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Finalist of the 2006CLW Achievement Award for WomenLOUISE BANNISTER "I
have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair to assist my mobility.
For the first 35 years of my life, I strove to be accepted as
“normal” by mainstream society.
This partly came about because I grew up in a very supportive family
whose philosophy was that “nothing is impossible if you put enough effort and
determination in”.
As a consequence, I was one of the first children with a disability to be
integrated into the local government primary school and as a young adult, to
undertake studies at the local technical and tertiary institutions.
I married my high school sweetheart in 1987 and moved to In
November 1997, my best friend, who was a strong disabilities advocate in the My
most active advocacy roles have been at a national level for Women
With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), locally for Women
With Disabilities Australia ACT (WWDACT),
and Health Care Consumers’ Association (HCCA)
of the ACT. I
changed jobs, working first for Technical Aid to the Disabled ACT and then as a
Disability Support Officer at the In
2005, with my growing confidence, coupled with my expanding organisational
experience, I formulated a plan to start up a fun fitness program for women with
disabilities who used mobility aids. I invited three strategic groups to form a
partnership to bring the plan to fruition – WWDACT,
the YMCA of Canberra, and the Women’s
Centre for Health Matters (WCHM). In partnership we applied for, and were
successful in obtaining, a grant through the ACT Government’s Community
Inclusion Fund. Thus the six month Well
and Able program (May-November 2005) was born. This program sought to
integrate women with impaired mobility and able-bodied women in a weekly
exercise class and social activity program which included healthy lunches and
guest speaker sessions.
The women came together over lunch and have formed lasting friendships. I
took a leadership role on the program’s steering committee. From the outset, I
promoted the importance of social inclusion as a crucial factor in the program.
This meant that I dedicated time and energy during classes and over lunch, to
ensure that all the women felt comfortable to enjoy both the exercise program
and the social interaction. The success of the Well
and Able program was recognised on the International Day for People with
Disabilities when it won the 2005 Rhodium
Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award for the best program for a community
organisation, and the overall award for Excellence
in Inclusion in the ACT. My
leadership qualities were recognised by the YMCA,
who recommended that I consider becoming a fitness trainer. Inspired by this
challenge, I enrolled in a course at the Australian
Institute of Fitness (AIF) and with a small scholarship from them and a
larger grant from the ACT Women’s Sports
and Recreation Grant Program; I am now a qualified Fitness Instructor and
Personal Trainer. My leadership commitment is such that I will continue to
liaise with the AIF to help them
identify, recruit and train more people with disabilities. More importantly, I
have volunteered my time and expertise to instruct the exercise class in this
year’s Well and Able program. The
success of the pilot program was such that Disability
ACT is keen for it to proceed and the WCHM’s
has changed its strategic plan to give this, and other such projects, priority
over the next three years. I
feel that my leadership in devising the initial program has seen permanent
positive outcomes for a number of organisations, the women who participated in
the Well and Able program, and the
broader community. My aim is to ensure the sustainability of Well and Able through promotion of community partnerships and
individual sponsorship for participants. I envisage that the program will become
a model of excellence, promoting physical fitness and overall wellbeing for
women with disabilities, and other isolated and marginalised people nationally. I
am currently a member of the ACT
Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, and a HCCA
endorsed consumer representative on a number of key ACT Health committees. On
these committees, I work to improve access to health services for women with
disabilities. In addition, I have commenced work as co-facilitator and mentor
for Women on the Way, a project run by
an ACT Community Service, where I will work with socially isolated women and
women with disabilities to empower them to participate successfully in education
and training, workforce, and volunteer opportunities. I have also commenced work
for WWDA on a project to improve the
organisation’s capacity to undertake systemic advocacy. Through
these new roles, I am affirming my commitment to challenge society to be more
inclusive, caring, and respectful. The challenges ahead will continue to develop
my leadership skills, and provide plenty of scope for further initiatives to
gently instigate necessary change." Louise Bannister
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