Job hunt starts for first Project Search interns

The moment of truth is getting closer for eight young Canterbury people with learning disabilities, who are learning skills designed to land them jobs.

The interns are part of Project SEARCH, hosted by Canterbury District Health Board. They are spending the year at Burwood Hospital learning about the work environment in a classroom setting, while doing real work at the same time throughout the hospital.

The interns have just started their third ‘rotation’. Each rotation gives them an opportunity to try something new. The work can include setting up clinics at the start of the day, delivering linen, assisting orderlies, helping out in food services and helping the maintenance and engineering teams. As the end of the year gets closer, approaches are now being made to employers to give these young people a job.

The Canterbury DHB scheme is the first in Australasia, although there are more than 600 programmes operating mainly in the United States and Europe. Project SEARCH is open to students between the ages of 18 and 21, who are in their last year of school and qualify for Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding. Selection is now under way for interns to participate in 2020.

The IHC Foundation is contributing $128,250 towards Project Search, which is paying for the programme coordinator. CCS Disability Action is driving the project and Riccarton High School is the managing school.

The Project SEARCH goals are to find each intern at least 16 hours’ employment a week for a year after completing the programme, to encourage other employers to run their own Project SEARCH programmes and to break down barriers for young people with disabilities who want to enter the workforce.

“At the Canterbury DHB, we believe our workforce should reflect the communities we serve – and one in four New Zealanders have disabilities,” says Michael Frampton, Chief People Officer for the DHB. “We’re committed to building and supporting a diverse workforce that accepts people for who they are and celebrates their differences.”

See the interview with Michael in the latest Education Gazette: Tukutuku Kōrero:

Relaxed Chamber Music concerts are back

Chamber Music New Zealand's award-winning series of relaxed and accessible concerts kick off next week in Napier.

Designed especially for diverse audiences, The Relaxed Concert Series then continues in New Plymouth, Christchurch and Auckland and runs from 5 September to 4 October.

The concerts are led by community musician Julian Raphael with Wellington-based chamber quartet The Noveltones, featuring Blair Latham (bass clarinet), Tristan Carter (violin), Jasmine Lovell-Smith (soprano saxophone) and Tom Callwood (double bass).

Audiences are encouraged to learn songs before the concerts and move around and express themselves during performances.

The concerts are sponsored by the IHC Foundation.

New autism clinic provides access to the latest therapies

Pre-schoolers with autism now have access to the latest research and therapies through a new clinic at Victoria University of Wellington. 

The Autism Clinic - Te Rāngai Takiwātanga has been established in partnership with the IHC Foundation and Autism New Zealand to evaluate best-practice early interventions for young children with autism in New Zealand. 

The clinic is run by Dr Hannah Waddington in the School of Education and works with children under the age of five and all those involved in their lives – families and whānau, caregivers and teachers – on strategies to help learning and skill development. The clinic also works with therapists and other health professionals. 

The clinic aims to bridge the gap between research into early intervention therapies, such as the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), and the practical use of this research. The clinic offers parent coaching playgroups, one-on-one therapy and workshops. 

Dr Larah van der Meer, who is Research and Advocacy Advisor for Autism New Zealand, says autism can now be reliably diagnosed by two years of age, and early detection of autism is critical as it provides access to early intervention, improving a child’s development and quality of life, and decreasing family stress.

Read more about the Autism Clinic

Detecting autism accurate for under-twos

Night market showcased dreams in the making

Passion, success and talent were all on display at the Illuminate Night Market held in Auckland during Youth Week 2019, organised by Recreate NZ.

The Night Market, at the Mt Albert YMCA complex on 25 May, showcased social enterprise in the youth and disability sector. All 20 stallholders came from a disability background or from a youth community seeking better social and economic inclusion. It was an opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities and potential of these young people in the employment sector, and for the community to engage with New Zealand-made, socially conscious products.

Recreate NZ is now looking to instigate a new mahi, a Social Enterprise Hub to support these young people to progress and achieve their employment dreams, says General Manager Brent Jenkin.

The IHC Foundation has supported Recreate NZ’s life-skills programmes and other special programmes since 2012. The most recent was a grant last year of $55,000 towards the organisation’s social enterprise initiatives.

