News

Announcing our Accommodation Forums!

Housing is important to everyone. As the NDIS rolls out it will bring with it some new and exciting opportunities for housing and accommodation for people with a disability. Under the NDIS you will be able to access funding to assist you to live independently, whatever that means to you.  You can also access funding for a support coordinator to assist you to set up the housing arrangements.

The NDIS can provide funding for you to access safe and accessible housing. This may mean you continue to live at home with your parents or family or it could mean accessing funding to work with someone to set up your own home sharing with others, or on your own. For example last year The Age newspaper had a story about a group of three woman in Geelong who had pooled their NDIS funding to rent a house together, and have their choice of support worker present.  There are many different options and every person’s needs and the way they want to live can be different.

But navigating through all the different choices and options, and planning for the future, can be difficult. To help you with this Merrimu’s Family and Carers Committee will be running a series of Accommodation forums to provide you with information on this process. The first forum will be held soon, with our first guest speaker. Stay tuned for more details and let us know what you would like to hear about, or if there are any speakers you would like to see!

Upcoming respite dates and activities

Merrimu is happy to announce we have exciting activities the next four Saturday’s for people with a disability.
See the attached list of individual activities with two different options to choose from each week. This is available for adults with a disability over 18 years old who live in the Melton and surrounding local government areas – Melton, Moorabool, Brimbank, Ballarat and Wyndham.
You do not need to have accessed any service before but do need to qualify for support under the Disability Act 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services. The program’s numbers are limited and are filling up fast, so please contact us if you would like more information or to book!

Respite dates and activities

Our newly redesigned retail store: You Want You Should

Merrimu is proud to present our newly redesigned Retail Store:

You Want You Should, Giftware with a purpose

We invite you to visit our new store which is located at 2 Graham Street, Bacchus Marsh and browse our new giftware selection.

You Want You Should can also be found online at: www.YouWantYouShould.org, where you can browse and purchase all items of giftware online, with hassle free home delivery.

Our Grand Re-opening of our Retail Store will be on the 11th of April 2016.

Every purchase made at ‘You Want You Should’, will go towards empowering a person with a disability to gain a genuine learning & education experience in retail services that will support them to pursue a vocation in retail and like services that is important to each individual.

Merrimu is transforming its service delivery approach to provide support models that integrate skills development and learning with on the job-skills participation and training so as to foster and promote integrated work and career opportunities for people with a disability. ‘You Want You Should’ enables a person with a disability to gain confidence and skills in a supportive and hands-on retail environment.

Merrimu’s 2015 Annual Report

Our Annual Report for 2015 is now available on our website! There are some great stories of what has been achieved by the people we support and we will be featuring them individually on our Facebook page over the coming months. So keep an eye out for them!

You can read our annual report on our publications page, which also features fact sheets and other information about what we do.