More than $80 million worth of grants to help make communities more inclusive and supportive of people with disability in New South Wales (NSW), South Australia (SA) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are now available.
This latest round of funding is part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS), Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Jurisdictional Based Grants.The Hon Jane Prentice, Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services, said ILC grants will fund organisations to carry out activities that improve community inclusion; ensuring people with disability can use and benefit from the same services and community activities as everyone else.
“These grants help organisations to increase the independence, social and community participation of all people with disability.
“Many of the projects involve engaging with community and mainstream services to design and develop strategies to improve awareness and meet the needs of people with disability.“
A wonderful example of how ILC is helping to improve the independence of those with low vision or blindness is the beacon navigation trial being conducted by Guide Dogs Victoria, in collaboration with the City of Melbourne, Public Transport Victoria and Metro.“The eight-month trial commenced at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station and provides real time information about the station such as escalator outages, and provides directions within the building using Bluetooth and smart phone technology.
“This trial demonstrates how the NDIS can support people with disability who are participating in the Scheme as well as those who are not and how the learnings from this trial could be used in other jurisdictions or locations, like shopping centres.“
To date, nearly $17 million worth of ILC grants have been awarded to 61 organisations across Australia for national readiness and jurisdictional based initiatives. I am pleased to open the next round of ILC Jurisdictional Based Grants for activities in NSW, SA and the ACT to see this important work continue,” Mrs Prentice said.The ILC Jurisdictional Based Grants (NSW, SA and ACT) are an open competitive process that closes at 2pm AEDT on Thursday 30 November 2017.Further information about this grant round is available on the DSS Community Grants Hub website.
Source: NDIS provides $80 million for inclusion | The Hon Jane Prentice MP
