On the Don’t Silence Us campaign trail

Council for Intellectual Disability (CID) Board Member Fiona McKenzie has been pounding the pavement to help raise awareness of our Don’t Silence Us campaign. She has distributed more than a thousand postcards for people to send to the Premier, asking her to reverse the NSW government decision to stop funding disability advocacy.

Here’s what Fiona says:

I’m out there most mornings putting the postcards in people’s letterboxes – unless they have a sign that says “no advertising material” of course.

It’s just over a month since we launched the campaign and I’m already up to box three. I have delivered 1,652 postcards, and my target is 2,402.

I’ve met hundreds of people. They say “thank you, I’m glad you’re doing it”.

I have fun doing it.

But people are getting cranky because we shouldn’t be having to do this, the government should be on our side.

We should be out there making things better, not fighting for survival.

Last Tuesday I went down to Wollongong, or “The Gong,” and was interviewed by VOX FM for a program run by people with acquired brain injury.

The presenters had heard about the issue, but they didn’t know the full extent of it.

They were gobsmacked and said the government shouldn’t be cutting the funding.

They had heaps of questions and wished they had more time to keep interviewing. They want me to come back for an update on the campaign.

Earlier this month CID was also part of a parliamentary forum organised by the NSW Disability Advocacy Alliance’s Stand By Me campaign, which was a big success and was well attended by parliamentarians.

You can watch a short video from the forum, or view a recording of the full live stream.

Find out more

• Don’t Silence Us campaign website.
• What is the value of disability advocacy?, about the academic report from LaTrobe University (including an Easy Read version)