Canberra Blind Society would like to say thank you to five Australian Public Service (APS) Departments that worked with us in 2022 to pilot our Mentoring Program. The support and insights that we gained from working with both Diversity and Inclusion Teams and Employees with lived experience of vision impairment were extremely valuable. We discovered what was working well and where there were still barriers, challenges, and room for improvement. Both our Mentors and Mentees shared and learnt a great deal along the way. This information assisted us to develop informative resources including user-friendly checklists and practical activities.
Based on our success in 2022, Canberra Blind Society would like to invite more Federal Government agencies to be part of our Mentoring Program in 2023. The program is designed to build the knowledge and confidence of Employers to increase and strengthen inclusive employment opportunities for all people who have a vision impairment. The design also aligns with workforce disability employment strategies which include the Australian Public Service setting a target of 7% across all Federal Government Departments by 2025.
In 2022, we successfully implemented our Mentoring Program approach working with organisations to:
- provide a quality customised mentoring approach;
- identify challenges and barriers to inclusion, accessibility, and employment;
- increase awareness of the capabilities of vision impaired persons and knowledge about access to available supports;
- develop resources and facilitate activities to improve understanding related to recruitment and retention.
We plan to continue this work in 2023 with an extension to our funding. We would like more APS Leadership Teams to be involved and to identify, encourage and support the participation of:
- Human Resources / People & Capability / Diversity & Inclusion Team Members.
- Employees who have identified as having vision impairment and willing to share their stories.
To find out more and sign up, please contact Claire Manning, Project Officer at Canberra Blind Society on email project@canberrablindsociety.org.au or mobile – 0411 436 092.