Vote for Your Disability and Carers Congress Social Media Champions

Voting has now closed.

19 budding bloggers have entered the competition to win one of 8 free places to give live reports to the Every Australian Counts community from the Disability and Carers Congress, 2-3 May in Melbourne

Voting ends 5:00 pm AET Wednesday 20th April.
Please note: votes will be updated approximately every 8 hours.

The Nominees

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Name	Age	State	Why I should be a Congress Champion	Votes
Alvaro	23	VIC	I believe that NDIS investment in understanding community empowerment is vital to the success of the campaign. The National Disability and Carer Congress offers the opportunity to contribute to this critical area while providing an excellent opportunity to connect the broader community.My experience in the disability sector has provided me a strong understanding of both the machinery of the sector and how people with disabilities significantly contribute to our communities. I am passionate about this field and my experience in reporting has involved working with the Victorian Universal Housing Alliance, state legislation and parter organisations of the Global Poverty Project. I would welcome the opportunity to further explain how I have the right balance of professional experience, disability acumen and personal attributes to succeed within this critical role.	56
Catherine	46	NSW	The Congress program of speakers and topics is perfect for bloggers. I have my iphone ready to blog and tweet and update peeps! This will be the real launch of Every Australia Counts and our campaign to introduce an NDIS. I’ll be doing my best to spread the word and keep everyone informed. I’M IN!	67
Chrissy	45	QLD	I have done a lot of research in the last couple of years, since my son’s diagnosis of Autism. I am a very procactive mum out to change the world. Well, it’s view of Autism at least!! I believe people need to be better educated in “our world”. People are not educated appropriately. I am very passionate on this subject for obvious reasons. It’s devasting as a parent to watch what your child has to deal with on a daily basis. Let alone thinking about they’re future. I’m an older mum, I constantly worry about what will happen to my son when I die. I know it sounds morbid but it’s a reality. My son will probably have to live in a group home. Thank God for all the carers. In conclusion, I care & have great passion.	54
David	45	ACT	My wife, Jenni, and I both have ‘profound’ cerebral palsy and grown up in the Spastic Centre’s McLeod House from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s. Despite these humble beginnings, my days are split working as an executive level officer with the Australian Government and working on my Ph.D in law and disability. If chosen as the ACT champion, I will be able to draw upon 30 years of having been a disability advocate and four years employment with the ACT Government disability program.	129
Jennifer	37	VIC	@cubbieberry is my twitter name. An advocate stay-at-home mum with two gorgeous kids, one a lovely bub born with an extra choromosome & had open-heart surgery. My baby opened my heart, and helped me realise my calling that through Twitter 140 characters per one sent tweet. May be so short to you, but for a avid twitterer like myself, is a meaningful message short and sweet, strong and brave. I tweet from the heart, I tweet for awareness, with empathy and concern. Tweet with advocacy to reach others who never have shared the road others wish to avoid. Let me be your voice to let others hear, that we are here, we may have different colors, of different faiths. Yes, we are here, we breathe, we love, we care. We exist and live like everyone else. We are every Australian.	84
Jessica	27	VIC	I know I’ll be a champion Blogger because there is no better cause to be passionate about, I believe if people know about this scheme they will care because it has the ability to affect every single one of us.	43
Joelle	46	SA	I currently lobby on behalf of children with an intellectual disability. I am chair of special school called the Kensington Centre here in Adelaide. I wish expand my understanding of the rights of the intellectually disabled. I wish network as much as possible. My daughter Shornee attends the Kensington Centre and is autistic as most of the students there are.	9
John	48	VIC	The launch of my blog www.johnmckenna.com.au has coincided with the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme campaign, that has to be a sign from above? I have had the opportunity to be part of the Victorian NDIS campaign and as you will see on my blog the NDIS is well represented. Subscription to my blog provides weekly snapshots on a range of disability issues, such as the NDIS. Like with so many campaigns, the successful ones have had one golden rule, and that is, continual & consistent messages so that people just can’t forget. Google Analytics that runs in the background is an extremely useful tool in monitoring particular areas of interest from different parts of Australia. As an individual who was born with a disability I have experienced firsthand how unfair current funding arrangements are within Australia and believe strongly that the NDIS is the answer.	26
