Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference 2025
Disability Advocacy Showcase: Impacts of Advocacy in local communities

Thursday 18th September, 2025 | NAB The Arena , 700 Bourke Street, Docklands

About

Disability Advocates often operate quietly initiating projects and forming community networks that significantly benefit people with disabilities. These initiatives include research projects focused on specific disabilities, community service linkage networks that enhance access to support services and funded projects that build the capacity of individuals with disabilities in their advocacy journeys.

In anticipation of once in a lifetime disability reform in Australia, this year’s conference theme focuses on the impact of disability advocacy within local communities, showcasing successful projects, community networks, and strategies that improve access to services and empower people with disabilities. It highlights the importance of person-centred disability advocacy, collaboration and the sharing of best practices to create positive change and build capacity in communities.

Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference 2025

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Program

Thursday 18th September, 2025

Registration opens

Time: 8:30am - 9:00am

Location: NAB Arena

Official Opening and Welcome to Country 

Time: 9:00am - 9:30am

Location: NAB Arena

Right to be Heard – a co-designed advocacy tool for empowering disabled young people, Youth Disability Advocacy Service

Time: 9:30am - 10:30am

Location: NAB Arena

  • Speaker: Heather Ryan, Human Rights Advocacy Manager
  • Speaker: Ren Sumner, Program Facilitator
  • Speaker: Anna, Project Advisory Group member
  • Speaker: Hendrix, Project Advisory Group member
  • Speaker: Patrick, Project Advisory Group member

Stories of Disability within a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Context, Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities

Time: 10:30am - 11:15am

Location: NAB Arena

Morning Tea

Time: 11:15am - 11:45am

Location: NAB Arena

Acquired Brain Injury and the Justice System, Voices for Change 

Time: 11:45am - 12:45pm

Location: NAB Arena

Opening Doors to Advocacy, Gippsland Disability Advocacy 

Time: 12:45pm - 1:30pm

Location: NAB Arena

Lunch and networking

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location: NAB Arena

Creating Person-Centered Change Through Systemic Advocacy, Queensland Advocacy For Inclusion

Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Location: NAB Arena

Afternoon Tea

Time: 3:30pm - 3:45pm

Location: NAB Arena

Empowering Voices: Showcasing the work of self advocacy groups in the community, Self Advocacy Resource Unit

Time: 3:45pm - 4:30pm

Location: NAB Arena

Wrap-up and Conference close

Time: 4:30pm - 4:45pm

Location: NAB Arena

Speakers

Anna, Project Advisory Group member

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

Caitlin de Cocq van Delwijnen, Principal Advocate at Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion

Caitlin is passionate about supporting people with disability to live a happy life. She has completed a Bachelor of Social Work, Certificate II in Auslan and started a Graduate Certificate...

Celeste Harris-Hall, Advocate

Having a family member who has a disability Celeste has always been passionate about advocating for improved opportunities and access to services for people living with a disability. Celeste spent...

Ebe Gannon, MC

Ebe Ganon (she/they) is a researcher, advocate, and community engagement practitioner living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. Ebe uses her lived and professional experience to create more inclusive...

Elizabeth Jeraboam, Self Advocate - Power in Culture and Equality

Elizabeth is from South Sudan and speaks 10 languages. Elizabeth is a powerful and experienced Self Advocate. She is a mother to 4 and grandmother to 8.Elizabeth has been a member of...

Fiona Hopper, Peer Project Coordinator - Brain Injury Matters

Fiona is a skilled and passionate Peer Project Coordinator at Brain Injury Matters, who began working with the organization in the year 2019. She has been actively involved in several aspects...

Fran Lee, Self Advocate

Fran is passionate about disability and people with a disability within the criminal justice system. She is an experienced self advocate and has worked since 2014, committed to making change...

Heather Ryan, Human Rights Advocacy Manager

Heather (She/They) works directly with disabled young people as YDAS’s Human Rights Advocacy Manager. She is a qualified Youth Worker and holds a Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Wellbeing....

