We’re all about maximising abilities – and opportunities! 2022 was another year full of fun, change and success.
We grew!
After welcoming seven new families, we’re now supporting 30 kids and their whānau through Conductive Education. We also support another ten children through Early Intervention, nine rangatahi with Video Game Rehabilitation and six families through GrowAbility (Playgroup). We’re now delivering more than 500 sessions each year!
We achieved
All our kids are either progressing or have met their most recent goals. That means they’re all learning meaningful life skills, making friends, and becoming the independent, self-confident, go-get ’em kids who will make their own choices and use their own voices. The big kids did pretty well this year, too, with Senior Kevin Nielsen receiving a Sport Taranaki Impact Award for his service to horse riding, and Junior Craig Nielsen receiving a NPDC Citizen’s award.
We had fun
So much fun! From flash-mobbing staff at their hairdresser appointments to riding an inflatable donkey, to spouting such immortal office quotes as, “I’d rather even give birth to the sheep,” you can always count on this crew for impromptu silliness. The 2022 Award for the Best One-Liner was given to Craig. When someone defended being parked in a disability space, saying they would only be there a few minutes, Craig responded, “Well, my son will still have a disability in a few minutes.” At least that’s the only one-liner we could safely publish.
We got creative
Pip’s concept for a digital platform to streamline communication for people with disabilities made it to the finals of Innovate Taranaki.
After completing our Enabling Good Lives Service Transformation Journey, we looked to co-create more person-driven solutions, incorporating the child’s voice. This led to Renata introducing Goal Attainment Scaling and our phased transition from paper enrolment forms to interviews and video chats.
We got active
We got out and about to do yoga, try surfing, bowling, laser tag and even go-karting! Of course, Conductive Education is all about movement, so you’ll see us doing all kinds of fun activities in our sessions, but getting out and about to do things in a welcoming, inclusive setting is a pretty exciting development for us!
We honoured
This year, the beautiful Suzanne Fraser (here with Danu and Keara) passed away. In her honour, her family established a Conductive Education Taranaki scholarship in her name, raising more than $22,000. We are forever grateful to her family and friends.
We recently said goodbye to another member of our tight little tribe. It’s been hard. Please know that you can reach out to us if you feel like a chat, and our friends at the Taranaki Retreat have put together a directory of where you can go for support in Taranaki.
We connected
Earlier this year, we asked whānau about how Conductive Education Taranaki help them. 87% told us that their wellbeing has improved. We’re incredibly proud of this; it’s so important that the people supporting kids with disabilities in turn feel supported. One parent said: “When you need them most, the team are there.” We now run Beach, Coffee & Walk catch ups, so our whānau have more opportunities to connect.
We dazzled
Well, at least we thought we did. Instead, it was Elizabeth who stole the show, despite a valiant attempt by James McOnie to wrest the spotlight back in his own direction. Our Gala Dinner, Legends go WildER, was a stonking success, raising $41,000 for Conductive Education Taranaki. A huge thank you to our major sponsor, Bartercard, for turning our little pipe dream into a spectacular success.
We’re ready to rest
2022, you’ve been real! But we’re all looking forward to some quiet time.
We’re pretty chuffed with what we’ve managed to do this year, but we couldn’t do any of this without our community of supporters behind us. We hope you know how much your help means to us.
Thanks for being with us on another incredible journey – see you in January 2023!