By popular demand, the Night Market is being run again in late November.

See more about the experiences of three participants, forging their own path to employment.

Sisters speak out about Fragile X

Three sisters, Donna, Angela and Bronie, are carriers of Fragile X. Between them they have eight children – five of them have been diagnosed with the genetic condition.

The sisters didn’t know they were carriers of the condition until Donna’s son, Flynn was diagnosed when he was seven years old.

In a recent episode of Attitude on TVNZ 1 the sisters gave a glimpse of what family life can be like living with Fragile X. 

Fragile X New Zealand worked with the production team at Attitude for over a year and My Perfect Family: Fragile X screened in May.

The episode features a No Longer Fragile workshop. IHC Foundation has funded FXNZ to conduct the workshops and parent education programmes in the community. 

Fragile X syndrome is the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability and the most common genetic cause of autism. 

Detecting autism accurate for under-twos

Child health nurses are being trained to detect autism in pre-schoolers, using what autism researcher Larah van der Meer says is the most accurate surveillance screening tool in the world.

Australian specialist in early detection Dr Josephine Barbaro of La Trobe University was brought to New Zealand in June by Autism New Zealand and Plunket in a joint effort with Victoria University to demonstrate the screening tool she developed, known as the Social Attention and Communication Study (SACS).

Sixty Plunket nurses and Well Child/Tamariki Ora health professionals in the Wellington region were trained to identify three key things: social attention, interaction and communication. The idea is to monitor children for autism at their routine, community-based health-checks between 12 and 24 months of age.

Larah, who is Research and Advocacy Advisor for Autism New Zealand, says autism can now be reliably diagnosed by two years of age, and early detection of autism is critical as it provides access to early intervention, improving a child’s development and quality of life, and decreasing family stress.

She says the detection programme is being used across Australia, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and most recently New Zealand. Victoria University Wellington funded the Wellington training and research evaluation. Autism New Zealand is looking for funding to provide further training across the country.

Josephine Barbaro is a Senior Research Fellow at the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at La Trobe University, and co-founder of Australia's first Early Assessment Clinic for autism.

The IHC Foundation has contributed $113,100 towards the development of the Autism Resource Centre in Petone (pictured). The Centre will be a place to access clinical diagnostic services and associated therapies, and provide support services and education programmes.

New Sailability yacht is bigger and better

Sailability Wellington this week launched a boat specially designed for people with disabilities.

The big two-person ParAble yacht has two rigs, one for learners and another for competitive sailing, and will allow more people with disabilities to sail, and then learn to race.

Veteran yacht designer Bruce Askew, who has developed hundreds of yachts over five decades, has designed the hull. A team of experienced sailors, sailmakers and riggers worked on the design. The yacht is 4m long and 1.5m wide.

Don Manning, Chief Executive of Sailability Wellington, says this yacht can carry 220kg, or two people comfortably. Their existing boats are restricted to 160kg. “Many of the sailors we are taking into these boats weigh in at over 100kg and that leaves little safe loading for the second person.”

Don says some sailors will reach the stage where they are able to sail solo. Others won’t. “Many of our sailors will need an instructor for a long period, because of intellectual disability or learning disability. Others will always need someone alongside because of a combined disability.”

He and a team of volunteers built the ParAble and he is now looking to set up a community enterprise to build more boats like it. “There is no other boat like it in the world. We have got to move it from prototype to production. There is overseas interest already,” he says.

Don says a lot of people gave their time and expertise for free, including sailmakers and riggers.

He is now looking for funding to make a mould for the hull and build two further boats for between $30,000 and $40,000. He hopes to employ some of their sailors to help build them.

Don says 210 people sail with Sailability Wellington in various locations around the Wellington coast, supported by 70 volunteers, and there are 22 on the waiting list. This year Sailability Wellington received $15,000 from the IHC Foundation to expand its sailing programme..

Filmmakers search nationwide for Poppy star

The makers of new feature film Poppy are close to finding their leading lady.

The film, which is set on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington, is about a young woman with Down syndrome who wants to be free to live the life she chooses and do the work she loves. So she is forced to take control of her destiny. It’s a story about falling in love, learning to drive and entering the local car burnout competition.