Heather Smith, Self Advocate - Postive Powerful Parents

Heather is a strong Self Advocate with many different lived experiences. She is passionate about people with disability getting their human rights heard and actioned.

Hendrix, Project Advisory Group member

Hendrix (they/he) 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,...

Jai Haines, Disability-Justice self-advocate

Jai is passionate about building collective power through stories of lived experience to improve the criminal justice system for people with Acquired Brain Injury. He is a Tommeginer man and...

Janet Curtain, Self Advocate - Power in Culture and Equality

Janet Curtain is a Self Advocate and is a Chinese Australian. She co- founded Power in Culture and Equality (PCE) in 2019. Janet is passionate advocate who has spoken up to the community...

Juanita Pope, VCOSS CEO

Juanita Pope was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) in November 2023. A lawyer and consultant specialising in the not-for-profit sector, Juanita has 20...

Julie Phillips, Disability Advocacy Victoria

Julie Phillips has been working in the disability sector for over 30 years.  As a Community Worker for the Victorian Deaf Society, Julie began advocating for members of the Deaf...

Michael Mayne, Self Advocate

Michael is passionate about change in the criminal justice system, in particular he wants to influence how prisoners are treated as they move through the justice system. He is a...

Nia Giddings, Vice Chairperson - Brain Injury Matters

Nia has been a member of Brain Injury Matters since 2019, she is currently the organisations Vice Chairperson and previously was in the role of secretary for 5 years. Besides...

Nina Carr , Lived Experience Advocate for equity & inclusion

Nina Carr is a passionate advocate, co-researcher, and systems change-maker dedicated to social justice, equality, and inclusion. Drawing on her lived experience of disability, Nina works to amplify the voices...

Patrick, Project Advisory Group member

Patrick (he/him) is a disabled young person who is passionate about using his lived experience to make a meaningful difference within the community. Patrick has lived with low vision since...

Ren Sumner, Program Facilitator

Ren (she/they) is a Program Facilitator at YDAS. At 20 years old, they proudly embrace their disabled identity, bringing their lived experience of being autistic, having mental health conditions, and...

Romeo Brasington, Self Advocate - Positive Powerful Parents

Romeo is a Self Advocate who has worked with Positive Powerful Parents for over 13 years. Romeo is passionate about parents with disability keeping their children or getting their children...

Sara Martins, Systems at Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion

Sara joined QAI in May 2019, being a volunteer first, then moving to a paralegal role before working as an NDIS Appeals Advocate for 3 years. Currently Sara is the...

Shukrullah Sirat, Interim Manager Advocacy and Community Resilience

Growing up in rural Afghanistan, as a child, Shukrullah worked on a farm for half the day, then walked to and from school for two hours every day. These early...

Sophie Wiggans, Principal Systems Advocate at Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion

Sophie is passionate about upholding the human rights of people with disability and has been leading QAI’s systemic advocacy for the last 5 years. She has prior experience in individual...

Venue

National Australia Bank have created a hub in Melbourne’s CBD with a range of meeting rooms and technologies available to NAB customers in a modern, architecturally interesting building.

The building design incorporates access features including talking lifts with tactile buttons, accessible toilet on the same level as The Arena and safe taxi drop off and pick up point. Being located right next to Southern Cross station with entrance directly from the Bourke Street concourse further adds to the access credentials.

Accessibility

NAB Arena

This event will be Auslan Interpreted and will have live captioning available on screen.

The Arena is an accessible space with floors that have both steps and wheelchair access that has been personally checked and tested. If you need assistance on the day, please see a staff member with the VCOSS lanyard and they will do their best to direct you.

The conference program will be available online and accessible via QR code. The MC of the Conference will also be verbally describing the proceedings of the day. We know that this is not accessible to everyone, so please contact us if you require a large print version of the conference program or to discuss an alternative format.

There will be a quiet room available for those who need this. Please see a staff member wearing a VCOSS lanyard for assistance for directions to this room.

