Vela Microboards Australia

Vela-brations About eighty people attended this event on Nov 26 at Technology Park, Bentley to get an update from families involved in establishing Microboards in WA.

Ms Joy O’Brien presented a Lotterywest ‘cheque’ to VMA Chairperson, Jaquie Mills, on behalf of the Hon Simon O’Brien, MLC Minister for Disability Services.
	The welcome address . . . ‘There are some people here today who have unique communication styles – feel welcome to say hello and to speak with them...or be silent with them...too.’
A real friend is someone who you can sit in complete silence with and still walk away feeling like you just had the best conversation of your life.
VMA Retreat In May 2009, Vela Microboards Australia hosted a weekend retreat at Fairbridge. About fifty people attended to learn about microboards through an experience of fully inclusive community. A excerpt from the Chairperson's welcome address: 'We hope above all that the people for whom microboards are being formed feel welcome to be themselves and to be included. One of the things I notice in particular about folks who have a label, is just how much the rest of us try to control them, their behavior and their communication. If self-determination is one of the principles of microboards, then allowing people the freedom and space to express themselves is essential. We invite you to be generous with your family members. Let the rest of us get to be with them, to know them and to enjoy the richness they have to offer' . . . Jaquie Mills 'Civilisation is the process by which the number of people included in the categories 'we' or 'us' gradually increases, at the same time as the number labeled 'you' or 'them' gradually decreases, until that category has no one left in it' . . . Howard Winters Check out what people said about the experience of the weekend Curtin Corner In September 2009, Dr Leighton Jay was invited to present of behalf of Vela Microboards Australia at 'Curtin Corner' organized by The John Curtin Institute of Public Policy, Curtin University, about the public policy implications of microboards. Vela Microboards Australia is now the subject of a research project involving Curtin University, School of Occupational Therapy. This research will focus on identifying the elements of a person-centred approach in the work of VMA and individual microboards.

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