Alex is a happy and outgoing 9-year-old boy with Angelman Syndrome which means he is unable to walk long distances independently. This can be quite frustrating when you want to keep up with your brother and join in with family adventures outside. While Alex does use a wheelchair, it limits him to short trips to places with smooth flat surfaces. With the help of the Fund for Good, Alex now has a new all-terrain stroller that is able to travel over woodchips, gravel and grass

Michelle overcomes her fear of individualised funding For years the thought of individualised funding scared Michelle Smith. In August last year, she finally decided to take the plunge. She shares her journey with In Touch Magazine. When I was first approached by my needs assessor Kelly about individualised funding nearly four years ago, I immediately said no. The thought of it scared me. I had spoken to people about it in the past, but the idea of employing staff, dealing w

Emma loves to do whatever her big sisters are doing, and she’s on a mission to do just that in her new Corzino X Country Stroller with the help of the Fund For Good grant. Emma lives with her parents Cindy and Nathan, and big sisters Lily-Anne and Chloe. Together as a family they’ve worked tirelessly over the last 3.5 years helping Emma with her daily therapy programme. Emma has done so well she is now crawling, sitting independently, rolling, learning to pick things up, supp

As Individualised Funding started gaining real traction 6 years ago, Manawanui wanted to understand its effectiveness and cost benefits over more traditional care support models. We commissioned Dovetail to run independent research to review the care and support costs of clients using the Individualised Funding model (IF) versus those using non-IF funding options. The research company found IF is more cost-efficient and more ‘stable’ than non-IF funding for similar care needs

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing from some of you that our newsletters aren’t turning up in your inbox like they used to. So, we’ve called in our Microsoft partner to improve the deliverability of our emails from our end, and we think we’ve done a good job getting more people to see our newsletters in their inbox and not hidden in some spam or junk folder. But the best way to guarantee you never miss out on a newsletter again, is to add my email address into your E

With financial support now available for NZQA training, there’s never been a better time for support workers to upskill and get qualifications that really count. Getting a Certificate in Health and Wellbeing is a really useful qualification for support workers who are focused on self-directed support. There is a shortage of qualified support workers in New Zealand, but more people are starting to see the advantage of a job which is meaningful, rewarding and can be undertaken