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Welcome:
What we do
Valmar Support Services Ltd. is a disability support organisation providing a wide range of support sevices to people with disabilities, their carers and also the frail aged and youth at risk. From small beginings, Valmar has grown to become a major disabilities service provider covering the local government areas of Tumut, Yass Valley, Tumbarumba, Gundagai and Queanbeyan. Put simply, our goal is to assist our clients to realise "Equity Through Independence".
For comprehensive information on the services we provide please visit our services page.
News
Valmar establishes first NSW school-based traineeship in disabaility work
Thirteen Disability organisations Australia wide were invited to participate in a National Disability Services (NDS) workforce project that ran from May 2008 until May 2009. The project sought to identify ways to attract and retain disability sector employees.
As a participant in this project Valmar identified that there appeared to be very few young people considering Disability work as a career option. This was a concern given that there are still young people with a disability entering the adult support system and inherently there is a need to provide age-appropriate support for them.
In response to our submissions to the workforce project Valmar was authorised to design and implement a pilot school-based traineeship (SBT) in Disability work for NSW. The pilot project is being run by Linda Walsh and Gaye Duncan.
Linda and Gaye worked with NDS, Board of Studies, VETIS, CSH-ITAB and four local schools to get the project off the ground. There had never been an SBT in Disability Work in NSW before, so Linda and Gaye had to work with all the stakeholders to make this happen.
We are now at the end of the first year and the traineeships are proving extremely successful. The two pilot HSC students are well into their coursework and the feedback we are receiving from the services where they work is that they are a welcome addition to the workforce.
The students will be awarded a Certificate III in Disability Work at completion of the two year course. It is understood that other Disability Service providers in NSW have now expressed an interest in taking on School-based trainees and this will be one strategy in addressing workforce shortages in the future.
Further to the above, as published in the November NDS News Update;
The Commissioner for Vocational Training has established the traineeship vocation of Community Services - Disability in NSW. Disability Sector employers will be able to offer School Based Traineeships (SBT) in Certificate III in Disability to students beginning Year 11 in 2010.
The authorisation of SBT in Disability follows a successful pilot project run by Valmar Support Services in 2008-09, that formed part of the NDS National Workforce Project. As a result, a number of NDS members have also sought authorisation to implement SBTs in their organisation.
Eastern Day Program service users go cruising Lake Burley Griffin
 On a cold and rainy Thursday in October Yass Community Access, yass Community Participation and Queanbeyan Community Access met on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin for a long awaited and much anticipated ferry ride. Staff and service users all boarded at 12pm and took their seats for an hours cruise around the lake.
Everyone watched whilst having lunch as they passed by the many different attractions situated around the lakes shore. Some took the opportunity to go up top for a look and even though the weather was not that kind to them they still enjoyed the experience. Those service users less adventuress were happy to sit in the warm and watch out the window. At the end of the trip some were also lucky enough to have their photos taken while sitting on the Captain’s seat with the Captain’s hat on, and what a great buzz that was for them. Even though the weather was not that great everyone had a great day and asked when they could go again.
Photo: Service user Steven Power tries his hand at being Captain of the ship
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