19:42):
And just to recap, for people out there. That's Saturday,
the 29th of November from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
at the Jaring Flemington Hub. Now, Kelly, if people would
love to head along, what's the best way for them
to sign up and register for the event?
S4 (20:03):
Thanks for asking, Sam. We've got a web page that's
specifically for this event. If you put into your search
function Pathways to Inclusion Moonee Valley, you should have some
links that come up. And on those web pages, we've
got the list of the providers who will be attending
the event and the organisations who have provided some sponsorships.
(20:28):
We have a door prize that'll be happening throughout the event.
The other thing that is really key on that page
is we've got a venue map and we've got a
social story so people can prepare before they come and, um,
make the most of the day.
S2 (20:44):
Fantastic. Now, Kelly, I'd love to chat a bit more
about that disability advisory Committee. Tell us a bit more
about that and how that all sort of got off
the ground. And what was the impetus for that, and
what have they been up to in the past little while?
S4 (21:04):
Well, Sam, you've touched on one of my favorite topics.
S2 (21:07):
Excellent.
S4 (21:07):
So the Disability Advisory Committee are a group of 12
residents and people who work or volunteer in Moonee Valley
who live with disability. We aim to make sure that
we have good representation of different disability experiences in that group,
as well as different ages and genders and cultural background,
(21:31):
and where they live across Moonee Valley, because there's lots
of different suburbs that we have and there's different experiences
in different neighborhoods as well. So we're really keen to
make sure we've got as many people represented in the conversation,
and the main purpose of the Disability Advisory Committee is
to guide Council in one for this particular event that
(21:52):
we acknowledge and celebrate each year, International Day of People
with disability. And the second function is to guide Council
in the delivery of our Disability Action Plan, which you
may and your listeners may understand is a legislative requirement
for our organization. So we've actually just stepped into the
phase of integrating our disability action plan into the council
(22:16):
and health plan, which is a big step. And we're
hoping that really elevates the work of inclusion of people
with disability in Moonee Valley.
S2 (22:24):
And Kelly, this is a bit of a wide ranging,
bit philosophical question, but, um, why is International Day of
People with disability an occasion for the whole community like you?
And I know how important it really is, but let's
drill into the heart of the matter and get into
(22:48):
the reasons why these sort of days are so important
for the whole community. Not just people with disabilities, but
the general public.
S4 (22:59):
Sam, as you say, we both know that there are
a lot of people in our Australian population who experience
different types of disability, and I think the International Day
of People with disability is an opportunity for us to
pause and celebrate that. We do have so much value
in our community that we often overlook. So most people,
I think, would know somebody who experiences a disability. The
(23:23):
majority of people with disability would probably acquire that through
the aging process. Certainly that's the case for the demographic
in Moonee Valley. But we know that disability can be
something that you're born with, or it can be something
that you acquire through a traumatic event or an illness.
And when you have the experience of being differently able
(23:44):
to your peers, it can really get in the way
of being able to have an equitable experience with your peers.
So one of the things about the intent of the
Disability Action Plan is to try and address those barriers. Um,
so the Disability Advisory Committee have supported, um, my fellow
officers across the organization in providing feedback on some of
(24:07):
the initiatives or projects, um, policies that are being worked on, um,
things like the social story I mentioned earlier. The Disability
Advisory Committee have been collaborating with council's communications team to
create a template, and we're continuing to refine that so
that it's a tool that can be used by council
(24:29):
officers across the organization when they are organizing an event
or any program, so that there's information that helps people
who require the knowledge about what to expect when they
get to an event. Things like the noise volumes, the
smells that might be there, the lighting, how busy an
(24:49):
area is going to be that they're involved in so
they can prepare themselves and feel like they can show
up as comfortably as they can, which creates more of
a level playing field, I guess. Certainly to have a
great experience.
