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WELCOME TO OUR 2020 Autumn UPDATE

We are in the midst of a unique crisis that poses a particularly significant threat to the lives of people with disability and complex needs. Many of the people we support are already susceptible to chest infections and pneumonia because of their limited mobility. COVID-19 makes this threat considerably greater when people are stuck in hospital.

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These are challenging and uncertain times for all due to the continuing spread of COVID-19. 

We are changing the way we work to help ensure the health and wellbeing of everyone that we work with. 

The entire team is now working from home and we are working hard to deliver many of our planned face-to-face events online. See our events page for details.

While our staff are now working from home we continue to be available to support you. You can contact us via email.


Our existing and on-going relevant projects include:

For hospital staff working with people with disability being discharged to the community:

For housing providers, housing seekers and the people supporting them:

For support coordinators and allied health professionals supporting people with disability and complex needs living in the community:


The NDIA has also created an information page to help prepare and support NDIS participants and providers at this time.

An NDIS Housing Options project is being run by the Summer Foundation for Queensland and WA this year.

This project aims to explain the housing options and supports possible under the NDIS to people with disability and housing providers.

It will also help everyone better understand the housing needs of NDIS participants including the needs of people who would be eligible for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).

Over the next 12 months, the Summer Foundation will be working to provide:

  • Information for people with disability about housing options
  • Information for housing providers about NDIS
    supports and SDA
  • Events to inform and connect NDIS participants and housing providers
  • Special support for NDIS providers seeking to provide SDA in Indigenous communities, rural areas and for people in hospital or aged care

Although we had to suspend Housing Possibilities workshops we had scheduled for Queensland and WA, we presented some of the information and introduced our new housing and SDA related resources in webinars.

These resources are now available for download from our NDIS Housing Options project web page.

The project has been funded by the Australian Government.

Our second Specialist Disability Accommodation Supply in Australia report has just been published.

Produced with Social Ventures Australia, the latest report finds that there are more than 1,766 new SDA places in the construction pipeline as at 30 September 2019.

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A new-look Housing Hub is on the way!

The revamped website will have a number of extra features, including improved search and matching functions and the ability for housing seekers to create their own profiles.

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In December 2019 Tom Butler’s long journey to become his own provider of Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) ended in success, when he moved into his purpose-built unit.

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A new type of transitional housing funding was announced in December. Medium Term Accommodation (MTA) funding is intended to support NDIS participants while they wait for their permanent home to be ready. 

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Welcome to our summer update. I am back in the CEO role at a key time for the Summer Foundation. I’d like to thank Luke Bo’sher for all of his terrific work over the past 3.5 years. Our government relations and policy influence was turbo-charged under his leadership.

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The Australian Government has committed to making sure that no younger person will enter aged are by 2022 and that no-one under 65 years will be in aged care by 2025.

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Our Annual Public Forum, held on Thursday 31 October, brought together key stakeholders to talk about what it will take to stop younger people going into aged care for good.

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The Summer Foundation practice team hosted a seminar after our Annual Public Forum about breaking through the barriers to leaving hospital or aged care.

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In early December, the Summer Foundation’s Dr Di Winkler and Dr George Taleporos presented at the Disability Royal Commission’s hearing in Melbourne which focused on housing for people with disability, including the experiences of people in group homes.

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The Summer Foundation has developed a Collaborative Discharge Approach (CDA) to improve the pathway from hospital back to the community for people with a newly acquired disability and/or change in their circumstances. 

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Helen Burt is full of hope at the possibility of a better life, as she starts her journey from aged care to living in her own home.

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Our UpSkill program is being rolled out across regional and rural Victoria. We want to increase the number of skilled support coordinators and help them respond well to the diverse needs of people with disability.

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Welcome to our spring update. It has been an exciting time for us with the Aged Care Royal Commission hearings in Melbourne focused on young people in aged care.

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You’re invited to the Summer Foundation’s Annual Public Forum

This year’s Summer Foundation Annual Public Forum comes at an important time. Systems must change to keep young people out of aged care. And these systems are being influenced and are changing in ways we’ve never seen before.

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Our UpSkill program to build the capacity of the support coordination workforce and allied health professionals is going from strength to strength.

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The Summer Foundation is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Allen Martin Research Scholarship 2019, sponsored by The Rotary Club of Kew and Robinson Gill Lawyers.

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The Summer Foundation’s interaction with the Aged Care Royal Commission ramped up in September when we lodged our submission and CEO Luke Bo’sher appeared at the commission’s Melbourne hearings.

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The publication earlier this year of Kim MacIntosh’s book “Full Circle – Overcoming Disability through Faith” is just the latest in an impressive list of life goals achieved by the Summer Foundation storyteller.

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The Summer Foundation has been funded to deliver a national Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Quality and Safeguards Education Project.

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Welcome to our winter update. The start of the new financial year sees a refocusing of the work the Summer Foundation is doing to keep young people out of aged care.

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At the end of March, in partnership with Youngcare, we hosted the inaugural Get Building SDA National Conference in Melbourne. The lineup of impressive speakers and storytellers generously shared their knowledge and expertise, which provided a rich and informative day for more than 400 attendees.

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