00:00:04
S1: Let's catch up with Belinda Wilson, who's got such passion and energy about everything she does. She's going to talk about the Leap program. I think it's very appropriate because Belinda Carter leaps into our lives. Hey, Belinda.
00:00:17
S2: I tried to gently, gently into people's lives, but leap is probably a good way of saying it. Yeah.
00:00:24
S1: Perfectly timed actually. What does it stand for? For those that might not be aware.
00:00:27
S2: Leap stands for lead, engage. Act. Perform.
00:00:32
S1: Fantastic. Now, who's it aimed at? What sort of age group and what sort of things have happened? Yeah.
00:00:38
S2: So leap is a really great program. It starts in February every year and then goes and the graduation is November every year. It's aimed at young people. So 14 to 18 year olds. And the reason why this program is, is so great is that it's run as an after school activity, so people can join from all over Australia. I think we've had everyone from everywhere but Tasmania. We are still waiting for Tasmania to join late, but it's a mix of group meetings, but I believe. Participants. It's also with service providers. There's an online component. It's all about learning those life ready skills, those those leadership and employability skills. And it also includes a league camp.
00:01:23
S1: Come to that in a second now. Well, actually we'll talk about something that's happening in September in a second. But you're actually, uh I mean, February isn't that far away. Here we are in August, but February isn't that far away, and you're actually on the lookout for participants or recruits for next year.
00:01:38
S2: Yeah. The reason why we start so early, it's because we want people to be settled with a service provider at the NDIS funding and be prepared to enter late, and there may be some people who are coming into leaf now and want to look at the options. You know what it's all about. Um, we try and start as early as possible just because that way the families are ready, the participants are ready, and the staff is ready as well. And it's just about knowing what leaps about what it involves having a bit of a meeting with was made about, you know, different topics and making sure people are set and ready to go when they start.
00:02:14
S1: I reckon the highlight would be meeting with you, but apart from that, I'm sure it's very, very successful. How long has it been going? And the reason I asked that is I guess every year you're kind of learning new things and implementing that into the next year's program.
00:02:26
S2: Yeah, yeah. What what I love about Leap is that it's not a static program. It is very continuous improvement type of program where we look at things from the year before and we add or subtract. Um, we can also be quite flexible with the way that it's delivered and, and, you know, move things around a little bit. It's not as strict and straightforward as some other programs are. And that's what I love about it is that as times change, we change too. So it did start in 2019. So obviously there were some changes that had to come in with Covid. Last year we piloted our first camp. Um, this year we have integrated camp into the Leap program and we looked at how we do things and how they could change. So when we speak about labor market trends, we've noticed a big trend this year about, um, AI and how that's going to affect people in the future. So we did bring in a guest speaker who spoke about, you know, AI, how that will affect jobs, how that could potentially affect people with blindness or low vision, um, in terms of their future prospects and what that looks like.
00:03:34
S1: In terms of the participants, uh, it kind of doesn't matter what their site situation is. I mean, there might be totally blind, they might have quite good sites, and they might have been blind from birth or have a deteriorating condition that is impacting on their sight. Kind of. Every everyone is included.
00:03:49
S2: Everyone is included. I mean, it is NDIS funded. That's that's one thing, but it's not. We're not exclusionary. It's just about developing skills to help you be life ready. And some of those may be adapted technology skills and then your adaptive technology and some of those organizational skills. There have been a lot of people that have asked if they could get involved in this program, but do not have a vision impairment. Unfortunately, it is specific to Vision Australia clients, so we cannot just let everyone in the program. But it does have a lot of real life applications as well, just in terms of answering emails, taking responsibility, developing more independence, learning about their future, exploring career options. Um, yeah, it's a great program.
00:04:38
S1: Sounds very, very good. And we'll give you details in a minute. So if you are between 14 and 18 or will be next year, or more importantly, in a sense, if you know someone that is and you think they would be interested in this will give your details and they can get in touch. Belinda, you're having or you've got something happening very special in September, and you're hoping that some people at Vision Australia are going to kind of get on board and be part of it as well. Yeah.