S2 (25:02):
Absolutely. And this year's theme for International Day of People
with Disabilities Fostering Disability Inclusive societies for Advancing Social Progress. Now,
that sounds quite straightforward in some ways, but also it's
extremely deep and sometimes delves into a lot of things
(25:26):
that still need to be improved to see that advancement.
So finally, Kelly, what does that theme mean from your
standpoint and what do you see as some of the
biggest challenges, but also the biggest hopes going forward in
2026 and beyond in this space?
S4 (25:50):
Sam, those are big questions.
S2 (25:52):
Huge questions. Yeah.
S4 (25:54):
So I think that the theme for this year's International
Day of People with disability is really apt for local government.
You know, a lot of our work is in the
community and working with people face to face, and we're
really aware of how impactful communities attitudes can be, um,
(26:14):
towards some of our marginalized communities. Um, so people with
disability would be one of many of those groups. Um,
and I say marginalized because there is not currently an
equitable experience. People with disabilities don't have the same opportunities
and the support that they may need to be able
to have an equitable experiences with their peers. So I
(26:36):
think that's what the work that I do really tries
to focus on and advocate across Moonee Valley for that
to be addressed. To me, what I'm looking forward to
in 2026, I think it's getting the opportunity to implement
the next disability action plan. We're really hoping to focus
on the information and the communication that council prepares and
(26:57):
and publishes for our communities, for it to be as
accessible and inclusive as we can. I think it's always
a journey. As long as we keep stepping towards addressing
those barriers, then we're showing up and in good faith,
trying to improve on what we can for people to
feel included and safe and feel that they can be
(27:17):
themselves and be proud of themselves in our community.
S2 (27:22):
That was Kelly Armstrong there, access and inclusion officer from
Moonee Valley City Council. And that's all the time we
have for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking
vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all
(27:45):
involved with putting the show together every week. And remember,
we love hearing from you. So please get in touch
anytime on our email at Talking Australia. That's talking vision
all one word at Vision Australia. But until next week
it's Sam Coley saying bye for now.
S1 (28:09):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 308 4746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
From Vision Australia. This is talking vision. And now here's
your host, Sam Colley.
S2 (00:31):
Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you. And
for the next half hour, we talk matters of blindness
and low vision.
S3 (00:38):
When you sort of think you can't you can't go on.
You can't run harder, you can't swim faster. You can't
get out of bed in the morning. You can't do
these things that, in fact, you probably can.
S2 (00:48):
Welcome to the show. This week I catch up with
Katherine from impact. Now, they were involved in the recent
Melbourne Disability Expo, which wrapped up on the weekend. We
get some reflections from Katherine, as well as some of
the other work that impact is doing in the disability space.
(01:10):
You'll also hear from Kelly from Moonee Valley City Council.
They've got an event coming up on Saturday in Flemington
to mark the lead up to International Day of People
with disabilities, taking place on December 3rd. I hope you
enjoyed this week's episode of Talking Vision. Kicking off the
(01:38):
show this week, we chat with Catherine Carey from Impact Institute.
I began my conversation with Catherine by asking to get
some reflections on the very recently concluded Melbourne Disability Expo,
which took place last weekend.
S3 (01:57):
Yeah, look, um, we always love going to Melbourne. Melbourne's
one of our favourite venues. It was it was a
little bit chillier down in Melbourne than it has been
in Sydney. Uh, but nonetheless it was still a great
couple of days. Uh, we had close to 5000 people
come through over the two days that the expo was open. Uh,
(02:18):
we had a host of sort of stage presentations, performances,
you know, workshops running all the time. Uh, lots of
people listening to to those talks and sitting down and
watching the performances. We always love the performances. Just giving
children the opportunity to perform in a professional space on
a professional stage is always lots and lots of fun.
(02:41):
And of course we interviewed and had with us our
Expo ambassador, Rhiannon Tracy. Um, who, for those of you
who don't know, started a spinal cord rehabilitation and wellness
center after suffering a spinal cord injury herself on her
just before her 21st birthday in Bali, she sort of
dove into the the shallow end of the pool, not realizing, um,
(03:05):
that that was the case. And she's worked over the
last 12 years to bring an organization called The Next
Step to Life in Melbourne, and that's an amazing organisation.