Writer-director Linda Niccol says 18 women between the ages of 16 and 30 have auditioned  so far.

She says Catch Casting’s Linda McFetridge has the job of finding the right person. “It is Catch Casting’s first experience of casting a lead role for a person with a disability.” 

The IHC Foundation has contributed $25,000 to provide acting coaching for ‘Poppy’. This will involve performance-related workshops, rehearsals with other key actors and one-on-one coaching with Miranda Harcourt, supplemented by others in her team if the actor lives out of Wellington and travel. Miranda has worked as an acting coach all over the world, with stars including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon​ and Kiwi actor and comedian Rhys Darby. 

Linda Niccol says the actor playing Poppy will need to be comfortable around cars and engines. “To get the actor familiar with the day-to-day workings of a garage will involve work experience in a garage in the actor’s home town. There will also be driving lessons,” she says.

“Our team is thrilled to receive early financial support from the IHC Foundation and are very grateful that the project has been recognised in this way.” 

Miranda Harcourt says Poppy is a story firmly centred in the world of self-determination. “She is a wonderful character leading a unique and wonderful story. What a rewarding challenge for the actress playing Poppy and for the cast and crew that support her. Now is the time to be widening and deepening the film industry, the way stories are told and the way difference is celebrated."

Jacob moves from the fringe to Shortland Street

Wellington actor Jacob Dombroski has added one more achievement to his growing list. He has landed a role on the TV soap Shortland Street.

Jacob will appear as a guest cast member for three episodes, starting on April 29. He landed the role following the success of his dance, music and theatre show Big J Stylez.

He performed the one-man show at the Wellington Fringe Festival last year, and at Auckland's Herald Theatre. The show was created with Wellington theatre company Everybody Cool Lives Here, run by Producer Nic Lane and Artistic Director Rose Kirkup. The production was supported by the IHC Foundation .

"Jacob let us know early in our collaborations he had a goal to end up on Shorties. When he made Big J Stylez he really stepped into himself. Watching him grow and make this dream become a reality has been an epic and fruitful journey for all who have supported him,” says Rose.

Solo performers make an impact on the fringe

Sailability launches new Porirua Harbour jetty

Sailability Wellington Trust has opened a $250,000 all-tide jetty on Porirua Harbour to provide more days on the water and better facilities for sailors with disabilities. 

The jetty was launched on 18 November by Sports Minister Grant Robertson, and the America’s Cup made a special guest appearance at the Titahi Bay Boating Club for the day, loaned for the event by the Royal Yacht Squadron in Auckland. 

The jetty has been named the Duncan Renouf Jetty, in memory of a keen local sailor. Duncan, who had Down syndrome, sailed solo for the first time shortly before he died in January 2017. 

Lynne Renouf, Duncan’s mother, says he loved sailing and wouldn’t miss Thursdays for anything – even giving up his regular fish and chips lunch date. “He was absolutely enthusiastic. He was very keen to go out on his own,” she says. “He was a leader of the pack – out of the van and organising the vests – in his element really. He turned out to have pretty good skills.” 

Lynne says she encouraged Duncan to start sailing after his Dad died. “The volunteers down there are a wonderful bunch of guys.” 

Sailability Wellington Chief Executive Don Manning says Duncan had been sailing for four years and was someone who encouraged other people. “He was full of fun and mischief.” 

The IHC Foundation has supported Sailability Wellington since 2015. The Foundation’s most recent grant, in October, was $15,000 towards the expansion of the sailing programme and to increase participation of sailors from Porirua, Kapiti and Horowhenua, which will be possible from the new jetty. 

Almost 190 people sail with Sailability Wellington in various locations around the Wellington coast, supported by 70 volunteers, and there are 90 on the waiting list.  

The Titahi Bay Boating Club’s existing jetty was strengthened to support the new jetty, which now extends into the harbour by five metres, linked by a walkway and ramp. This gives Sailability Wellington a further 50 square metres of rigging space to set up masts and sails and new floating pontoons will provide all-tide sailing.  

Sailability Wellington will operate and maintain the floating pontoons, but has gifted the new jetty to the people of Porirua, under the guardianship of the Titahi Bay Boating Club.