00:05:02
S2: So this is, uh, the I think one of the most exciting parts about the camp is the leap camp, and it's a three day camp where participants probably do stay at our Seeing Eye dog houses in Kensington so they can sit together, put together and do activities together. Some of those activities are team building activities. Some of them are orientation, mobility, walking around those types of activities. But the one I like the most is the work experience activity. So on Wednesday, the second day of camp, we do bring them over to the office and they do do different work experiences and have mock interviews. So I have been requesting, um, all of the wonderful people at the office to put their hands up for a work experience where, you know, each camper can go into a potentially into a different work experience. Uh, last year we had oh, geez, we had so many we had finance, we had reception front desk, we had produce, we had government relations, we had finance CEO for a day. Um, so I am hoping that we have a similar array. Uh, we already have a few. Don't put your hands up. And it's just something the staff really enjoys doing. They really enjoy speaking to the young, the young people and getting to know what's going on. And it also gives them experience of what it's like to work in this office. We like to emphasize that this is an occupation. This is hands off. So you are going to be doing activities. You're not just going to be sitting and listening to what's happening.
00:06:37
S1: Very, very important. And another thing, and I know I've mentioned this to other people when we chat on the program, but sometimes, you know, between 14 and 18 you might have no idea what you want to do. And that's kind of cool and understandable. I'm a bit older than that, and I still don't know what I want to do, but nevertheless, um, sometimes it's good if you do something, you think, oh, actually, no, I'm not cut out for that. I don't like the finance. I don't like the numbers game or, you know, this, uh, this technology stuff isn't necessarily what I want to do. Is there something else I can be interested in? And that can be very, very powerful as well. If you don't know, if you know what you don't like or don't think you want to get into that sort of career path. That's a very positive thing as well.
00:07:17
S2: Yeah. What if the program isn't going to make you decide what you want to do for the rest of your life? Because that's nothing to decide what career path you want to do for the rest of your life. But it does open you up to explore opportunities. Um. Five the program is they have a short meeting with someone in their field of interest, and there have been a few occasions where they've met with the person in their field of interest. And actually, this is not what I thought it was. Mhm. I need to look into this further. Other times they've gone yeah this sounds great. How did you get into it. How did you move towards it. And it's just about exploring different options and seeing what's out there. Sometimes you get an idea of what a job is going to be like. Do you really know how to speak to someone who's in that job, what their day to day activities?
00:08:05
S1: That's a very good point. And I guess also kind of along those lines, often depending on which state you live in, you know, some states are very much mainstreaming as far as their students with disabilities. Students who are blind or low vision go. So this could be a good opportunity to catch up with other people of a similar age who might have similar eyesight situations to you. So you can kind of compare and, you know, share tips, etc. whereas perhaps if, um, up until now, you might not have met too many people who might be blind or have low vision. So that's another great thing with a program like leap. Yeah.
00:08:40
S2: I mean, I think that they learn a lot from each other. Yeah. And sometimes, especially with technology, we learn a lot from them. They have times where I've gone, well, okay, that I. That's you. I'm starting to learn about that now. Um, yeah. Every year it's a different group of people and they're just so amazing. They have, um, so many different interests and different ideas, different things. And I feel like there's just a benefit out of it. Then getting to know off, off getting to know them and then getting to know each other.
00:09:10
S1: You talked about the camp in September, late September and also the fact that up until now you've had no dialed from Tasmania. So if someone's listening in Perth or Brisbane, which is a long way from Melbourne, they can still be part of this because their accommodation is kind of taken care of isn't it.
00:09:26
S2: Well for the cat. Yeah. But belief itself, it's all done online. It's all done by FPGA, done by teams next year. So we actually can reconstruct events from WA.
00:09:39
S1: That's fantastic.
00:09:40
S2: And two of them are coming to camp.
00:09:42
S1: Yeah. That's great, isn't it? Because, you know, like, it's a bit of a kind of adventure as well. I mean, you know, there might be, um, you know, there might be kids that might be travelling on a plane for the first time or having those sort of opportunities that were were not for a program like this, that opportunity might not arise.
