Meet the NDIS Right to be Heard Team

Hendrix (they/he)

Project Advisory Group Member

Hendrix is disabled, an artist, activist and proud Biripi-Dunghutti person. They and their work (in all its forms) aims to defy the imposed colonial boundaries, push toward disability justice, abolition, and share a staunch intersectional perspective.

Willow (she/her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Willow is a disabled and neurodivergent person working in the disability advocacy space. She has a degree in education and arts, and hopes to study training and assessment and speech pathology in the near future.

Through her own lived and professional experience, Willow is aware of how challenging it can be to speak up for yourself, especially within a complex system such as the NDIS. She hopes to contribute to clarifying these processes and the rights of disabled young people through this project.

Victoria (she/ her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Victoria is a 23 year old psychology student living on Kaurna land in Adelaide, South Australia.

Victoria enjoys her volunteer work with children and young people within a wide range of settings.

She is passionate about reducing stigma and creating change within the mental health and disability support system. She believes that everyone deserves to feel safe and respected when receiving care and has the right to speak up and be heard when something doesn’t feel right.

Patrick (he/him)

Project Advisory Group Member

Patrick is a disabled young person who is passionate about using his lived experience to make a meaningful difference. Patrick has lived with a disability his entire life and comes from a family deeply intrenched within the disability community. He is a university student from Melbourne studying Commerce.

Patrick is driven to make a more accessible and inclusive system for all young people with a disability. He believes that advocacy is the key to systemic change and overcoming personal challenges. Patrick is committed to empowering young people and their support network to advocate for themselves in order to break down barriers, achieve their goals and live their best life.

Anna (she/her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Anna (she/her) is a young Vietnamese-Australian female, who also lives with a visual impairment. She is a pre-medical student, with a great aspiration of becoming a pediatric doctor in future.

Anna is deeply passionate about disability rights and freedom, diversity pride and disability advocacy. She also has a professional interest in Eating Disorder research/intervention, as well as congenital cardiac diseases within both premature and full-term children.

In her spare time, Anna is also a classically-trained singer/songwriter and pianist, and thoroughly enjoys recording and performing her music. She also loves to practice Yoga, cook, craft and spend quality time with family and friends. Anna strongly believes that 'we are all able; just able in different ways.'

Maya (she/they)

Project Advisory Group Member

My name is Maya, and I am in high school currently, I am Deaf and Auslan is my first and primary language. I enjoy studying history, especially art history, and I hope to have a career in that field when I continue my studies after high school. I have a big passion in photography and cinematography and it is one of my many hobbies.

Eleanor (she/her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Eleanor is a University student passionate about disability pride, accessibility, and youth mentorship. Dedicated to advocating for inclusivity, she volunteers as a youth mentor for kids with her disability in her spare time. With aspirations to use her law degree to work in disability advocacy and discrimination law, Eleanor is committed to creating a more inclusive environment for all.

Thali (she/her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Hi, my name is Thali. I’m 13 years old and I am autistic and have ADHD. I love people knowing about my autism, not necessarily for me but for other autistic people. I love bringing awareness to things like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and lots of other disabilities, or as I like to call them “different abilities.”

I applied to work at YDAS because I saw it as a wonderful way to do the things I love (bring awareness to the things I find important) and meet more people like me. Yes I am the youngest here but I refuse to let that stop me, there will always be a youngest but no one said that the youngest can’t be the strongest. So, I am here to prove that young people and autistic people can and will make a change.

Elina

Project Advisory Group Member

Elina is an artist, youth co designer and health consumer representative. Using her lived expeience of multi complex illness/disbaility, hearing and vision loss. With a passion for using creativity to break down information in a way that meets people where they are at, rather than the other way around. Whilst trying to break the cycle of trauma in chronic illness care.

Georgia (she/her)

Project Advisory Group Member

Georgia is a 25-year old disabled woman who is passionate about helping other young disabled people to achieve their life goals. Her personal interests include bioinformatics and IT, she is hoping to pursue a career in IT or cyber.

Georgia is a recent graduate from a Bachelor of Science and understands the difficulty of advocating for herself and her rights. She wants to show other young people how to build confidence in using their voice and make them feel heard and seen. She aims to ensure that everyone knows their challenges especially when they are health related, are important and valid.

Em Dewhurst (they/them)

Lead Peer Facilitator

Em Dewhurst is a young Disabled and Queer Person with experience working in social services in youth work, disability advocacy, LGBTQIA+ rights, Diversity and Inclusion, and Settlement. They are currently studying a Bachelor (Honours) in Social work and are working in the field. They are currently working at the Youth Disability Advocacy Service as a Facilitator, at Council delivering youth programs, and are a co-founder of an Equity and Accessibility Consulting business. They are passionate about social justice, making accessible and inclusive spaces, and creating opportunities for people with lived experiences to be heard.

Ren (she/they)

Peer Facilitator

Hey! I’m Ren, one of the facilitators for the NDIS Right To Be Heard workshops! I am a proud disabled person who loves connecting with others, writing, journaling, art, playing video games, and cats! I’m also a huge swiftie, I love shows like The Owl House and I collect squishmallows.
I am super excited to have the chance to work with all of the Project Advisory Group members on such an incredible and important project! Self-advocacy is a topic I’m very passionate about, and knowing how and where to speak up about what you’re experiencing and any problems that come up is such an important factor, so I can’t wait to see what comes out of this project!

Mac (he/him)

Peer Facilitator

Hi, my name is Mac, I use he/him pronouns, and I'm a facilitator for the NDIS Right to be heard project. I've been working at YDAS for the past two years. I am a proud queer, CALD, disabled young person. I love reading, writing, public speaking, bullet journalling, and wheelchair sports.

Jun (he/him)

Communications Project Officer

Jun works at Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS) as a Communications Project Officer. He is originally from Malaysia and now living on Wurundjeri land.

He has been working on youth-led content creation projects with YDAS since 2022. He is now supporting 2 projects focusing on the rights of disabled young people, including Rights to Reality and the NDIS Right to be Heard project.

Kiz Blanca-Jackson (they/them)

Digital and Content Officer

Hi! My name is Kiz, and I use they/them pronouns. I work at Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS) as the Digital and Content Creator for this project. I was raised on Gadigal Land, and now I'm living on Wurundjeri Land.

I have been working in the Disability Advocacy space for the past 4 years, but as someone with multiple disabilities, I have been advocating in some form or another my entire life. I started my advocacy/activism in the Queer space, and have also been heavily involved in womens rights and unionism. Outside of YDAS I spend my time watching TV with my wife and cat, crafting and rollerskating. I'm also just about to start studying a diploma of Auslan. I'm looking forward to working on this project, and empowering disabled young people to advocate for their rights!