Assistance Animals: there is a space outside the NAB revolving door on the concourse level for toileting assistance animals. To get there go directly across the concourse and find a grass area in front of the Medibank building. Please ask VCOSS staff for directions if required.

While the DARU team makes every effort to ensure that the event is inclusive, accessible and comfortable for all participants, we know that sometimes things do not go as planned. Please let us know if there is something you need to talk to us about to make your experience as comfortable and inclusive as we can.

Getting There

The Arena is located on the Concourse level (C).  There are two main entrances:

Bourke Street concourse (the pedestrian bridge extension of Bourke Street) – level 2
Taxi drop off – level P1 (see taxi information below for details)

From the P1 entrance there is lift, escalator and stair options to take you to The Concourse.  Look out for our friendly volunteers to ask directions. They’ll be wearing VCOSS lanyards.

If you need assistance at either Southern Cross or Flinders Street stations, get in touch with Travellers Aid.   They provide a buggy service, mobility aid hire and companion assistance amongst other things.

Here’s information to assist your journey in getting there…

Train

Southern Cross Station is virtually on the doorstep which is very convenient as most metropolitan lines, and all regional lines, go through Southern Cross.

Coming from a train platform at Southern Cross Station:

Head to the northern end of the platform (the Etihad stadium end).
Take the lift up to the Bourke Street concourse.
Once you reach the concourse, turn left.

You should see the NAB building almost immediately as it is the first building on the right over the tracks. Once inside the very impressive atrium, look for our registration desk which will be to left of the stairs as you enter the building. Also look out for our friendly volunteers to ask directions. They’ll be wearing VCOSS lanyards.

Tram

Trams that stop at Southern Cross station include:

Spencer Street routes – 12, 48, 75, 96, 109 & City Circle
Collins Street routes – 11, 12, 42 & 109
Bourke Street routes – 86 & 96

Taxi

The taxi drop off point at 700 Bourke Street is located opposite the Channel Nine studios. The taxi rank located outside Platform 28 night club can also be used as a drop off point. The Platform 28 rank is recommended as the pick up point when booking taxis for return journeys home.

Getting to NAB from the Platform 28 rank:

Cross at the pedestrian lights.
Turn right and follow the footpath to the NAB entrance. You have arrived at level P1.
Go to level C (Concourse) using either the lift or escalator.
On level C, The Arena is located to the right of the escalator.

Parking

Etihad Stadium’s car park provides 24-hour security and surveillance seven days a week. The fully covered and underground facility is located only a short walking distance from NAB.

Visit the website for  information on rates or to book your space in advance online:
http://etihadstadium.com.au/car-park-options/

Note: Event discounts are only applicable for events held at the stadium.

Tickets

Prices

  • Ticket type: Full Delegate
    Ticket description: For organisations, government and individuals.
    Price: $30.00
  • Ticket type: Concession Delegate
    Ticket description: For DSP recipients, concession card holders and students.
    Price: $15.00

Payment Options

Credit Card: This is the preferred payment method. The platform used to manage secure transactions is PayPal.

Invoice: You can request to pay via invoice, we will send you an invoice separately once you have booked your tickets through Humanitix.

Cash: Will not be accepted for this event.

Check In

Tickets are NOT available at the door on the day and entry will be denied to anyone who is not on the attendee list. We need to be strict because the room capacity is dictated by OH&S restrictions.

On the day, go to the registration desk to check-in and receive your pass and program.

Cancelation and Refunds

Tickets for this event are not refundable. However, tickets are transferrable. If you can no longer attend, contact DARU to change the details on your ticket.

Access Information

Companion Card is accepted for this event. Contact DARU to arrange:
E: [email protected]

Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference 2025

Disability Advocacy Showcase: Impacts of Advocacy in local communities

Where:

NAB Arena, 700 Bourke Street, Docklands

When:

Thursday 18th September, 2025

Cost:

$15-$30

Status:

Registrations open!

NAB The Arena
700 Bourke Street, Docklands

Sponsors