00:10:00
S2: Yeah, exactly. And even just an opportunity to to meet people. I mean, sometimes there are people in this program that are living very, very remote areas that is vision impaired people who may not have an opportunity to go to an office. And because we do it online through zoom. Um, it means they don't have to travel to an office to hold these appointments. Yeah, they held art school and they held art class. So when people are meeting, they can meet from their own home rather than having to try to make it into into an office, which is something that I love about it. We've had people who are, you know, five minutes away from an office and people who are, you know, seven hours away. And that's fantastic.
00:10:42
S1: So one of the great things about living in Australia, isn't it? We can be very much different to the backgrounds that we come from. And just to clarify, or just to be clear. So, uh, someone would have to be on the NDIS to be part of this NDIS.
00:10:56
S2: Um, there may be other funding options available, but people often have a discussion about that. But the main, the main um cost is for NDIS. You do have on the leap website. So if you go to Vision Australia and type in leap, there is all the information on the pricing, which is the NDIS pricing for the course and the NDIS pricing for the cap. Now we want everybody to count to cap. This year it's in September. The year before, in July. Just because this year there weren't as many people available in July. So we want everybody to be involved, be involved in the cap. But it is not compulsory that Bangor. So if they have something else planned at that time or if they're not able to go at that time, that's fine. It's not compulsory. We're doing but let's.
00:11:43
S1: Do it to get plenty from it. And it's good that here we are in August and you're talking about, uh, the program starting in February so people can ask a few questions.
00:11:52
S2: For next year already.
00:11:53
S1: Yeah. Well that's right. So people got a lot of notice to get their, uh, selves sorted out so they can be as ready as they can be. If they've got any questions, I'm sure you can help and point them in the right direction. Now for either, uh, staff at Kooyong. And a big cheerio to you. Thank you for listening in. If you would like to get involved with that particular program, give us the date. So it's Wednesday the so.
00:12:15
S2: The actual can be work experience is happening on Wednesday the 26th September, and the camp is happening from the 24th of September to the 26th of September, and Leap applications are opening very, very, very shortly for next year. You can contact me through link at Vision Australia or.
00:12:36
S1: That's the email address. Just leap at Vision Australia. Org.
00:12:39
S2: Yes I do have three others that that is the main one.
00:12:42
S1: All right. With this one that we'll put up on our Facebook page. It's nice and simple. Leap at Vision Australia. Org. And you've also got uh information on the Vision Australia website about it as well.
00:12:53
S2: Oh absolutely. If you go to the Vision Australia website and type in leap, there are stories, testimonials, program dates, the breakdown of all the costing. And there's also an expression of interest form which does go into neat. So either any way that you go, you will end up speaking to me. And I'm always happy to have a discussion.
00:13:11
S1: Well, that'd be a great introduction to the program speaking to you. And it it can only get better. What? It actually gets better even from there, doesn't it?
00:13:18
S2: Absolutely. I hope that I am the most boring part of the program. It often gets more interesting.
00:13:26
S1: I'm sure that then it will get interesting, but you certainly would not be the most boring. Linda, great to catch up. Congratulations on the initiative. It sounds like it's fantastic and well, you know, we're kind of help in a way, shaping young people and their futures, which is a wonderful thing to be doing. Yeah.
00:13:42
S2: Well, we're hoping that we are going to be, uh, maybe getting some future radio, uh, workers coming out of leap and, and, uh, working with you in the future, maybe.
00:13:52
S1: Well, you never know. I was thinking maybe a future prime minister. Perhaps. Well, that.
00:13:56
S2: That would be.
00:13:57
S3: Better.
00:13:59
S1: All right, Linda, great to catch up. Leap at Vision australia.org. If people want to get in touch.
00:14:04
S2: Great. Thank you so much.
00:14:06
S1: That's Linda Wilson there. The very enthusiastic Belinda Wilson talking about the Leap program and all that information up on our Facebook page. And as always, if you prefer the use of telephone one 308 47466 and ask to be put through to Belinda.
