Have you heard of the Participant Committee?

They assist Alkira in a lot of ways, and ensure we are providing the best service for participants. The members are advocates for people with intellectual disabilities and go to VALID meetings and conferences like the Having a Say Conference. They are elected every year after being voted in by their peers across all Alkira services.

Some of the important things they do are:

• Running tour guides for visitors and new staff
• Being a panellist when interviewing staff
• Highlighting areas of improvement, including facilities, policies and procedures and service offerings
• Sitting on the Board Sub-Committee and providing reports

They also provided expert advice to Alkira with its rebrand, both in the initial stages but also afterwards to ensure it was implemented. The participant committee members were involved in choosing our new logo icon, including input into the colours and design, and once it was finalized they also ensured badges, paperwork and folders were updated with the new logo.

During our service closures due to COVID-19 the participant committee has not had a chance to meet in person, but they are continuing the meetings via Zoom. They are currently coming up with ideas to keep Alkira participants connected during this difficult time. If you have an idea, or a concern, Alkira participants are always welcome to talk to the members of the participant committee.

At this time, since you can’t meet up with them to talk, if you want to contact members of our participant committee you can send an email to info@alkira.org.au  and it will be forwarded on, or you can leave a message at reception.