She's also done lots and lots of other things. She
was one of the first models or the first model,
I think, to walk the Melbourne Fashion Parade in a wheelchair,
and she's got lots and lots of other achievements to
(03:25):
her name. She's an influencer and she's got her own
makeup brand and you know, she's an absolute go getter. Um,
and lots and lots of fun as well.
S2 (03:33):
Yeah. For sure. No, she's absolutely kicking. Lots of goals
in different places. Very exciting to hear about all the
work she's continuing to do in the disability space now
in terms of impacts, work in the disability space. This
is by no means a new aspect of what impact does.
(03:56):
You've been running these sort of expos for quite a
while now, out of interest for, um, our side of things.
And our listeners might be interested to know how many
years has impact been involved in these expos and putting
them together?
S3 (04:13):
Yeah. Look we first got involved in 2014. We were
asked by an organization called NATO, which was a, you know,
a relatively small to medium size organizations. They're much bigger now, uh,
who'd been putting on with the help of council and
a couple of other local organizations, a small expo out
in Penrith, in western Sydney, out in the outskirts of
(04:34):
western Sydney. And it had just sort of got to
the point where, you know, especially with the NDIS coming in,
they just no longer had the people power on board
to be able to run an event like that. Events
are expos, in particular large scale expos. They're no mean feat.
They take a lot of time, a lot of effort.
There's event management, there's marketing, and then there's the sales
(04:57):
piece as well. So we were asked to kind of
come on board and help them with their expo. And
what we saw when we did that was that, you know,
if this was relevant to a small, uh, cohort out
in western Sydney then, and I think it was one
of the disability ministers at the time. I can't quite
remember who said, you know, why aren't these everywhere? Why
(05:17):
aren't these events everywhere? And we really took that to
heart and took a little bit of time. But over
the next year or so, we've sort of we sort
of then mapped out a series of locations that we
thought these expos should run in, and we're now up
to something like ten different locations. And we're really proud
of the fact that we don't just go to the
big cities. You know, we do Melbourne, we do Sydney,
we do Brisbane, of course, but we also go down
(05:40):
to Geelong, for example. We're launching our Southeast Melbourne expo
in 2026, which is sort of down around that Cranbourne
Frankston sort of area down there, um, an area we've
been asked to go to a lot. You know, we
go to the Gold Coast and to Newcastle and other
smaller geographies as well. So we take the same format,
but we just replicate it and put it into all
(06:02):
of those different locations. And oddly enough, I've been doing
the maths and the maths of it are outstanding. I
think we're getting close to about 10,000 exhibitors that have
been through our doors over that time, and well over
a quarter of a million people with disability or their
families and carers, other people in the industry who've come
through our events over those what is now 11 years.
(06:24):
So yeah, it's been an amazing journey. Um, and in fact,
I joined the organisation, which is now known as Impact Institute.
And the very first project they handed me was the
Disability Expo. And so I've literally been there from the
ground up, and now we've got a team of nine people,
including myself, who pull these events together, which is which
(06:44):
is lots of fun.
S2 (06:46):
In terms of some new things that have been introduced
to either the most recent Melbourne Disability Expo or perhaps
expos immediately before that, what some been the reception to
some new things that impact has tried. And how have
(07:06):
those gone?
S3 (07:07):
Yeah. Look, our big initiative, um, with some with the
support of a grant by the Australian government was the
workability expos. And what we decided to do there was
and look to sort of backtrack a bit. Workability was
all around connecting employers and people with disability. And typically
in the past, those events, when they have run in
(07:28):
different places, they've really just been the sort of employment
service providers, your ads, um, so social enterprises that employ
people with disability only or what is now known as
I think it's Inclusive Employment Australia, those acronyms keep changing.
