Come to our Annual General Meeting this year and meet other members of the Post Polio Victorian community.
Our Keynote speaker will be Professor Keith McVilly, the Foundation Professorial Fellow for Disability & Inclusion, in the School of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He will be asking – and perhaps answering the question – are people with disabilities included in today’s society?
Professor McVilly has been leading the project of archiving our late member Dr Margeret Cooper’s papers on the emergent disability rights movement in Australia.
The AGM is a great opportunity to get together with other members from around the state. Its also an important day to ensure the continued existence of our organisation and our work for the rights and inclusion of people with polio.
On World Polio Day on Thursday, 24th October 2019, thousands of community groups around the world will hold events and fundraisers to recognize our progress in the global fight to end polio, and for those of us who’ve had polio ourselves, our stubborn determination to stay alive.
Our Team Captain Jill Pickering is joining the Walk With Me fundraiser in Baulkham Hills in Adelaide. Join her team or make a donation to support the cause here
Polio Australia and the Bayside Polio Support Group, together with Carers Victoria, are conducting a free information session for people who have had polio and their family and carers. They are also extending the invitation to other people living with disability and their carers, as many people may have similar experiences. The session will include a question and answer session with a rehabilitation specialist doctor, strategies to manage fatigue, and a talk from Carers Victoria about resources and services available for carers, along with some strategies for self-care.
The session will be held at Hampton Community Centre (14 Willis St, Hampton) at 12.30 on the 4th of June, with lunch provided by a kind donation from the Bayside CWA. All are welcome to attend. Please contact Steph Cantrill for more details (0466 719 613 / steph@nullpolioaustralia.org.au) or register directly at www.bit.ly/InfoSessionHampton.
Following the brief AGM formalities we’ll be having a focussed conversation with a young polio survivor who is taking the NDIS to VCAT, as well as a disability advocate about the importance, benefits and challenges of “speaking up for ourselves”.
We hope you can join the conversation and attend our AGM.
There are an estimated 400,000 polio survivors in Australia. Many are now experiencing the Late Effects of Polio (LEoP) and struggling to access appropriate health care and support. Polio Australia’s “Walk With Me” event aims to raise awareness about the LEoP and fundraising efforts will allow us to continue to support polio survivors and provide education to health professionals.
Our committee member Jill Pickering will be joining the walk as a representative of Post Polio Victoria
The venue provides plenty of disabled parking spots and is a short walk from the Moreland Metro Station.
Our guest speaker will be Dr Natasha Layton on “Aids and Equipment: What do we need and how best to get it.”Mary-ann Liethof will also update us on the exciting developments at Polio Australia.
Light refreshments are provided, with time to discuss together the issues facing us individually and as a group.
Monday, May 1, 2017 - Saturday, September 30, 2017
Master of Clinical Psychology student Kristine Koh and supervisor Dr Toby Newton-John are from the University of Technology Sydney. They are conducting a research project and would like to invite people with Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) who are experiencing chronic pain to take part. They are hoping to recruit between 100 and 200 participants. Continue reading Chronic Pain and Post Polio Syndrome Research Project
The formal Annual General Meeting will be followed by a presentation and review of the 2016 Australasian Pacific Post Polio Conference: Life Stage Matters.
If you will need carer assistance on the day and/or would like PPV to provide some financial support (50%) for the taxi or public transport cost, please let us know.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - Thursday, September 22, 2016
You are invited by Post Polio Australia to attend the first ever Australasia-Pacific Post-Polio Conference, “Polio: Life Stage Matters”, to be held in Sydney on 20 to 22 September 2016.
The formal Annual General Meeting will be followed by time to consider PPV’s work over the year and discuss priorities for 2016.
We would like you to be part of this conversation. Mary-ann Liethoff will update us on Polio Australia’s latest activities and lunch will follow at 12 noon.
If you will need carer assistance on the day and/or would like PPV to provide some financial support for the taxi or public transport cost, please let us know.
Polio Australia is, once again, asking for polio “heroes” to join them at Parliament House, Canberra on Wednesday 26th June 2013, in the lead up to September’s federal election.
We encourage as many polio survivors and their supporters as possible to join the federal election “We’re Still Here!” Campaign. There has never been a better time to make our voices heard, especially as most polio survivors will not derive any benefit from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (now Disability Care Australia) due to the 65 age limit by the 2018 roll out.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - Friday, March 15, 2013
Weird and Wonderful is a feature length documentary that tells the story of the rise and fight of the disability rights movement from the late 1960′s until today. Why did people with disabilities rise up and start complaining about their lot. Who were the leaders of this rights movement and how did they get this message out? Disability rights is possibly the last minority revolt following on from the women’s movement, the civil rights movement in the US, the indigenous rights movements in countries like Australia and the gay right movement. Unlike other rights movements it’s one that any of us can join at any time by virtue of accident or illness, and yet so far this story has barely be seen as worthy of attention… certainly never in Australia.
Filmmaker Sarah Bartonhas been working on this documentary for more than 4 years and is now in the editing phase. She and her team are currently seeking Crowdfunding through Pozible and invite you to pledge a donation between now and March 15th 2013.
Our Strategic Planning meeting was held on Monday 22 August at Northcote Town Hall. To our delight, about 70 people attended. Some were already Polio Support Group members, others had attended Polio Days but many had not been previously to any polio related meetings. There were also representatives from Independence Australia, Polio Services Victoria, Rotary and the Council of Self Help Groups.
The meeting was expertly facilitated by our consultant, Cheryl Sullivan, but the real stars were the participants. We had three hours of participation, engagement, ideas, questions and lunch. People shared their views with the facilitator and with each other and the feedback straight after the meeting was how useful and satisfying participants had found the day.
Many ideas were raised at the meeting. Amongst these were the need for better awareness of how to access information on Post Polio, advocacy for aids and other community assistance to help people be as independent as possible, the need to collaborate with other services and group here and interstate, and the need for better education of service providers, particularly GPs and paramedics.
The other important issue that was discussed was the need for people to get involved with PPV in order to do the things we identify as important. A number of people have offered to be involved in working groups on such issues as research, advocacy and communication. We have had offers assist in other ways as well. We also need people to nominate for the Committee at our forthcoming AGM (Saturday November 26).
The next step is that Cheryl Sullivan will present a revised draft Strategic Plan to the Interim Committee meeting in late September. The Plan will then be put to our AGM for adoption.
Thanks to the committee, the wonderful helpers, The City of Darebin and the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit who provided funding, the participants and to Cheryl for contributing to a successful day.