S1: Let's catch up with Belinda Wilson, who's got such passion and energy about everything she does. She's going to talk about the Leap program. I think it's very appropriate because Belinda Carter leaps into our lives. Hey, Belinda.
00:00:17
S2: I tried to gently, gently into people's lives, but leap is probably a good way of saying it. Yeah.
00:00:24
S1: Perfectly timed actually. What does it stand for? For those that might not be aware.
00:00:27
S2: Leap stands for lead, engage. Act. Perform.
00:00:32
S1: Fantastic. Now, who's it aimed at? What sort of age group and what sort of things have happened? Yeah.
00:00:38
S2: So leap is a really great program. It starts in February every year and then goes and the graduation is November every year. It's aimed at young people. So 14 to 18 year olds. And the reason why this program is, is so great is that it's run as an after school activity, so people can join from all over Australia. I think we've had everyone from everywhere but Tasmania. We are still waiting for Tasmania to join late, but it's a mix of group meetings, but I believe. Participants. It's also with service providers. There's an online component. It's all about learning those life ready skills, those those leadership and employability skills. And it also includes a league camp.
00:01:23
S1: Come to that in a second now. Well, actually we'll talk about something that's happening in September in a second. But you're actually, uh I mean, February isn't that far away. Here we are in August, but February isn't that far away, and you're actually on the lookout for participants or recruits for next year.
00:01:38
S2: Yeah. The reason why we start so early, it's because we want people to be settled with a service provider at the NDIS funding and be prepared to enter late, and there may be some people who are coming into leaf now and want to look at the options. You know what it's all about. Um, we try and start as early as possible just because that way the families are ready, the participants are ready, and the staff is ready as well. And it's just about knowing what leaps about what it involves having a bit of a meeting with was made about, you know, different topics and making sure people are set and ready to go when they start.
00:02:14
S1: I reckon the highlight would be meeting with you, but apart from that, I'm sure it's very, very successful. How long has it been going? And the reason I asked that is I guess every year you're kind of learning new things and implementing that into the next year's program.
00:02:26
S2: Yeah, yeah. What what I love about Leap is that it's not a static program. It is very continuous improvement type of program where we look at things from the year before and we add or subtract. Um, we can also be quite flexible with the way that it's delivered and, and, you know, move things around a little bit. It's not as strict and straightforward as some other programs are. And that's what I love about it is that as times change, we change too. So it did start in 2019. So obviously there were some changes that had to come in with Covid. Last year we piloted our first camp. Um, this year we have integrated camp into the Leap program and we looked at how we do things and how they could change. So when we speak about labor market trends, we've noticed a big trend this year about, um, AI and how that's going to affect people in the future. So we did bring in a guest speaker who spoke about, you know, AI, how that will affect jobs, how that could potentially affect people with blindness or low vision, um, in terms of their future prospects and what that looks like.
00:03:34
S1: In terms of the participants, uh, it kind of doesn't matter what their site situation is. I mean, there might be totally blind, they might have quite good sites, and they might have been blind from birth or have a deteriorating condition that is impacting on their sight. Kind of. Every everyone is included.
00:03:49
S2: Everyone is included. I mean, it is NDIS funded. That's that's one thing, but it's not. We're not exclusionary. It's just about developing skills to help you be life ready. And some of those may be adapted technology skills and then your adaptive technology and some of those organizational skills. There have been a lot of people that have asked if they could get involved in this program, but do not have a vision impairment. Unfortunately, it is specific to Vision Australia clients, so we cannot just let everyone in the program. But it does have a lot of real life applications as well, just in terms of answering emails, taking responsibility, developing more independence, learning about their future, exploring career options. Um, yeah, it's a great program.
00:04:38
S1: Sounds very, very good. And we'll give you details in a minute. So if you are between 14 and 18 or will be next year, or more importantly, in a sense, if you know someone that is and you think they would be interested in this will give your details and they can get in touch. Belinda, you're having or you've got something happening very special in September, and you're hoping that some people at Vision Australia are going to kind of get on board and be part of it as well. Yeah.