You know, the sort of service providers, the training organisation
and what we did there was we just really broke
(07:50):
the mould and said, no, we want mainstream employers at
our expos, and we've worked really hard over the last
12 months talking to Open Employers. Probably our biggest event
was actually our Sydney event where we had quite literally
we had about almost 20 open employers with us, and
that was everyone from McDonald's right through to PwC. So
(08:11):
it's not it was never just, you know, the big
retail giants that employ people with disability that everyone knows about,
you know, sort of Bunnings or McDonald's or Woolworths, your Coles,
that sort of thing. But recognising that people with disability
from across the entire spectrum, all ages, all skill levels,
including mental health, struggle to get employed at the rate
(08:34):
that people without a disability get employed at. And, you know,
the statistic is, is really not it hasn't really. It's
just starting to shift in the last census data. But
we've got a long way to go there. And in fact,
we've done an impact report on that which we're going
to release or send to the government pretty soon. So
I can't divulge everything that was in it. But those
events really did. People came away from those events, by
(08:57):
and large, with a much greater sense of what the
What pathways were for employment. And look, we did also
do a range of informational workshops and presentations as well.
And we found that people that attended those presentations and
then went on to sort of meet open employers really
came away with a lot more information and connection to employers,
(09:18):
which is absolutely great. But on the flip side, the
thing it did for a lot of organizations is it
allowed them to come into a space that they wouldn't
normally come to. They would normally, you know, recruit from
their offices, and it put them in that environment where
the two, you know, sides of it could really come
together and have conversations. And the feedback we got from
(09:39):
the employers was that actually, it was a fantastic exercise
in understanding what the needs of people with disability are,
because where else could you get that in a sort
of large format? How can you get lots of that
input in one go? Well, you talk to 100 people,
all of whom have disability, and quite a few of
the The organizations bought not only their sort of diversity
(10:01):
and inclusion managers and their hiring managers, but they also
brought their frontline staff so that those managers that would
be responsible for hiring people with disability often came. And
they came away telling us that, oh, you know, actually,
we now understand if we do this differently in our organization,
that would make a really big difference. So it was
a yeah, it was a really interesting, shared, shared journey there.
(10:25):
And we're really, really keen to do that. Again. It
will require, of course, some additional funding from the government
as an initiative, um, for a little bit longer to
get it off the ground. Uh, but yeah, we're talking
to government about having that rollout across our expo program
again for 2026. So watch this space.
S2 (10:44):
Certainly now we've had quite an extensive chat about the
Expos there, the disability Expos and workability expos. But Catherine,
if there's one thing you would love our listeners to
take away from today in regards to the work that
(11:05):
Impact Institute does over the whole spectrum of things, not
just the Expos, but the organization wide work that is
going on. What is one sort of main thing you'd
like our listeners to take away?
S3 (11:23):
Yeah. Look, I think, um, the one thing that we
really pride ourselves about is that we like to be
a place where people with disability can get an opportunity
to further their own careers. So we put a lot
of time and effort into providing spaces for people with
disability to come along, to talk, to present, to do workshops,
(11:47):
to be our ambassadors. And of course, they're all paid positions.
We bring in volunteers, but we pay them as well.
We bring in dance troupes. We pay all the dancers.
Every single person who comes into our expo in any way,
shape or form in that regard is paid. It's a
paid gig. We don't expect people with disability to do
(12:08):
these things for free. Why? Why on earth would we?
Why would they do that for free? You know, they've
got value, they've got important information to share. And one
of the things I really love is the fact that
some of these people have come through, you know, they've
started as a small speaker and they sort of quite nervous.
And we just see them grow year after year on year. Um,
(12:29):
and we've had several of them that have gone from,
from sort of, you know, an initial speaking gig with
us and come back, you know, maybe three, 4 or
5 years later and joined us as an ambassador in
their own right. And, you know, they've gone on to
have speaking careers, which is absolutely fantastic, or we've been
able to shine a light on them as speakers and
get them additional additional work. Kerry Lee Gokul, who I
(12:51):
spoke to at the Brisbane Disability Expo, she was our ambassador.
