Creating Change Together
We are a social profit organisation on a mission to create a world where people who live with disability have a fair go at what life has to offer.
Address by Robbi Williams, CEO, JFA Purple Orange, to the Believe Housing Australia Disability Housing Roundtable, Adelaide, Tuesday, 28 February 2023
Today we joined several organisations to urge the State Government to support and mandate the minimum accessibility standards for new residential construction projects based on the Livable Housing Design silver standards under the National Construction Code 2022.
This International Women's Day 2022 we are sharing stories of women living with disability who #BreakTheBias. Meet this year's nominees and learn more about amazing women who are advocating for the disability community.
We’re going digital with the SKILL workshops! Do you want to learn how to build your best life? Are you interested in building an NDIS plan with the supports that you want? Reach your goals, choose your own adventure and more!
The only way our communities will become truely inclusive of people living with disability, is if they are involved in planning and decision making. Here is a great example of what that looks like.
Khadija Gbla, a human rights activist, TEDx speaker, mentor, coach, model and content creator, is a real powerhouse. They are warm, friendly and generous with their time as they told us their story about finally finding the space and safety to declare their disability at the age of 34.
Having escaped Africa to the safety of Australia with their mother in the early 2000s, Khadija wasn't afforded the luxury of acknowledging their disability. But recently, they shared their experience coming out of the disability closet with ABC Everyday.
Positive role models can be hard to find in a society dominated by ableism and as an individual with a platform, Khadija understands the power of representation and revealing your true self to the world.
In claiming their disability and choosing to tell their story, their way, they are providing a strong example to others living with disability who may not yet have found their voices, including their own son.
The following words/excerpts are by Khadija Gbla, as told to Carol Raabus for ABC Everyday:
"I am disabled. I said those words for the first time last year.
It took me 34 years to be able to have the space, the opportunity, the safety to give that to myself and say I am disabled.
My mum had no room in her refugee experience for disability. She didn't have room to have an imperfect child.
I learnt to prove I wasn't defective, to prove I have worth, to prove I was worth saving and bringing to Australia, to prove that I was worthy to be loved as a child, as a daughter.
When my son was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, it was like the word disability, the word that was banned in my childhood, banned from my home, this unsaid word, came rushing in.
I am the mother I wish I'd had and I'm grieving for little Khadija and what she didn't get.
So I gave myself what I gave my child, I am reparenting little Khadija.
I think for me the first thing was owning the word disabled.
To go out into the world and say I am proud of who I am, take me or leave it. I'm here and I will take up space. I will be seen and I'll be heard.
I'm getting involved in projects such as a campaign to normalise intimacy and disability that gives people with disability a voice and a platform because I want to help others find their voice.
I'm out of the disability closet.
My mum put me in there. Society put me there.
And at the age of 35, I'm saying no, disabled people deserve to be seen. We belong everywhere, we have a lot to offer the world. We're not people's trauma porn, we're not inspiration.
I know I sit at the intersections of race, gender, neurotype and ability. All one sees in all of those is oppression, oppression, marginalisation.
I also see joy.
People just need to get out of our way."
Photo credit: Robert Lee Photography
1 April
OVSA Peer network monthly coffee and chat. Occurs on the first Monday of every month unless holiday.
2 April
Feeling at home
Explores the meaning of home and the various options for bringing a vision of your own home to life.
These workshops are for people living with disability, their families and supporters who are interested in taking charge and living their best lives. The workshops are designed and delivered by people living with disability and include peer presentations from people with lived experience.
FREE Morning Tea and Lunch will be provided at each workshop!