Community Access Service

Getting out on your terms

Community access is about the ordinary things that make a week feel like your own — a coffee with a mate, Saturday sport, the class you’ve been meaning to try, getting to the shops without having to ask a family member for a lift.

Our support workers go with you. Not to do it for you, and not to hover. The point is that you decide what the day looks like, and we make it possible.

What this looks like week to week

For some people it’s one afternoon a week: a support worker meets you at home, you catch the train into town, you do what you planned, they see you home. For others it’s most days, structured around work, study or a program.

Common things people use community access support for:

• Getting to and from a course, gym, or community group
• Learning a bus or train route until you can do it on your own
• Shopping, banking, the post office, medical appointments
• Sport, music, art, faith communities, and local events
• Volunteering or work experience
• Simply spending time somewhere other than home

Building skills, not dependence

Where you want it to, community access support works towards you needing less of it. If your goal is to travel independently, we break that into steps — a supported trip, then a partly supported trip, then a phone check-in, then nothing at all. If your goal is to keep the support and enjoy your week, that’s just as valid.

We’ll talk about which of those you want, and write it into your support plan so everyone’s working towards the same thing.

Choosing who supports you

The match between a participant and a support worker matters more than almost anything else in this service. You get a say in who you work with — their interests, their language, their gender, whether they know their way around the things you like doing. If a match isn’t working, tell us and we’ll change it. No awkwardness, no explanation required.

How this is funded

Community access is usually funded under Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation in the Core Supports budget of your NDIS plan. It’s flexible funding, which means you can generally adjust how much you use week to week.

If you’re not sure whether your plan covers this, send us your plan or your plan summary and we’ll walk you through the relevant line items — no obligation to sign up.