|
Victorian Women with Disabilities
Network
Advocacy information
service (VWDN AIS)
What underpins the work of the VWDN AIS?
The Victorian Women with Disabilities Network (VWDN), in partnership with Women’s Health Victoria, has established the Advocacy Information Service (AIS). The VWDN AIS advocates on behalf of women with disabilities, and provides support and information to address the needs of women with disabilities in Victoria.
Aim
The VWDN AIS aims to maximise the health and wellbeing of women with disabilities, to uphold the right of women with disabilities to be free from violence and discrimination, and to have equal opportunity to participate in all aspects of community life.
Our principles
The VWDN AIS is underpinned by the following principles:
- The rights of people with disabilities must be recognised.
- Disability should not be treated as an illness. The focus of our work is addressing barriers that are created by society that affect the lives of women with disabilities.
- Women with disabilities come from diverse backgrounds, and have a range of different issues that affect their lives.
- The VWDN AIS supports VWDN to provide opportunities for women with disabilities to describe their experiences and achieve influence in the community.
- The VWDN AIS will actively find and plan for opportunities to promote the health of women with disabilities in the following ways:
- The VWDN AIS will work on a limited number of priorities at any one time.
- Working on these issues is a two way process. Information and experiences from women with disabilities will be brought into the VWDN AIS. This information and experience will inform information and resources provided to targeted organisations to create positive change.
- Educating and supporting women with disabilities to represent the priority issues, building on resources and training programs that are already available. It will provide women with disabilities information and advocacy skills.
  Our advocacy approach
The VWDN AIS promotes the health of women with disabilities by using the following strategies:
- Educating health and community organisations to understand and respond to women with disabilities.
- Supporting the development of leadership skills amongst women with disabilities.
- Influencing disability organisations to be aware of the issues concerning women with disabilities and to respond to these.
- Advocating to address gaps in government policy and in how services are provided.
What is the VWDN AIS working on?
Our service planning
The 2007-2008 plan focuses on:
- Growing the VWDN. This work will include putting in place changes to the way VWDN is governed and other changes to the VWDN Association's rules.
- Continuing to strengthen and build the AIS
- Continuing to build good relationships with VWDN members and with other relevant organisations.
- Our three priorities, which are:
- ensuring women with disabilities have access to health care
- addressing violence against women with disabilities
- upholding the rights of women with disabilities as parents and advocating for better support for women with disabilities in their parenting
- The work around these priorities, which will include:
- providing advice and education to health, disability and other community organisations around the priority areas
- developing a clearinghouse (a library) of current information about women’s health and disabilities, violence, parenting and reproductive health. This information will inform advocacy, education and training functions.
- providing women with disabilities skills and support so that they can take up leadership and educative opportunities
- raising awareness of the gaps in government policies
Priorities for advocacy
One of our approaches is to work on a limited number of priorities at any one time. This means we can maximise our impact, while fitting in with limited funds. We focus on issues that are of particular importance to women with disabilities in Victoria: improving access to health services; violence; and parenting and reproductive rights. Other disability organisations in Victoria focus on issues such as access to transport, education and housing, which are significant to both women and men.
For further information on our priorities, follow the links:
- Improving access to health services for women with disabilities
- Preventing violence against women with disabilities
- Supporting women with disabilities in parenting roles and reproductive choices
Who is our target audience?
- Women with disabilities in Victoria who participate in the community in leadership, training or community education roles
- Women’s services in Victoria that would benefit from a disabilities perspective
- Disabilities organisations in Victoria that would benefit from more awareness of issues specific to women
- Other community services in Victoria that would benefit from greater awareness of issues specific to women with disabilities
- Government and government departments whose decisions particularly impact on women with disabilities
- Individuals involved in education and training in any of the above areas who require information
How can our services be accessed?
The VWDN AIS is developing a clearinghouse of online information resources regarding the priority areas of:
- improving access to health services for women with disabilities
- preventing violence against women with disabilities
- assisting women with disabilities in their fertility choices and parenting roles
The range of services to be provided – such as an information request service, and an electronic newsletter – is still being explored.
Contact us
The VWDN AIS is co-located with Women's Health Victoria:
Street Address:
1st Floor, 123 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, 3000
Victoria, Australia.
Postal Address:
GPO Box 1160K, Melbourne, 3001
Victoria, Australia.
Phone: (03) 9662 3755
Fax: (03) 9663 7955
Email:
Administration: whv@whv.org.au
Women's health information Clearinghouse: clearinghouse@whv.org.au
Business Hours: 9am to 5pm - Monday to Friday
(public holidays excepted)
|