00:05:02
S2: So this is, uh, the I think one of the most exciting parts about the camp is the leap camp, and it's a three day camp where participants probably do stay at our Seeing Eye dog houses in Kensington so they can sit together, put together and do activities together. Some of those activities are team building activities. Some of them are orientation, mobility, walking around those types of activities. But the one I like the most is the work experience activity. So on Wednesday, the second day of camp, we do bring them over to the office and they do do different work experiences and have mock interviews. So I have been requesting, um, all of the wonderful people at the office to put their hands up for a work experience where, you know, each camper can go into a potentially into a different work experience. Uh, last year we had oh, geez, we had so many we had finance, we had reception front desk, we had produce, we had government relations, we had finance CEO for a day. Um, so I am hoping that we have a similar array. Uh, we already have a few. Don't put your hands up. And it's just something the staff really enjoys doing. They really enjoy speaking to the young, the young people and getting to know what's going on. And it also gives them experience of what it's like to work in this office. We like to emphasize that this is an occupation. This is hands off. So you are going to be doing activities. You're not just going to be sitting and listening to what's happening.
00:06:37
S1: Very, very important. And another thing, and I know I've mentioned this to other people when we chat on the program, but sometimes, you know, between 14 and 18 you might have no idea what you want to do. And that's kind of cool and understandable. I'm a bit older than that, and I still don't know what I want to do, but nevertheless, um, sometimes it's good if you do something, you think, oh, actually, no, I'm not cut out for that. I don't like the finance. I don't like the numbers game or, you know, this, uh, this technology stuff isn't necessarily what I want to do. Is there something else I can be interested in? And that can be very, very powerful as well. If you don't know, if you know what you don't like or don't think you want to get into that sort of career path. That's a very positive thing as well.
00:07:17
S2: Yeah. What if the program isn't going to make you decide what you want to do for the rest of your life? Because that's nothing to decide what career path you want to do for the rest of your life. But it does open you up to explore opportunities. Um. Five the program is they have a short meeting with someone in their field of interest, and there have been a few occasions where they've met with the person in their field of interest. And actually, this is not what I thought it was. Mhm. I need to look into this further. Other times they've gone yeah this sounds great. How did you get into it. How did you move towards it. And it's just about exploring different options and seeing what's out there. Sometimes you get an idea of what a job is going to be like. Do you really know how to speak to someone who's in that job, what their day to day activities?
00:08:05
S1: That's a very good point. And I guess also kind of along those lines, often depending on which state you live in, you know, some states are very much mainstreaming as far as their students with disabilities. Students who are blind or low vision go. So this could be a good opportunity to catch up with other people of a similar age who might have similar eyesight situations to you. So you can kind of compare and, you know, share tips, etc. whereas perhaps if, um, up until now, you might not have met too many people who might be blind or have low vision. So that's another great thing with a program like leap. Yeah.
00:08:40
S2: I mean, I think that they learn a lot from each other. Yeah. And sometimes, especially with technology, we learn a lot from them. They have times where I've gone, well, okay, that I. That's you. I'm starting to learn about that now. Um, yeah. Every year it's a different group of people and they're just so amazing. They have, um, so many different interests and different ideas, different things. And I feel like there's just a benefit out of it. Then getting to know off, off getting to know them and then getting to know each other.
00:09:10
S1: You talked about the camp in September, late September and also the fact that up until now you've had no dialed from Tasmania. So if someone's listening in Perth or Brisbane, which is a long way from Melbourne, they can still be part of this because their accommodation is kind of taken care of isn't it.
00:09:26
S2: Well for the cat. Yeah. But belief itself, it's all done online. It's all done by FPGA, done by teams next year. So we actually can reconstruct events from WA.
00:09:39
S1: That's fantastic.
00:09:40
S2: And two of them are coming to camp.
00:09:42
S1: Yeah. That's great, isn't it? Because, you know, like, it's a bit of a kind of adventure as well. I mean, you know, there might be, um, you know, there might be kids that might be travelling on a plane for the first time or having those sort of opportunities that were were not for a program like this, that opportunity might not arise.
