Have your say

cyda voice4

Overview

Amplifying the voice of children and young people

CYDA has the mandate to advocate for children and young people with disability living in Australia and undertakes to listen and respond to their voices and experiences. There are a number of ways to connect and share your experiences with us.

CYDA regularly consults with our members through surveys, focus groups, working groups and consultation forums.

The latest opportunities to have your say are below.

Changes to the NDIS

Have your say on changes to the NDIS

The National Disability Insurance Agency released three consultation papers and a report to explain proposed changes to NDIS including what these changes will mean for participants.

1.      Consultation paper: access and eligibility policy for independent assessments

2.      Consultation paper: planning policy for personalised budgets and plan flexibility

3.      Consultation paper: supporting young children and their families early, to reach their full potential

4.      The Early Childhood Early Intervention Reset Project consultation report.

Papers 3 and 4 cover the ECEI Implementation Reset project, which includes background to the project for context, areas for improvement and further detail on how best practice is intended to work. At the end of each paper, there are some questions. The NDIA welcome your responses to these questions. You can provide a written, audio or video submission.
Disability Gateway

The Australian Government continues to action feedback and testing options as they head towards the launch of the full Disability Gateway service (including 1800 number) which is still on track for early 2021. There will still be opportunities to provide feedback and make changes after the launch as the public consultation period is expected to be open for 12-18 months.

A few changes that you should already be able to see on the website include:
- amended the ‘Legal’ Area of Life to be ‘Rights and Legal’
- added a link to potential government payments available for those undertaking tertiary studies under the ‘Education’ Area of Life
- enhanced the Quick Exit button, which has been made more prominent
- installed a ‘sticky’ back to top button that follows you down the page
- created a tab for ‘Emergency contacts’ from what was in the ‘I need help’ tab
- commenced putting content into alphabetical order
The Australian Government wants to hear from you. Visit the new pilot Disability Gateway website and provide feedback on your experience with the service. Help us improve the service by visiting www.disabilitygateway.gov.au
Transitions from school to employment

CYDA are currently working with university researchers, Helen Dickinson and Catherine Smith on a research project about transitions from school to employment. Jess and Amy from our team, who you might have met at the National Youth Disability Summit are driving this work.

The research team is up to recruiting participants and would like help please.

Are you a young person with disability who left school in 2020 or is planning to leave in 2021? Have your plans for transitioning from school been disrupted by COVID-19? Would you like to share your experience and hear from others in a similar situation? If so, then you might want to take part in this research project. You can choose to take part in an interview or a research group.

A research group session will be online and last a maximum of two hours – there will be up to five (5) other young people participating in the group with along with you and up to 4 researchers. An interview will last a maximum of one hour and will be a conversation between you and a researcher. You will receive a $50 prepaid visa card for your time.

The results will be used for advocacy around improving school transitions for young people with disability. If you are interested find out more here.

Direct from young people – share your story!

Paid Writing Opportunity - Young people with disability must be heard during our Royal Commission!

The DRC is holding hearings between now and the end of the year. Voices of people with disability should be prioritised during these hearings and PwDA will be publishing a series of guest blogs in the lead up to each hearing. If you want to share your thoughts, feelings or experiences check out the link.

Talk to us on Twitter

Twitter is where news is broken, links are shared and memes are born. Unlike Facebook, Twitter is public by default. Tweets can contain links, photos, GIFs or videos. But if you're tweeting text with us, you're limited to 280 characters.

Follow us on Facebook

Facebook is a great platform for CYDA to reach a mass of children and young people with disability and their families. It is also a good way to connect and communicate with our members and stakeholders.

Connect with us on Instagram

At CYDA we leverage Instagram to share our vision and goals, advocate for support, profile our members and show the impact of our work, using one of the most visceral and powerful mediums possible: visual media.