History

The Scheme was initiated in November 1987 and funded by the Federal Government's then Dept of Community Services & Health to provide respite to children and adults with a disability.

Volunteers were to be engaged to act as Hosts who provided personal care for the person with a disability. Even in the early months of the project there was vigorous debate regarding the appropriateness of volunteers versus paid workers. A study was commissioned in late 1989 by the funding body and the Scheme, and undertaken by a qualified researcher. The study demonstrated that many families felt that engaging paid workers would improve the reliabilty of support.

In 1991, in response to this study and the expressed preferences of families, the Scheme developed "Subsidised respite" and " recreation as Respite" as new options for families. At the same time it was agreed that the Scheme should move to provide its service to children only (aged up to 18), on the basis that its resources were spread too thinly to cover the entire age range. Since then both respite options have proven to be effective and popular with families.

In 1991 the Scheme began integrating children with a disability into Maroochy Neighbourhood Centre's Vacation Care Program. The Scheme began by supporting three children using volunteers who were overseen by one of the Scheme's Coordinators. Over the next two school holidays the number of children attending increased as did the number of volunteers.

The Scheme applied to the Department of Families Youth & Community Care (Child Care) for funding to expand the program into other generic Vacation Care Programs and when funds of $25,000 were granted began supporting children aged 6 to 13 at five centres on the Coast. Since then the Scheme has continued to support approximately 25 children at every school holiday period.

Between 1991 and 1994 the Scheme ran several recreation programs for both teenagers and children. A camp that provided 3 days of activities for children aged 8 to 13 was run at a local Scout venue that included canoeing, abseiling and other outdoor activities. The Scheme also ran a number of one day activities for a variety of age ranges during this period that included outings to theme parks, ropes courses and other recreation activities.

In 1992 the Scheme was approached by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services to sponsor a "Supplementary Service Program" intended to support child care staff to include children with a disability in Community Based Child Care services on the Sunshine Coast. Several years later this program expanded to include support for staff in privately owned Child Care Centres, Family Day Care, Before and After School Care, Vacation Care and later, In Home Care.

In 1995 the Scheme was again approached by the Department. (now Dept. Family and Community Services) to include support for Child Care Services in the Cooloola Shire so the areas covered by CISTA now include Caloundra City, Maroochy, Noosa and Cooloola Shires. In 1998 the Dept. set up a Pilot Project, conducted by consultants from the Maroochy Neighbourhood Centre and sponsored through Link, to determine the need for support for staff to include children from Cultural and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds as well as children from Indigenous backgrounds. The CISTA Supplementary Service program subsequently took responsibility for supporting child care staff to include children from these target groups.

Support for child care staff is provided through individual training/modeling, in-service and small group training, resources, assistance with inclusive programming strategies, quarterly newsletters, fact sheets, videos, books and articles on inclusion. There are 21 Supplementary Services Programs located regionally across Queensland and over 80 throughout Australia.

In June 1994 the Division of Community Services Development forwarded non-recurrent funds of $13,578 to provide payments to Direct care Workers. A further non- Recurrent grant of $40,000 was provided in january 1995 and made a measurable impact on the lives of a number of families.

In 1995 recurrent funds of $15,000 were provided by the Department for Subsidised Respite which was followed later by recurrent grants of $15,000 and $30,000. Around 35 families at a time have been supported through this program. Every 6 months families' needs are reassessed and some new families become eligible for support while others are no longer eligible because their support needs are not as critical as others.

The Scheme also initiated a "Social Club" which brought together small groups of teenagers with disabilities to engage in community based activities on weekends. This program ceased operating in 1997 due to lack of funds but for the 12 months that it operated it provided teenagers with involvement in social activities that included going together to the movies, the Pizza Hut, ten-pin bowling etc. The program had a strong focus on social events that encouraged the development of relationships between all the teenagers, in some cases to deepen friendships already made in school and in others to forge new relationships.

This program was highly popular with both teenagers and their parents alike. Though parents had to undergo the normal routine of Friday or Saturday night dropping off and picking up, they were pleased to be able to see their sons and daughters included in the same routines that other teenagers enjoy. This program evolved because teenagers expressed a need for socialising with friends.

The Scheme also operated a "Teen Holiday Program" initially from its own funds and most recently through non-recurrent funds received in early 1998 from the Department of Families, Youth and Community Care. This program has been providing recreation activities for teenagers with a disability during school holidays over the last three years. Funding for this program expires in April 1999.

The program offered support to teenagers with a disability aged 13 to 18 to engage in community based activities such as the movies, ten-pin bowling, beach activities, BBQ lunches, performing arts workshops, swimming at local pools, ropes courses, basketball and tennis. Because of funding limitations it was only able to offer a maximum of three days of activities per teenager per week over the holidays. Teenagers met in groups of three or four at designated venues around the Coast that were local to their homes (Noosa, Nambour, Maroochydore, Caloundra, etc.) and together engaged in activities that were on a par with able bodied teens. Up to 36 teenagers have participated in the program each school holiday.

In 2001 the Scheme applied for and received $300,000 in funding to develop a respite and family support service in the Caloundra City local government area (which later stretched to include Maroochydore and Coolum). Funding was also provided to build Pandanus Guest House at Creekside. While the service began supporting families as soon as funds were available, the House opened in May of 2003.

In July 2005, the CISTA team tendered to the Department of Families and Children Services to continue providing supplementary services across the Sunshine Coast. CISTA was informed that we were successful and began the task of transition to become the new ISA (Inclusion Support Agency) for the region in November.