2024 April LeadAbility Graduation

Congratulations to our 2024 April LeadAbility cohort who became part of our Community of Practice following their Graduation Ceremony yesterday. We are delighted to welcome you all!

During their final Experience Day, participants presented their Community Projects. These are initiatives that aim to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities.

Project 1: Lights, Camera, Caption is a campaign about using social media to normalise the use of captions and subtitles, especially open captions in cinemas.

Project 2: Yellow Car Park Bays seeks to give people with hidden disabilities increased opportunities to access community facilities, by creating allocated car parking bays promoting inclusivity.

Project 3: Shift Plus Access is an industry event that aims to foster connection through networking and conversation, highlighting the value of employing people with disabilities and why it’s good for business.

Thank you to the Mentors for generously donating their time, insights and support to our cohort throughout the Course and during the Community Projects; Dawn McAleenan, Nicki Dyson and Russell Smith.

During the Graduation Ceremony, we were delighted to be joined by Hon Don Punch MLA, Minister for Regional Development; Disability Services; Fisheries; Seniors and Ageing; Volunteering and Mike Rowe, Director General of the Department of Communities WA.

The Minister spoke about the qualities of being a good leader, reflected on past achievements of our Community of Practice and encouraged graduates to apply the skills they developed from the Course, to real world scenarios.

We were excited to celebrate Hannah McPierzie as our April LeadAbility Valedictorian! During Hannah’s acceptance speech, she praised the diversity of the cohort, their shared values and highlighted elements of the Course that resonated with her. Hannah was grateful to be elected as Valedictorian and thanked the Course mentors, past guest speakers, and their support networks.

We look forward to watching you continue to develop and seeing you at our future Community of Practice events!

Thank you to the Department of Communities WA (Disability Services) for generously supporting our LeadAbility Course, to our guests for attending and to the Minister for speaking with our cohort.