Inaugural disability expo hailed a success

HUNDREDS of people descended on the Geelong West Town Hall last Friday (June 20) for Disability Events Community’s inaugural Geelong expo.

The free expo was designed to bring people together and featured local disability providers who were on hand to answer questions and provide insights into the different services available.

Disability Events Community director Leigh Hunter said it was a highly successful day.

“We opened the doors at 10.00am for the Community Disability Expo and we had a huge rush of people come through and it was very steady all day with over 300 people attending.

“We are definitely going to make it an annual event in Geelong and bring the expo and bring all the service providers to the one location for the community on an annual basis.”

Along with the information providers, the team from Care Space Disability and Nursing also performed throughout the day.

“We had quite a few songs being sung by the team at Care Space, and they absolutely loved it, they were in their element up on stage,” Ms Hunter said.

“The whole day was absolutely sensational, but I really think for most of the people that were in the room when the band was playing, that was a real highlight.”

One of the main goals for the expo was to bring people living with a disability, their family and carers, together with the local supports and services available to them.

Ms Hunter said she felt there was a huge amount of connection made throughout the day.

“It was made very clear to us when people were leaving and they were saying how they were able to connect with the services that they were looking for or needed, for either themselves or their family members or different participants that they support, it really is all about connecting the community to the service providers and I think we succeeded.”

Ms Hunter thanked the coffee sponsor of the day, Scope, and June who headed along to volunteer her time.