00:10:00
S2: Yeah, exactly. And even just an opportunity to to meet people. I mean, sometimes there are people in this program that are living very, very remote areas that is vision impaired people who may not have an opportunity to go to an office. And because we do it online through zoom. Um, it means they don't have to travel to an office to hold these appointments. Yeah, they held art school and they held art class. So when people are meeting, they can meet from their own home rather than having to try to make it into into an office, which is something that I love about it. We've had people who are, you know, five minutes away from an office and people who are, you know, seven hours away. And that's fantastic.
00:10:42
S1: So one of the great things about living in Australia, isn't it? We can be very much different to the backgrounds that we come from. And just to clarify, or just to be clear. So, uh, someone would have to be on the NDIS to be part of this NDIS.
00:10:56
S2: Um, there may be other funding options available, but people often have a discussion about that. But the main, the main um cost is for NDIS. You do have on the leap website. So if you go to Vision Australia and type in leap, there is all the information on the pricing, which is the NDIS pricing for the course and the NDIS pricing for the cap. Now we want everybody to count to cap. This year it's in September. The year before, in July. Just because this year there weren't as many people available in July. So we want everybody to be involved, be involved in the cap. But it is not compulsory that Bangor. So if they have something else planned at that time or if they're not able to go at that time, that's fine. It's not compulsory. We're doing but let's.
00:11:43
S1: Do it to get plenty from it. And it's good that here we are in August and you're talking about, uh, the program starting in February so people can ask a few questions.
00:11:52
S2: For next year already.
00:11:53
S1: Yeah. Well that's right. So people got a lot of notice to get their, uh, selves sorted out so they can be as ready as they can be. If they've got any questions, I'm sure you can help and point them in the right direction. Now for either, uh, staff at Kooyong. And a big cheerio to you. Thank you for listening in. If you would like to get involved with that particular program, give us the date. So it's Wednesday the so.
00:12:15
S2: The actual can be work experience is happening on Wednesday the 26th September, and the camp is happening from the 24th of September to the 26th of September, and Leap applications are opening very, very, very shortly for next year. You can contact me through link at Vision Australia or.
00:12:36
S1: That's the email address. Just leap at Vision Australia. Org.
00:12:39
S2: Yes I do have three others that that is the main one.
00:12:42
S1: All right. With this one that we'll put up on our Facebook page. It's nice and simple. Leap at Vision Australia. Org. And you've also got uh information on the Vision Australia website about it as well.
00:12:53
S2: Oh absolutely. If you go to the Vision Australia website and type in leap, there are stories, testimonials, program dates, the breakdown of all the costing. And there's also an expression of interest form which does go into neat. So either any way that you go, you will end up speaking to me. And I'm always happy to have a discussion.
00:13:11
S1: Well, that'd be a great introduction to the program speaking to you. And it it can only get better. What? It actually gets better even from there, doesn't it?
00:13:18
S2: Absolutely. I hope that I am the most boring part of the program. It often gets more interesting.
00:13:26
S1: I'm sure that then it will get interesting, but you certainly would not be the most boring. Linda, great to catch up. Congratulations on the initiative. It sounds like it's fantastic and well, you know, we're kind of help in a way, shaping young people and their futures, which is a wonderful thing to be doing. Yeah.
00:13:42
S2: Well, we're hoping that we are going to be, uh, maybe getting some future radio, uh, workers coming out of leap and, and, uh, working with you in the future, maybe.
00:13:52
S1: Well, you never know. I was thinking maybe a future prime minister. Perhaps. Well, that.
00:13:56
S2: That would be.
00:13:57
S3: Better.
00:13:59
S1: All right, Linda, great to catch up. Leap at Vision australia.org. If people want to get in touch.
00:14:04
S2: Great. Thank you so much.
00:14:06
S1: That's Linda Wilson there. The very enthusiastic Belinda Wilson talking about the Leap program and all that information up on our Facebook page. And as always, if you prefer the use of telephone one 308 47466 and ask to be put through to Belinda.
