By CASEY NEILL
A DANDENONG disability service is going global.
Wallara has started an exchange program with counterpart Trinity Services in Chicago, USA.
The idea came from a study trip chief executive Phil Hayes-Brown took across the United States last year.
“I met with Trinity management and we talked about other ideas, how we could progress the relationship,” he said.
“You often hear about schools doing international trips, but you don’t often hear about it in the context of a disability service.
“My troops all agreed that it sounded brilliant so we then set about choosing the Wallara service user.”
Brent Chadwick was the lucky winner, and Wallara selected support coach Matt Ball to accompany him.
“He’s someone that we felt was a future leader for our service and would really benefit from this international experience,” Mr Hayes-Brown said.
“It was all funded by our Wish Foundation, which we started in 2011 to enable us to grant wishes for service users outside the scope of basic support needs.”
Their adventure lasted 10 days and included a visit to Disneyland.
“The disability services go about their work in very different ways around the world,” Mr Hayes-Brown said.
“But they’re all trying to connect to the community somehow.
“Matt’s come back brimming with ideas about how Wallara can build on our progress.”
Mr Hayes-Brown said Brent blossomed on the trip.
“The first couple of days he was a little quiet but he just got more and more confident and both of them came back really buzzing,” he said.
Wallara will return Trinity’s hospitality next year and is already planning to send another contingent overseas in 2015.
