Amaze Year in Review

The past year has presented unexpected challenges that forced many adjustments. Through this time, our community has needed additional supports and reforms to manage those unfamiliar changes. 

Amaze is proud to have been able to work with Federal and State Government, as well as other organisations to ensure our community has been supported, while also recording many significant achievements for the community throughout the year. 

In our recently released 2019 – 2020 Annual Report, Amaze highlights these achievements:

Improving autism understanding: 

In an Australian first, Amaze and the Victorian government launched Change Your Reactions on TV, radio and online. The campaign featured autistic people and is Australia’s first public education campaign that promotes better understanding and inclusion of autistic people.

Amaze also expanded our online presence by adding Twitter and Instagram to the list of social platforms and launched a new Amaze website in July 2019. This increased Amaze’s social media community by 74% compared to the 2018 – 2019 financial year.

Influencing systemic changes:

Coronavirus lockdowns led to everyone needing to adapt to working and learning from home. Throughout this period, Amaze engaged with the government to address the impact of coronavirus restrictions and ensure ongoing support for autistic people and their families. 

Over 30 meetings were held with discussions in the areas of NDIS funding and prioritising students with disability in the return to school.

­­­Amaze is also part of 17 committees and advisory groups, providing evidence-based advice. Two of these committees include the NDIA CEO forum and the NDIA Autism Advisory Group.

Making spaces more inclusive:

Museums Victoria became an Amaze inclusion champion to make Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum autism-friendly museums. These museums host sensory friendly days and quiet areas with social stories and sensory maps available.

This year, 85 other organisations also participated in Amaze-led training to improve the way they work with Autistic people. Big 4 Holiday Parks is one of these organisations that went on to launch the first social script for a holiday park in Australia.

Read the Annual Review here for more in-depth coverage of the work we have achieved over the past year.