Becoming a Regular Somewhere, Not a Visitor
Support to get into something ordinary and local, a club, a class, a team, and to build the skills to keep going without us. We support participants across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside.
Getting you in the door, and then getting out of the way.
What is innovative community participation?
Innovative community participation is capacity building funding for programs that build your ability to take part in community life on your own.
How it works
It usually starts with something you already want to do, then works backwards from there. A worker goes with you at first, learning the place alongside you. Over weeks the support thins out: fewer prompts, shorter sessions, then check-ins. The aim is that the club or class knows you, not that we do.
What innovative means
Not technology, and not novelty for its own sake. The funding is deliberately broad so it can be used creatively, including helping an ordinary local club or class get what it needs to include you properly. That is often the most useful thing it buys.
How this is different from our other supports
Participate in Community is Core funding for a worker to come along now, where this is capacity building funding to need that less later. Development of Life Skills covers the same fading idea but for daily living, cooking and budgeting and getting around, rather than joining things. If you are not sure which fits, call us and we will help you work it out.
What innovative community participation can cover
Because the funding is broad, this looks different for everyone. What stays the same is the shape: get in, build the skill, step back. If what you want to try is not here, call us, because odd requests are the point.
Joining a mainstream club
Getting into the ordinary local thing, the bowls club, the choir, the local gym, and actually staying in it.
Helping the venue include you
Sometimes the useful work is with the club, not with you: showing them what you need so it keeps working.
Trying it before you commit
A short run of classes to find out whether you actually like it, before anyone builds a plan around it.
Mentoring and peer support
Learning from someone who has done it themselves, which often lands better than learning from a worker.
Getting there on your own
Working out the bus, the timing and the whole route, so that the trip stops being the reason you do not go.
Volunteering and work experience
Community participation now formally includes economic participation, so volunteering and work trials count.
Being a member, not a client
The point is that somewhere expects you on a Tuesday, whether or not a worker comes.
Needing the support less
Capacity building funding is meant to run down as you get going. That is the measure of it.
Knowing people outside the system
Friendships made at a club are different from ones made in a service. Both count, but so does this.
Something that is yours
An interest nobody arranged for you. Adults are allowed hobbies that serve no developmental purpose.
A way into work, if you want it
Volunteering and work experience sit in this funding too, for people heading that direction.
What this support can help you work towards
Your goals set the direction, and the program is built around them. With capacity building the measure is different from other supports: it is working when you need less of it, not when you use more.
How to get started
People hold off because their idea sounds too small or too odd to bring up. Neither is a problem. Bring the odd one, because a specific interest is far easier to build something around.
Get in touch
Call or send an enquiry. Tell us the suburb, what you are interested in, and whether capacity building funding is already in the plan.
Find the thing
We look for what already exists locally rather than building a program around you, then work out what would need to be in place for it to actually stick.
Start, then fade
Support starts at whatever level you need and gets reviewed with a plan to reduce it. If it is fading too fast, we slow down. If it is not fading at all, we look at why. Nothing is locked in.
Where this sits in an NDIS plan
This one is capacity building, not Core. It sits under increased social and community participation, which is a different budget from the Core funding that pays a worker to come along to things. The thing people get wrong is assuming the two are interchangeable. They are not, and capacity building is the less flexible of the two. A related item can sometimes reimburse tuition for a few classes so you can try an activity, but that needs a stated quote in the plan. Every plan is different, so nothing here is a promise about your funding. Your support coordinator can confirm what yours allows, or call us on 1300 544 958.
Other supports that might suit
This one sits close to two others, and people mix them up constantly. Here is roughly where each of them starts and stops.
Participate in Community
One-to-one support to take part in social, recreational and community life, planned around what you actually want to do.
Development of Life Skills
Practical support to build everyday skills over time, like cooking, managing money and using transport, so more things become possible on your own.
Group & Centre Activities
Shared activities where people come together to do something they enjoy, learn something new and meet people, in a group setting.
Innovative community participation across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside
Hope & Integrity is based in Logan and our workers live across the region. This support depends on it more than most. The whole point is joining something in your own suburb, and knowing which clubs are actually easy to join is not something you can look up.
Areas we support:
Start with a simple conversation
Tell us what you are interested in, even roughly, and which suburb you are in. We will look at what exists locally, talk through what getting into it would take, and be straight about whether your plan would cover it. If Core funding would serve you better, we will say so.
Supporting participants across Logan, Ipswich, Brisbane and Bayside · Open Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Questions about innovative community participation
The questions participants, families and support coordinators ask us most.
How is this different from participate in community?
Different budgets, different jobs. Participate in Community is Core funding, and it pays for a worker to come with you to things. Useful, ongoing, and it does not have to lead anywhere. This is capacity building funding, and it pays for work that is meant to end: getting you established somewhere so you can keep going with less help, or none. One helps you get to the class. The other is about you still being at that class next year without us. Plenty of people have both, and there is nothing wrong with only wanting the first.
Which part of my plan pays for this?
Capacity building, under increased social and community participation. That surprises people, because most community support comes from Core. The support item is 09_008_0116_6_3, which your plan manager or coordinator will recognise. Capacity building is less flexible than Core, so it has to be spent on what it was set aside for. There is also a related item that can reimburse tuition for a limited number of classes so you can try something, but that needs a stated quote in your plan. Every plan is different, so nothing here is a promise about your funding.
Does innovative mean high tech or unusual?
No. The word describes the funding, not the activity. The item was written deliberately broadly so providers could do things outside the standard mould, including putting resources into an ordinary local club so it can include you properly. Plenty of what gets funded looks unremarkable from the outside. Learning to run the barbecue at the bowls club is exactly what this is for.
What happens if I try it and hate it?
Then you stop, and we try something else. That is a normal outcome rather than a failure, and it is part of why a short trial run is often the sensible first step. Nobody should be signing up to a twelve month program on the strength of an idea. Tell us what you did not like about it, because that usually narrows the next attempt more than the original idea did.
Does this pay for the class fees too?
Usually not. The funding buys the worker’s time and the support around getting you in, not memberships, class fees, tickets or equipment. Those are yours, the same as they would be for anyone. The exception is a related item that can cover tuition for a small number of classes, and that has to be quoted and stated in your plan.
Still have a question?
Call our local team on 1300 544 958. We will answer it plainly, even if the answer is that we are not the right fit.