What is Community Engagement under the NDIS.

I have been struggling to write this post as there is so much that is changing around the NDIS but community engagement, can mean different things to different people,  it can mean going to a day center for a person with less capacity and who need a structured environment, that is safe for them to be themselves. 

It can also mean going to volunteer somewhere that will accept a person with a disability, or as complex as planning a trip to a comic con or another sort of convention. 

It also could be helping you get to the shops basically anything that helps you engage with the community on your terms. 

If the support organization is dictating to you what you "are allowed to use" during your community engagement time I would question it and question the organization.  However, we need to remember that there are different classifications of support being in a Sil house they are there to help you in the house. 

If you are a Hacks client ( Home and Community access) this is a combination of both and see that this is we need to be aware of this and work with your support team. 

Also, community engagement doesn't mean becoming reliant on support workers for social engagement but using them to widen your circle of friends. If they are pulling you away from family and friends I would ask why as I have had support workers do this and the ramifications are still very long-term as my family then took a long time to trust support workers again as they would say to me, " you are an adult your mother doesn't need to know," and it made me very sneaky and manipulative. 

The same support worker thought it was ok to have her child in my family home when she was on shift because he was sent home from daycare during covid, ( we removed her from my team very quickly after that, and this led to a massive upheaval in our family life that still has consequences to this day. 

However, we very quickly found that the right support worker fitted right into the family and they knew what they needed to do and got to figure out the family dynamic very quickly. 

 

So if they are manipulative to you by saying things like your family doesn't need to know, or you're an adult you can make your own decisions, we see that this is

Then some people are like myself who are higher functioning and just need prompting to do things, this is where I am at with things and I can start to see what needs doing when it needs doing and what can wait. 

I will do a list of clubs and things that are disability-friendly and low-cost as well but very much so Girl guides and Scouts are open to the idea but it is on a case-by-case basis.  If the person isn't working or isn't allowed to work.