You know, she is an amazing person. She is a
trained solicitor. She's an excellent speaker. And the the way
she spoke was really I mean, I hate to use
the word inspiring because, you know, that's that's sort of
a bit tainted, but.
S2 (13:09):
It is a bit.
S3 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah. She really taught me anyway or sort of
gelled with me, you know, and this is what I
find in my own life. And so there was sort
of this resonance for me around when you, when you
sort of think you can't, you can't go on, you
can't run harder, you can't swim faster, you know, can't
get out of bed in the morning. You can't do
these things that, in fact, you probably can. And you
(13:31):
just need to get on with the job. And so yeah,
that was a really important message for me. And I
think it, you know, it resonates with the audience. These
people are often rock stars in their own right. We've
had Ronan Sousa, everyone will know from love on the
Spectrum and Doctor Dinesh Palipana, who again, you know, is
very widely known. And literally they get off the stage
and they've got a queue of people waiting to see them.
(13:53):
So that's lots and lots of fun. But we always
it's very much a community style event. We support all
of the disability media that is out there. We pay
all our performers and we're we're very staunch on that.
And I think that's really important that they don't feel
like they have to do their thing for, for no fee.
That's that's just not fair in my mind anyway.
S2 (14:15):
No, it's certainly true. And if people would love to
find out more about the work that impact is doing,
and perhaps register or find out more about the upcoming
expos or other events going on for the rest of
this year and into 2026. What's the best way for
(14:36):
them to find out a little bit more and get
in touch?
S3 (14:40):
Yeah. Look, if you Google Impact Institute, we should come
up at the top of your search engine Impact Institute.
Com.au is the website. There's lots of information. So Impact
Institute actually runs these very large scale disability events. But
we also have two other quite large parts of our
business which we work with on a daily basis. One
(15:00):
of those parts of the business is impact advisory, where
we help non for profit organisations measure and evaluate their
social impact, and that's a really important thing, especially if
you are a non for profit, because you do need
to be able to articulate what are you spending your
money on and are you really making a difference in
the world. And the other part of our business is
(15:22):
marketing and communications. And again, that lends itself to how
do you communicate. What type of services you provide. And
you'd be surprised when we put a microphone in front
of people sometimes at the expo. And we ask them,
you know, what's unique about their organization? They'll say, oh yeah,
you know, we do this and that and, and we'll say, oh,
just like, you know, so and so organization. And they'll
often say, yeah, just like that. And I think, no, no,
(15:44):
you want to know, you know, what is different. What
is unique about your organization. How do you stand out
from the crowd. So that's that's the sort of other
part of the business that sort of dovetails in with
the disability expos, and they're on our website. And then
there's a tab called Expos on the website. So if
you go to the Expos tab, you'll find all of
the events are always listed there. There's a prospectus. You
(16:06):
can have a look at that if you're wanting to
come along just as an attendee. If you look on
the website, you'll get the names of all of those events.
And then each event has its own individual website for
an attendee. So Melbourne Disability Expo again, if you just
Google Melbourne Disability Expo, we will come up the top, Sydney,
Gold Coast etc. etc. but if you're looking for one
stop shop and try and figure out everything that we
(16:27):
do do and it is quite broad, it's impact. Institute.
S2 (16:30):
Com.au that's Catherine Carey, their head of events and senior
account director at Impact Institute. I'm Sam Kelly and you're
listening to Talking Vision on Vision Australia Radio associated stations
(16:51):
of the Radio Reading Network and the Community Radio Network.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation there with Katherine. If
you missed any part of that chat or you'd love
to hear it again, Talking Vision is available on the
podcast app of your choice or through the Vision Australia library.
