DANA has been funded to establish the National Centre for Disability Advocacy (NCDA). The purpose of the NCDA is to improve access to, and quality of advocacy services, by building capacity, identifying and addressing unmet need and demand, and identifying and elevating systemic advocacy issues.
As part of the commitment to design the NCDA in collaboration with the advocacy sector, 14 consultation sessions were held around Australia and online between October 2022 and February 2023. Face-to-face consultations were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane and Darwin with 140 participants from across the disability advocacy sector attending. These consultations provided an opportunity for the Centre to hear directly from advocates and managers about how the Centre could best support their work.
On 17 May 2023, DANA held an online forum for the launch of the Consultation Report on the establishment of the National Centre for Disability Advocacy (NCDA). The report outlines feedback from the consultation process and gives an insight from the sector around the Centre’s national purpose to improve access to and quality of individual advocacy services by executing three main functions:
- Capacity building
- Identifying and addressing unmet demand and need; and
- Identifying and elevating systemic advocacy issues
At the launch event, DANA CEO, Jeff Smith introduced the report and spoke about the forward work plan being developed to outline the objectives, activities and outcomes of the NCDA. NCDA team members, Martin Butcher, Kim Tyson, and Courtney Wolf each spoke to one of the NCDA’s three main functions and related activities. The forum also provided opportunities for questions and discussion on the report findings.
Access the Consultation Report Launch resources:
- Consultation Report for the establishment of a National Centre for Disability Advocacy April 2023 (PDF)
- NCDA Consultation Report Launch webinar slides (PDF)
This launch event marked the first NCDA webinar. The NCDA will be holding webinars monthly, in addition to peer networking events.