Julie	48	QLD	I offer a wealth of experience, creativity and lithium balanced thought process when writing facts, sharing insight and spontaneous humour in whatever mediums I work in. I’ve been a worker in aged and disability services, a diversional therapist and professional puppeteer, but I am also debilitated and discriminated because of bi-polarity. These experiences have led me to make the personal political including promoting the NDIS within the ALP. I daily blog, write poetry, letters to the editor, research and share jewels of information and wisdom for citizens interest and hopefully some influence!	15
Kate	33	VIC	I tweet/blog/etc from an arts and social model perspective, and can pull in responses from our arts and disability community. (But please note: I am not a disabled person.)	2
Kim	38	NSW	I’m addicted to social media and have a son w/ a moderate intellectual disability. I’ve been blogging since 03 & on Facebook & Twitter since it began. Well almost.	105
Madeleine	21	VIC	I am 86cm tall due to my bone growth disorder & am a wheelchair user. I moved from Newcastle NSW this year to Melbourne to study at RMIT. This is my first time out of home. I am studying a Bachelor of Applied Science in Disability studies. I am very passionate about the rights of people with a disability. I use my experiences to help others and educate people about disability issues on my YouTube channel at youtube.com/tinymads. Check out my YouTube channel to find out more about me.	616
Melanie	23	NSW	Creating awareness about disability is my passion. Along with educating children and the community that anyone with a disability should be recognised as someone who makes a valuable contribution to society. I do “Just Like You” presentations for Year 5 and 6 school children. This program is aimed at building disability awareness for ablebodied children. I have presented at various conferences and spoken to community groups. I would be very keen to represent NSW at the congress because I know it would be a fantastic opportunity for me to learn as well as to provide my input. Living with cerebral palsy I would be a champion congress blogger because I know that the content of the congress will be valuable material in helping others and breaking down society’s attitudes.I know that Information is a powerful tool.	312
Nadine	35	NSW	Nadine is a fabulously talented and entertaining writer. She blogs regular every day activities and injects her good humour whilst still being able to get important messages across. She is the author of the ‘cracking good read’ Wobbles – an Olympic story. A former Olympic athlete Nadine has felt the high of highs, the low of lows and the struggles of adjusting into life, marriage and motherhood after sport.Taking the information from the NDCC and simplifying it for Carers, the Disabled and other typical Australians would be a marvellous service and she would do it brilliantly. The political jargon can often get in the way of understanding exactly what is going on. I know Nadine will cut the fat and tell it like it is, warts and all. Blogs, tweets and face book updates written from the point of view of an everyday Australian, that does not live disability 24/7 but has a friend of more that 20 years with 2 disabled children, Nadine is keen to learn about the world and journey of those with a disability & their carers, understand & then speak loudly to drive change in this broken system and ultimately make every Australian count. This is powerful stuff!	104
Pierce	43	VIC	I am a carer. I use twitter a lot and I have a reach out to many families in similar situations. I am currently on the VIC NDIS working party so am already familiar with campaign.	3
Ray	N/A	N/A	I am strong willed, since i was a kid, i was teased all though my school ,i suffered depression, and panic attack’s and still do, i want to stand up for our rights we are all the same people disabilty or not.	5
Ross	30	VIC	I have a passion for Disability issues, and in seeing the success of the NDIS. I was able to brush up on my writing skills at the recent ‘Devine’ writing workshops. ‘Devine’ is an online community, run for and by people with a disability (http://www.divine.vic.gov.au). On 7 April, I had the opportunity to talk at the NDIS forum in Yarraville. I spoke about why I feel an NDIS is so important and have made my own submission to www.everyaustraliancounts.com. Let’s get behind this and make it happen!	74
Sarah C.	40	NSW	As a mother of a child with ASD I feel the need for an NDIS very keenly. My son’s future happiness depends very much on the establishment of an NDIS. I am a keen user of social media having both a facebook and a twitter account as well as a smart phone. I like to keep up to date with the latest issues in the arena of Australian disability support (or lack of it). I am a member of many different support groups and I am keen to see the discrimination against the disabled members of our community end. I have lobbied politicians to this end. All Australians should enjoy the benefits that our society provides regardless of their situation. An NDIS would ensure that people with a disability would receive the supports necessary for them to enjoy those benefits.	67
Sarah Jane	26	NSW	My brother is disabled & I work in digital media, so I understand carers & tweeting better than most.	8