Anything is possible when your choice matters

“My Choice Matters helped me and other people to go on to think anything is possible.”

Since 2014, CID’s My Choice Matters project has reached so many people and touched so many hearts.

Brandon Bear, our Manager – Strategic Projects, reports on some successes from My Choice Matters.

I have had the great pleasure of working in a number of roles for My Choice Matters and Council for Intellectual Disability over the last few years, and I cannot tell you how happy it has made me to be part of a project that truly has changed the lives of people.

Graduates from the Become a Leader program, recipients of Run Projects and residents in supported accommodation that took part in our Group Homes Project have all told us that My Choice Matters made sure they got a good life – and they say it’s not just what we do, but also how we do it.

Here is what some people have said:

• “My Choice Matters helped me and other people to go on to think anything is possible.”
• “I was a reserved person. My Choice Matters really got me out of me shell. It helped me to start up a young adult community service club in my area.”
• “I am now a more active leader. I got selected to be on the Access Committee for my local council.”

I have been blown away by the My Choice Matters team’s person-centred approach, flexibility and willingness to go the extra mile for people they meet.

And speaking of extra miles, we certainly have travelled a fair few of them. We have been to so many places across the great state of NSW, from Albury to Tweed Heads and Broken Hill to Bega.

Our facilitators have flown, driven and even bussed themselves about to get to people in communities that are often missed by information and access.

We have run workshops with more than 100 attendees, and we have even run workshops for a single person who has come to meet us in a country town.

My Choice Matters is changing

My Choice Matters has been such a great resource for so many people. Part of its success is that it has changed over the years to meet people’s changing needs.

And it is about to evolve again. We will have news about these changes soon. To hear about the exciting next stage of My Choice Matters, make sure you sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook.

My Choice Matters – the numbers

Here are some numbers from an independent evaluation of My Choice Matters.

We reached lots of people
The original target was for My Choice Matters to reach 2500 to 3000 people. The number of people reached has been much more than that. Between 2014 and November 2017:

• 12,972 people attended a Get More Skills workshops.
• 639 people participated in Become a Leader
• 1,551 people registered for My Learning Matters

People could understand My Choice Matters

• Nine out of ten people who attended a workshop found that the information given was ‘what they needed.
• The majority of people who took a Become a Leader or My Learning Matters course found the difficulty of language was ‘just right’.

My Choice Matters helped people make a positive change

The majority of participants said that My Choice Matters had helped them make a change or think about making a change.

About My Choice Matters

My Choice Matters was a project of Council for Intellectual Disability. We still present our popular Get More Skills workshops on living a good life and planning for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.