(17:12):
You can also find the program on the Vision Australia
Radio website. Simply head to radio Dot. That's V radio
all one word. And now back to the show with
Kelly Armstrong from Moonee Valley City Council. I started my
(17:32):
chat with Kelly by asking about the Pathways to Inclusion event.
S4 (17:38):
Sam, we've got this event happening on Saturday the 29th
of November at the Flemington pub in Flemington. We've got
an Expo style event happening where we're offering the opportunity
for people with disability to come along and learn about
what are the local opportunities for them to participate in
the local community. Hoping to support their physical and mental
(18:02):
well-being and also build their capacity around what's available. And
we have some workshops people can get involved in. Um,
we have hands on workshops that will address circus skills.
So people want to be learning to spin plates and
do a bit of juggling. We've got a couple of
those workshops happening, and then we've also got a writing
(18:23):
workshop with the esteemed Eliza Hull, who's also a singer
and has written a few books herself. So she's got
a two hour workshop that will give people an opportunity to, to, um,
try out their skills in capturing their experiences and stories.
And on that note, we've also created a space in
the event where people can share stories where they've felt
(18:46):
included in Moonee Valley or in other parts of their life. Um,
so we have a few of our disability advisory committee
who have shared some of their own experiences that'll be
available for people to learn about. While I'm mentioning the
Disability Advisory Committee, they've been instrumental in driving this event.
We're really lucky to have such an engaged group of
(19:08):
local residents with disability. Yeah. So, um, a couple of
them will be emceeing the event. So this is another
way of offering an opportunity to build capacity. So for
our disability advisory committee, they'll be doing the emcee function. Uh,
we'll be celebrating disability pride. So encouraging people who are
attending to share what they love about their disability. Um,
(19:32):
this is all really helpful for council to understand in
the work that we do in advocating for inclusion of
people with disability in the Moonee Valley community.
S2 (19:42):
And just to recap, for people out there. That's Saturday,
the 29th of November from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
at the Jaring Flemington Hub. Now, Kelly, if people would
love to head along, what's the best way for them
to sign up and register for the event?
S4 (20:03):
Thanks for asking, Sam. We've got a web page that's
specifically for this event. If you put into your search
function Pathways to Inclusion Moonee Valley, you should have some
links that come up. And on those web pages, we've
got the list of the providers who will be attending
the event and the organisations who have provided some sponsorships.
(20:28):
We have a door prize that'll be happening throughout the event.
The other thing that is really key on that page
is we've got a venue map and we've got a
social story so people can prepare before they come and, um,
make the most of the day.
S2 (20:44):
Fantastic. Now, Kelly, I'd love to chat a bit more
about that disability advisory Committee. Tell us a bit more
about that and how that all sort of got off
the ground. And what was the impetus for that, and
what have they been up to in the past little while?
S4 (21:04):
Well, Sam, you've touched on one of my favorite topics.
S2 (21:07):
Excellent.
S4 (21:07):
So the Disability Advisory Committee are a group of 12
residents and people who work or volunteer in Moonee Valley
who live with disability. We aim to make sure that
we have good representation of different disability experiences in that group,
as well as different ages and genders and cultural background,
(21:31):
and where they live across Moonee Valley, because there's lots
of different suburbs that we have and there's different experiences
in different neighborhoods as well. So we're really keen to
make sure we've got as many people represented in the conversation,
and the main purpose of the Disability Advisory Committee is
to guide Council in one for this particular event that
(21:52):
we acknowledge and celebrate each year, International Day of People
with disability. And the second function is to guide Council
in the delivery of our Disability Action Plan, which you
may and your listeners may understand is a legislative requirement
for our organization. So we've actually just stepped into the
phase of integrating our disability action plan into the council
(22:16):
and health plan, which is a big step. And we're
hoping that really elevates the work of inclusion of people
with disability in Moonee Valley.
S2 (22:24):
And Kelly, this is a bit of a wide ranging,
bit philosophical question, but, um, why is International Day of
People with disability an occasion for the whole community like you?
