Profile: Kerry Potter

Our organisation: DJA provides quality individual and systemic advocacy on behalf of people with a disability who have high support needs.

My responsibilities: Employment, support and supervision of staff. Implementation of strategic direction set down by the Board. Response to members’ requests in relation to systemic issues. Financial management and policy updates.

Our team: We have 5 PT employees and 2 people to do training on a casual basis. We also provide an employer/support role to a Project Worker under the direction of the Aides and Equipment Alliance.

Our greatest challenges: Remaining viable in the unstable funding environment over the past 18 months. Keeping up to date with the changing industrial environment and managing administration tasks given lack of time and resources. There are so many problems for people with a disability – finding affordable, accessible housing and viable, interesting employment; coping with inadequate attendant support and costly aides and equipment.

The main difference between the NFP and private sectors: The NFP sector uses funded sources (mostly government) and fundraising to manage business without adequate resources to work really effectively. We rely on the goodwill of our experienced staff as the wages in this sector are inadequate compared to many companies in the private sector. We are also very grateful for the support received from our volunteers.

What inspired you to get involved in DJA? A family member has a disability and I have never been happy to see people going without the most basic rights. Advocacy tries to ensure that people with a disability will be included and treated as equals in our society.