And I know how important it really is, but let's
drill into the heart of the matter and get into
(22:48):
the reasons why these sort of days are so important
for the whole community. Not just people with disabilities, but
the general public.
S4 (22:59):
Sam, as you say, we both know that there are
a lot of people in our Australian population who experience
different types of disability, and I think the International Day
of People with disability is an opportunity for us to
pause and celebrate that. We do have so much value
in our community that we often overlook. So most people,
I think, would know somebody who experiences a disability. The
(23:23):
majority of people with disability would probably acquire that through
the aging process. Certainly that's the case for the demographic
in Moonee Valley. But we know that disability can be
something that you're born with, or it can be something
that you acquire through a traumatic event or an illness.
And when you have the experience of being differently able
(23:44):
to your peers, it can really get in the way
of being able to have an equitable experience with your peers.
So one of the things about the intent of the
Disability Action Plan is to try and address those barriers. Um,
so the Disability Advisory Committee have supported, um, my fellow
officers across the organization in providing feedback on some of
(24:07):
the initiatives or projects, um, policies that are being worked on, um,
things like the social story I mentioned earlier. The Disability
Advisory Committee have been collaborating with council's communications team to
create a template, and we're continuing to refine that so
that it's a tool that can be used by council
(24:29):
officers across the organization when they are organizing an event
or any program, so that there's information that helps people
who require the knowledge about what to expect when they
get to an event. Things like the noise volumes, the
smells that might be there, the lighting, how busy an
(24:49):
area is going to be that they're involved in so
they can prepare themselves and feel like they can show
up as comfortably as they can, which creates more of
a level playing field, I guess. Certainly to have a
great experience.
S2 (25:02):
Absolutely. And this year's theme for International Day of People
with Disabilities Fostering Disability Inclusive societies for Advancing Social Progress. Now,
that sounds quite straightforward in some ways, but also it's
extremely deep and sometimes delves into a lot of things
(25:26):
that still need to be improved to see that advancement.
So finally, Kelly, what does that theme mean from your
standpoint and what do you see as some of the
biggest challenges, but also the biggest hopes going forward in
2026 and beyond in this space?
S4 (25:50):
Sam, those are big questions.
S2 (25:52):
Huge questions. Yeah.
S4 (25:54):
So I think that the theme for this year's International
Day of People with disability is really apt for local government.
You know, a lot of our work is in the
community and working with people face to face, and we're
really aware of how impactful communities attitudes can be, um,
(26:14):
towards some of our marginalized communities. Um, so people with
disability would be one of many of those groups. Um,
and I say marginalized because there is not currently an
equitable experience. People with disabilities don't have the same opportunities
and the support that they may need to be able
to have an equitable experiences with their peers. So I
(26:36):
think that's what the work that I do really tries
to focus on and advocate across Moonee Valley for that
to be addressed. To me, what I'm looking forward to
in 2026, I think it's getting the opportunity to implement
the next disability action plan. We're really hoping to focus
on the information and the communication that council prepares and
(26:57):
and publishes for our communities, for it to be as
accessible and inclusive as we can. I think it's always
a journey. As long as we keep stepping towards addressing
those barriers, then we're showing up and in good faith,
trying to improve on what we can for people to
feel included and safe and feel that they can be
(27:17):
themselves and be proud of themselves in our community.
S2 (27:22):
That was Kelly Armstrong there, access and inclusion officer from
Moonee Valley City Council. And that's all the time we
have for today. You've been listening to Talking Vision. Talking
vision is a Vision Australia radio production. Thanks to all
(27:45):
involved with putting the show together every week. And remember,
we love hearing from you. So please get in touch
anytime on our email at Talking Australia. That's talking vision
all one word at Vision Australia. But until next week
it's Sam Coley saying bye for now.
S1 (28:09):
You can contact Vision Australia by phoning us anytime during
business hours on one 308 4746. That's one 384 74
six or by visiting Vision Australia. That's Vision Australia.
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